Simmons College Impressions

It was wonderful. The meeting was very informative and the college was very happy to meet with me and show me around. I met the head of the Gender/Cultural Studies department. She was very eager and answered all of my questions well. I had the opportunity to talk to a few graduate students in the department while they were waiting to pop in on their professors and they gave excellent advice. I have to say that I was much more impressed with Simmons than I was expecting to be. It was my fourth pick out of the schools here but this meeting has definitely put things in a much better light. The only downside I could see to attending their school is that they do not have need-based financial aid. But my Rebecca told me that the price should not be the deciding factor with grad school. Honestly, it just felt wonderful. The people were nice; the buildings were nice. Things just felt happy and good. The only other thing that bothered me is that Simmons is not as environmentally conscious as Berea and that's become really important to me. I ate in their dining area and they use styrofoam plates and plastic silverware. Something about that really rankled because my environmental convictions are so important to me. As it stands, they made an overal wonderful impression.

Rating: 8/10
-1 for cost
-1 for environmental practices

Northeastern Impressions

I was a lot earlier for this meeting so I sat for an hour or so and just watched the students walk around. I wasn't getting a very good vibe that I would fit in at all and so that put me on guard. I finally found the building that my meeting was in. The professor I was meeting with had not even bothered to tell me what building her office was in and the directions on the website were atrocious. Prior to the visit, this school was my first choice. This was partly due to the recommendation that one of my professors gave it and partly due to the program I was reading about on the website. The reality is that the history department is on the second floor of a dinghy building without central heat and air. The walls are chipping and it looks like the baseboards were removed and replaces with smaller versions without new paint. The professor I met with has very distant. She spent the majority of the time stressing to me their application requirements and didn't really explain the perspective of their department very well. Instead of trying to tell me what Northeastern can do for me academically, she seems to be stressing what kind of graduate student they were looking for. According to her, their emphasis in selecting students is really on your undergraduate grades and your test scores. I'm not sure that's the kind of program I want to be in. It was overall a very disappointing interview. I didn't even bother asking most of my questions as she so poorly answered my questions about their world history emphasis. Her most encouraging statement was that Brandeis, Simmons and Northeastern and she was sure that if I applied to all of them "I would get in somewhere." Not very encouraging to say the least.

Rating: 4/10
-1 environmental issues
-1 overall feel of campus
-2 faculty interview
-2 heavy emphasis on undergraduate grades and GRE

(no subject)

I'm now home and curled up with my laptop and a cup of tea in my pajamas. I'm exhausted and my back hurts. It feels like all I've done today is run around. Jim won't be home until after 7pm so I might should find something to do. I finally saw Serenity last night and it was pretty good. Spent some good time talking to my mom. Life is good. I suppose I could always work on my program.