Back and Forth Across the Pond

After a lot of waiting, and intermittent emails from Dr. Melosi insisting he had not forgotten about me, I got an offer from Houston for a research assistantship. It includes a tuition waiver (the big expense) and a monthly stipend. I will be doing various assistant-type tasks for the Center for Public History. In other words, I'll be working for Dr. Melosi. I don't know the value of the stipend, yet. Dr. Melosi gave me the email addy of the program director with instructions to contact her. I immediately did, but have yet to hear anything back from her. So, I'm back to waiting. But at least now I can work on my application package and know that I'm going to Houston. Technically, there's a chance I wouldn't get accepted. After all, I've done this all backwards and have not actually applied, yet. I sent Dr. Melosi an official transcript of my studies here at UNF, a writing sample, my CV, and a short personal statement. If he didn't think I'd get accep...

Wow, the last post I wrote was from February. It was when I got my acceptance at Lancaster. I was so excited. I eventually received acceptances from Stirling and St. Andrews, too. St. Andrews was quite exciting. It's well respected here and my advisor would be the head of the environmental history center there. So lots of excitement and feelings of accomplishment. Unfortunately, none of the acceptance letters came with funding. The economy in Britain is a lot worse than here, and what funding it does have is left for UK and EU students. It makes sense, but it's a big disappointment for international students, like me. After much soul searching, I let go of my dream. It hurt, but it was the right decision. I have moved on, and I know that I will get to spend time doing research in England down the road. So I just consider it a postponement, rather than a cancellation. In the mean time, I have to sort out my future. I have decided to go on for a PhD here in the US. I still fret a...