Arizona and Indiana

I got two, two letters in the mail from schools today.

One was Arizona, confirming my admission, which I'd already heard over the phone, but also giving me a Graduate Assistantship. They're the first school so far to talk about money. So, yay!

The other was Indiana, where I was wait-listed. I honestly am not surprised by this. As I've told some of you recently, Indiana is my least favorite choice (even though the department looks really cool). This is mainly to do with the fact that my substantive interests and research goals really could not be met there. Or at least not to the extent that they can at some of the other schools I've applied to.

Applying there was a last-minute kind of decision, and my statement of purpose was not very well tailored to their program. I don't even know that I mentioned any faculty I'd be interested in working with. I think I applied because I was suddenly interested in social psychology and thought that if I got in there I could gravitate on over to some of that, linking my interests in social movements and social psychology. But, of course, I didn't mention any of this in my statement of purpose.

I know this sounds kind of like sour grapes. "Indiana doesn't want me? Well, they just suck." But it's honestly not. Indiana is cool. And they have Donna Eder. I just don't think I would be a good fit there. Apparently they didn't think so either, and that is cool by me.