Right now I am on a plane flying from Seattle to Austin to attend my cousin’s wedding. I flew back to Seattle yesterday to go to two interviews, crash on Jon’s couch, and then take off again this morning. Quite the airport maven I’ve become. I wanted to record some of my closing thoughts about the Denver trip, and consolidate my ideas about fall.
Monday was an incredibly productive day. After my last blog session that afternoon, I had a chance to check out the interior of the apartments I had my eye on. They certainly deliver. The study nook is as big an office space – and arguably has more sunlight – than I would be allotted as an adjunct lecturer on the campus of any American university. The wood floors have been made imperfect with age and wear, and I like the effect. The back units are away from the noise of East Evans, and yet still have ample sunlight streaming through the windows. I am kicking myself that I didn’t ask right away if they allow cats. I might call today and find out. I have to admit I am getting my hopes up, just to have them potentially dashed on a technicality that I could have easily avoided with a little foresight.
Oh well, no matter. The neighborhood right around campus is pleasantly checkered with parks, and the afternoon brings families out on walks with their dogs and children. The architecture of the nearby homes include styles representative of the university’s 140 year history. The rent is inexpensive and there is plentiful wifi. I shouldn’t have any trouble finding housing that meets my requirements and lets me have the cats, too. There are even little single-family homes within my price range. I will go back in June or July to finalize a lease, I think.
(Note to Rachel: The lady next to me is dozing, and her copy of “Steal This Book” is left unattended…tempting!)
One of the highlights of my trip was the class that I sat in on. “Rich States, Poor States” was indeed right up my alley. The professor who teaches it is considered on campus to be a sort of eccentric, and he is well aware of his reputation. I don’t know quite what it says about my political leanings that he liked me so much! I answered several questions that he put forth to the class correctly, and he (somewhat embarrassingly) singled me out as “well read” and “well educated”! I laughed a bit, and I think I always will in such situations, as I contrast the Arizona State Liberal Studies degree with the education of the Ivy League grads and St. John’s baby geniuses that populate the DU campus. Anyway, the professor (who sure uses profanity a lot, which I adore) invited me to apply for a Teaching Assistant position, since he largely controls the selection process for TAs. I really want to be a go-getter, even though I’m a first year grad student. I want that teaching experience under my belt as I decide whether to go on for a PhD. I told him that he will definitely see my application cross his desk.
*** I mentioned a few entries ago that I hoped reading “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations” by David Landes would help me get the most out of sitting in on the class? Well it was one of the texts Professor Gilbert was teaching from! I couldn’t have hoped to be so lucky. Landes is a Geographic Determinist, which is a bit of a dirty word on campus, or at least that is the impression I’ve been getting. Apparently Jeffrey Sachs is, too, at least to some extent. Now I either have to find out why determinism is so bad, or find an argument to defend it. Oh, sigh. So very much to learn.
Furthermore, several of the grad students I had met during the open house and the Middle East Week Symposium were in Professor Gilbert’s class. I got a chance to say hi to several of the people I’d met and exchange information. Chase, in particular, a first-year Human Rights student who sat next to me and helped me find the bathroom at the symposium, agreed to be a source of guidance and advice via email as I prepare to move to Denver and enter the GSIS student body. I am looking forward to getting his opinion on the Rich States, Poor States final exam, which as I understand it, consists of a 25 page paper that must be written within a three hour window – in class – on the last day of the quarter. It makes up 100% of the grade for the class. The subject is theories of development as they pertain to assigned readings on Latin America. This is Chase’s second quarter, and only the first quarter he’s felt like he had his bearings at all. Apparently he registered for primarily PhD courses his first quarter on campus, and was a little overwhelmed. I am hoping that ample advice from students who have gone before me will help me to choose appropriate classes, unlike I did my first semester of undergrad. (Advanced Linguistic Theory, anyone? Oh well, it got me into Noam Chomsky.)
Sitting in on Rich States, Poor States got me to thinking – I certainly hope that I don’t manage to blacklist myself in the academic community right off the bat with my undergraduate thesis topic. I don’t think it will matter what topic I pick, since no one but myself, my advisor, my family, and my friends are likely to read it (and we know that family and friends will skim it and say, “nice work, Sarah” out of politeness.) My master’s thesis will be another animal entirely. The topic, and the advisor I choose, will influence what caliber of PhD Program I am accepted into even though the actual thesis won’t be finished at the time of application. I need to write a blog detailing the important dates of the next two years, like when I need to re-take the GRE (I think I can get a higher score now that I know what it is all about), specific PhD application deadlines for the schools I am looking at, Fulbright program deadlines, etc.
I think grad school will be an arena where I can achieve a high degree of success. I spent the last year and a half learning what it takes to get into grad school, and if I had been always mindful of what the next step would require, I would have had an even more successful undergraduate experience the first time I attended. Now that I know what it takes to get into master’s degree programs, I am one step ahead. From my first day on campus I have been mindful of networking, and making the impression that I need to make to create relationships that will lead to internships, fellowships, TA and RA positions, committee appointments, advisory relationships, letters of recommendation, and good, old-fashioned friendships. I now know how to get the most out of the university experience, and in grad school this is of particular importance…especially in such a small population. I have focused all of my energy on getting here. Now I have an exciting task before me – I must be worthy, every day, of the great honor that GSIS has bestowed upon me by inviting me to be in their number. And since I will always be a DU alum, the task goes on for the rest of my life. I believe that I am up to it.
The trip to Denver, overall, was an incredible success. I had no idea that the city was filled with such great little neighborhoods, much more like Seattle than Phoenix (thank goodness). I didn’t realize that the DU campus would be so beautiful, and that the program would be as exciting and involved as it is. I had some idea how great the faculty would be just based on their credentials, but I had no idea how friendly Sally Hamilton would be in a small group situation, or how toweringly impressive Ilene Grabel would be in person (I’m in danger of intense fandom), nor could I have understood the hush that comes over the room when Jack Donnelly’s name is mentioned unless I had gone there, like I did, to experience everything. I am so glad that I had that opportunity.
It’s difficult to express how excited I am about the fall. The trip has allowed me to do away with the imaginary “filling in” of the blank spaces that my brain was trying to accomplish. I have a hard time with uncertainty when it comes to my future. Now I know what Denver is like, and what DU is like, and I can make good decisions based on reality as opposed to guesswork. I admit that I am very much looking forward to this, my last summer in Seattle (for a few years, anyway)…but the fall is shaping up to be a very bright episode in my life. To be completely honest, it feels like everything I have done up to this point has been preliminary, just leading up to this phase in my existence.
