3.21 Miles, 41 Minutes, One Bus, Two Subway Lines, and Two Years

In my battle for graduate admissions, I am now, officially, three for three. And if I take the option that has opened up for me today, I will have spent two years only to get the 3.21 miles, 41 minutes, one bus, and two subway lines from my former abode on Willoughby Avenue in Brooklyn to New York University's Steinhardt School of Education in historic Greenwich Village.

Yes, you understood that right. I have officially been admitted to NYU.

Finding this out, however, has required a bit of arm-twisting. For whatever reason--okay, most likely because the world is now mired in the Great Recession--NYU has been very slow about sending out admissions letters this year. After receiving notice from the University of Pennsylvania last week, I phoned NYU to tell them Penn had made me an offer of admission and that I was eager to know what decision had been made at NYU, as Penn had given me a 45-day deadline to receive proffered financial aid. It took some wranging to get an actual human being, but someone did tell me that admissions letters would be going out on Friday.

I asked, in all innocence, if this meant I would know the decision then.

"No, sir," I was told, in a voice that might have been more appropriate when someone asks whether two plus two equals five. "You won't. That's just when the letter goes out."

I reminded this woman that, as I currently reside in a country where postal service is spotty at best and a punchline at worst, I had requested notification by e-mail.

"Then that's probably what they'll do," I was told, in a tone that telegraphed the speaker's total boredom with the conversation.

Friday, I checked my in-box. No notification had come. So I made a note to call back on Monday. At 5:00 this afternoon, I recalled that note, and, realizing it was then 10:00 AM in New York, phoned the admissions office again.

Another bored admssions assistant told me peremptorily that the letter had gone out. But I managed to blurt out my situation, and she told me, with as little enthusiasm as human beings can possibly muster, that I had been accepted.

As yet, I have no information regarding financial aid at NYU, but the financial aid office told me awards should be finalized and sent out in a couple of weeks. At that point, I'll be able to compare all of my options and make an informed choice.

Fortuitously, when I rang up an old friend in New York to give him my news, he mentioned that he had recently met, completely by chance, someone who works in NYU's Global Campus program. This program coordinates NYU study abroad campuses in a range of locations, from Paris to Shanghai to (next fall) Tel Aviv. He suggested I contact this person to get more information on the International Education master's program to which I have been accepted. NYU Global Campus also employs a number of graduates of this program, both in America and abroad. So NYU may keep me grounded in my own country, or open the door to France, Germany, or China.

Or, possibly, even Israel.