On March 1, 2011, I got an email from NYU’s Graduate School informing me that I had been accepted into the MA program. My first reaction was obviously of complete and utter happiness, but reality started to settle in soon after. NYU’s MA program would end up costing me somewhere around $100,000. OUCH! Although I know my parents would help me out if this figure was somewhere around $20,000-$30,000, asking them for $100k seemed a bit too much. So, I started doing research for scholarships, grants, loans, etc. Unfortunately, I found myself running into many dead-ends: most deadlines for scholarships had already passed (at least for 2011) and most decent loans (and by decent, I mean loans not having skyscraper-high interest rates) required me to be a US resident. At the same time, my mother was diagnosed with a serious medical condition and was told that she probably needed surgery (she’d already been told that she needed 2 other surgeries for other reasons.) Some of you know that my older brother also has an ongoing medical issue and might need surgery as well. Furthermore, my family and I are still waiting for a final decision with regards to our US residency. All of this just added up and I decided that at this particular moment, graduate school didn’t seem like a viable option for me.
However, I’ve requested deferral from NYU for a year, and will soon get a response. If I were able to defer for one year, then it would probably be ideal. By then, I think that all of my pending issues will have been resolved and I’d be able to be walking the halls of prestigious NYU in 2012.
Oh, and as far as Columbia goes (yea, you might remember that my preferred school was Columbia University), I did get a response, and it wasn't positive. However, it wasn't entirely bad. Although I wasn't accepted into Columbia for 2011, they said that academically I was an ideal candidate. What I was lacking was more professional experience, and this is something that I had been expecting (considering that I was applying to the public policy school.) In the letter they sent me, they actually encouraged me to get more experience, saying that they'd keep my documents on file for 2 years in case I wanted to reapply in the future. I guess this is always another option.
I’ve made it this far, what’s a little more waiting, eh? I’ll keep you posted on what happens, but I’m optimistic. No matter what path I end up taking, I know I’ll be alright.
1 comment:
You will be alright Kriz. I'm sorry you've had to go through so much and I hate to use such a cliche, but I'm sure there's a reason for it all.
Stay strong knowing you've got a good support system! ...even if it is against my country's policy to support international spies ;)
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