Winter 2020
Well, Winter 2020 was by far the weirdest quarter of college so far, seeing as it ended in coronavirus (COVID-19), but it was still pretty great. This quarter I took EDUC 251 (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) with Jondou Chen and HONORS 221 (Evolution and Human Behavior) with Jon Herron. I also worked with Adrian Andelin again, this time as a reader/grader for his Sensation and Perception class, and continued work with my Departmental Honors thesis. A bulk of my quarter was spent working through grad school requirements, as well.
I started the quarter by interviewing for a Leadership Development Consultant position with Pi Phi, and to my surprise they brought me all the way to the final round of interviews! They flew me out to headquarters in St. Louis along with ~20 other women from all over the nation for group activities and in-person interviews. I didn’t end up getting the position, which was bittersweet, but it was the best experience. I met so many amazing women who I’m still in touch with, and I never would have met them or gotten to tour headquarters if I didn’t put myself out there for the position. Two of the women (Steph and Dot) I really got pretty close with, and they both requested Vanderbilt for their site visits next year, so hopefully I’ll see one of them again soon!
While I was in St. Louis for my LDC interviews, I got the letter saying that I was accepted to Vanderbilt, and that they were offering me a 50% scholarship! This was definitely a weird experience, because initially I had assumed that if I got into Vanderbilt I would definitely go there, but the LDC visit really reminded me of how much I love Pi Phi, and how amazing it would be to be able to give back to the organization by working for them. In the end, not getting the LDC position worked out well because it reassured me that grad school was the right path, but I was still sad I wouldn’t get to spend another year with Pi Phis. By the end of the quarter I would find out that I was accepted to every school I applied to, which made decision-making extremely difficult.
All of the LDC candidates in St. Louis on the stairwell at Headquarters!
At the NC State Recruitment Weekend with a WSU student!
I went on two school visits this quarter, to NC State and to Northwestern, and I also completed assistantship interviews with every school except USC (about 20 interviews). I met so many interesting people, whether faculty, employers, or other applicants, and overall the application experience was a very smooth process, but it definitely brought a lot of stress. For the first time in a long time, my courses at UW were nowhere near the top of my priorities, and instead I focused on interview prep almost constantly. In the end, I was offered a position with the Vanderbilt Office of Student Accountability, Community Standards, and Academic Integrity. This assistantship will cover 66% of my tuition, as well as provides a salary worth 33% of my tuition. Given such an amazing opportunity, how could I not choose to attend Vanderbilt? Having the decision finalized really takes the pressure off, and I can finally be excited about my accomplishment!
As I mentioned, school wasn’t my top priority this quarter, but my classes were both great, and I did well in them despite being so busy. SEED was an eye-opening course that helped me learn more about identities that I don’t share, and I will undoubtedly take what I learned with me to grad school next year, as I begin to consider ways that administrators of higher education can create greater equity for all students. Evolution and Human Behavior was nice because I haven’t enjoyed science in a while, and Dr. Herron brought it back to a very understandable level. I loved thinking in new ways and learning more about evolution—it was a refreshing change of pace. Finally, I have made great strides with my Departmental Honors thesis. I have finished data analysis, I have a full draft of my paper, and I’m going to be presenting to the lab about it next quarter! Everything is wrapping up, but it will be extremely weird to finish school entirely online in the spring.
This button takes you to a PDF of the acceptance letter that I received from Vanderbilt this quarter. I am extremely proud of this accomplishment, and I will never forget how excited I was to receive this document!
This button takes you to the offer letter that I received from the OSACSAI at Vanderbilt, detailing the position that I received. I looked back at my original application for the assistantships, and I realized that I had consistently ranked this position as my top choice, making it even more exciting to receive an offer here!
I wrote a different statement of purpose for each school that I applied to, but they were all similar. I spent the most time and energy by far working on Vanderbilt's application, so I think in a few years it will be interesting to look back and re-read what I wrote at this time.
Finally, Vanderbilt had a separate application for their assistantships, and this is what I submitted that eventually landed me the OSACSAI position (in addition to an interview)! After a year working in this office, I'd love to look back and see if it's anything like what I expected when I wrote this application.