Yesterday, I got back to Bellingham after an exciting trip to Nashville to visit Vanderbilt University. Truth be told, the trip was probably more about visiting the city in general to get a feel for the neighborhoods, the housing markets, and the downtown life. I spent one day apartment hunting and I found several decent places.
Friday morning was my visit to the clinic. It didn't take long to see why this program has been ranked #1 in the nation since 2004. Their facilities and faculty are industry leaders! There are far too many details to list here. Lets just say that I was VERY impressed with their program. I felt very comfortable there and think that I would really enjoy going there! They were able to offer me a decent amount of financial aid while I was there. Unfortunately, The original cost of tuition is so high that even with their current offer, I wouldn't be able to justify going there. I told the graduate program director about my situation and he was very responsive. I'm going to be talking with him on the phone this week and he may be able to revise their offer! If we can get to the next level of financial award, we are thinking that we will accept!
I really wished that Heather could have gone to Nashville with me but there were several things in the way there. We are both sooo anxious to know where we will be moving so we can start making more concrete plans! We are really hoping that we'll know more on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. We will keep you posted as always!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Travel Plans
Update: I (Tim) now have some travel plans to visit Vanderbilt next week! Let me explain...
At first, my thought about the cost of Vanderbilt was "Wow. It's really expensive. And I'm only an alternate for an unknown amount of remitted tuition. Where else can I go?" I was focusing my energy on the other schools and leaving VU to marinate for a while.
Recently, I have had a strong feeling that Vanderbilt is really the place for me. I feel that I would be happiest and most successful there. So then I started thinking of ways to make things work there. Instead of simply waiting around for them to get back to me about financial aid, I decided that it would be to my advantage to invest some time and money into them in hopes that it would be returned to me. Making a trip out to Nashville to see the community, campus, and clinic should definitely send the message that I'm genuinely interested in attending, and also attach a face to the name.
I"ll be gone Wednesday through Saturday. I have half a day of tours on Friday. I'm scheduled to meet with several faculty including the graduate program chair!! I'll use the rest of the time to scour the town for apartments, hopefully get some recommendations, and see some units. I"ll have my work cut out for me, but I think that this is where we are supposed to go! So I have my reservations and we'll see what happens! We are also currently accepting donations for our grad school tuition fund! ;)
Sidenote: Even though we have not yet heard back from UMASS, Heather and I have pretty much decided not to consider going there. We have received acceptance letters from far too many schools that are oh so much closer to home.
We'll keep you posted!
At first, my thought about the cost of Vanderbilt was "Wow. It's really expensive. And I'm only an alternate for an unknown amount of remitted tuition. Where else can I go?" I was focusing my energy on the other schools and leaving VU to marinate for a while.
Recently, I have had a strong feeling that Vanderbilt is really the place for me. I feel that I would be happiest and most successful there. So then I started thinking of ways to make things work there. Instead of simply waiting around for them to get back to me about financial aid, I decided that it would be to my advantage to invest some time and money into them in hopes that it would be returned to me. Making a trip out to Nashville to see the community, campus, and clinic should definitely send the message that I'm genuinely interested in attending, and also attach a face to the name.
I"ll be gone Wednesday through Saturday. I have half a day of tours on Friday. I'm scheduled to meet with several faculty including the graduate program chair!! I'll use the rest of the time to scour the town for apartments, hopefully get some recommendations, and see some units. I"ll have my work cut out for me, but I think that this is where we are supposed to go! So I have my reservations and we'll see what happens! We are also currently accepting donations for our grad school tuition fund! ;)
Sidenote: Even though we have not yet heard back from UMASS, Heather and I have pretty much decided not to consider going there. We have received acceptance letters from far too many schools that are oh so much closer to home.
We'll keep you posted!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Update
So, we have some more news! A few days ago Tim got accepted to the University of Utah, and today he got accepted to the University of Arizona! So to recap, he has been accepted to Vanderbilt, and the Universities of Washington, Arizona, and Utah. Still no word from UMASS Amherst. It's almost more good news than we can handle! Jay Turner made a good point in a recent e-mail, "It's good to have choices, but choosing between two or more good choices can be hard." So true!
Unfortunately, we have not been offered any financial aid as of yet. We're getting the feeling that some may "become available" as it gets down to the wire. I'm sure it will be to our advantage that Tim got in to so many schools, but it's just so hard to wait without knowing!
We are still trying to sort out which schools to visit and when. We'll be sure to keep you up to date as things change!
Unfortunately, we have not been offered any financial aid as of yet. We're getting the feeling that some may "become available" as it gets down to the wire. I'm sure it will be to our advantage that Tim got in to so many schools, but it's just so hard to wait without knowing!
We are still trying to sort out which schools to visit and when. We'll be sure to keep you up to date as things change!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
It gets better!
And now there is even more news! Yesterday, Tim got accepted to the University of Washington! We are so excited about this one too. While UW was originally Tim's 2nd choice, it is a very close second to Vanderbilt right now. Primarily, the cost of tuition is the barrier. Vanderbilt charges over double what UW does per year. Our gut instinct is to go to UW unless Vanderbilt offers a significant amount of financial aid. So, Tim is going to be on the phone a lot over the next couple weeks trying to get more details about what each school is willing to offer. At this point, we are picking between UW and Vanderbilt. Even if we get accepted to other schools, we probably won't strongly consider any of them.
This is such an exciting time!
We'll be sure to keep you posted as we learn more.
This is such an exciting time!
We'll be sure to keep you posted as we learn more.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Some real news!
First things first, last weekend we made the 2,000-mile round trip to Salt Lake City and back. While there, Tim had a great interview with the audiology faculty at the University of Utah. It was a great experience for him to see what other interviews may be like, and to get a feel for how an AuD program operates. We will have to wait a week or two before we will know if Tim is accepted there nor not.
We were lucky enough to be able to stay with Heather's Aunt and Uncle (Heather and Cevan)and they were more than hospitable to us. We really enjoyed spending some time with their two boys, Nicolas and Lucas. So cute!
Now on to the real news!
If you haven't heard yet, today was a very special day. Tim got an acceptance letter in the mail from his first pick of schools, Vanderbilt University!! What a blessing to finally hear back from them and to get accepted! We are going to wait and see which other schools accept him and how much financial aid they are willing to grant before we say yes to Vanderbilt. But right now it's looking like we'll be moving to Nashville this summer! Tim needs to go visit the campus within the next 6 weeks. Heather will probably go with to help look for a new home. Exciting!
We are grateful you all are so supportive of us during this HUGE transition. We are looking forward to the exciting days ahead and will, of course, keep you posted on all the important details. Until next time...
We were lucky enough to be able to stay with Heather's Aunt and Uncle (Heather and Cevan)and they were more than hospitable to us. We really enjoyed spending some time with their two boys, Nicolas and Lucas. So cute!
Now on to the real news!
If you haven't heard yet, today was a very special day. Tim got an acceptance letter in the mail from his first pick of schools, Vanderbilt University!! What a blessing to finally hear back from them and to get accepted! We are going to wait and see which other schools accept him and how much financial aid they are willing to grant before we say yes to Vanderbilt. But right now it's looking like we'll be moving to Nashville this summer! Tim needs to go visit the campus within the next 6 weeks. Heather will probably go with to help look for a new home. Exciting!
We are grateful you all are so supportive of us during this HUGE transition. We are looking forward to the exciting days ahead and will, of course, keep you posted on all the important details. Until next time...
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