In Medias Res #19: Falling in Love is so Hard on the Knees
Wow. You know I’m tired and stressed when the only title I can think of is an Aerosmith lyric. Thanks early to mid 90s (and more specifically Alicia Silverstone).
My whirlwind tour is over, and at least for now I think I am done with campus interviews. At this point it is a waiting game. All the schools are supposed to get back to me sometime next week, and I am thankful for the serendipity. I am, however, deeply anxious over when and what they will say when they do get back.
The interview? The interview was magic, dear readers. It was like a phenomenal first date (albeit a chaste non-sexual first date). Perhaps my confidence levels have just picked up and I feel more comfortable, but from the minute they picked me up at the airport until the minute I returned to the Continental Check-in line I felt a buzzy joy. I sensed an immediate camaraderie, and although people were maintaining that professional distance that is a compulsory element of the interview process I still really enjoyed myself.
They have a couple of openings in Res Life and I think mathematically my shot is about 50%. Those are quite good odds. When driving me back to the airport my host mentioned that people were really impressed with me, and I am just hoping that they come through with an offer.
Between the other institutions, one is a close runner up (it doesn’t have the fabulous city life and the facilities are not as astoundingly new) and the other is a distant, distant fourth (if there were the potential for a fourth place, they would be fourth). I think at #2 I would be very happy, and the major factor working in its favor is the phenomenal array and quality of Doctorate programs the institution offers. But at the moment it is running at second place in my heart if not my head.
Of course, the minute I got on campus and was away from my email a whole new round of schools wanted to talk to me “about gauging my interest in the position at Institution X”. I’ve been playing phone tag with these schools, and the whole thing just compounds my stress level. I do not technically have a job, so I can’t be declining every new admirer. That said, in the next two weeks I have assignments due, papers to grade, a final report to write, and…. Oh,yes, I have to graduate. So its not as if I have much free time to do campus interviews until the second week in May.
I have to say it seems like in general this is just a very late hiring season for people. Only a handful of my friends (at this institution and others) have a job. Almost all the people in my cohort who have accepted positions got them from OPE (which was in the beginning of March), and no one seems to have even been offered a position from NASPA/ACPA. Of course, lots of us did not even do placement and so the phone interviews and campus invites are trickling in slowly.
The biggest disappointment in all of this is that we probably won’t all be around to celebrate each other’s success. The end goal of graduate school at least here it seems is about the first job rather than the degree. As the summer drags on and those with positions move away (or those with May/June leases move back home) the kudos and camaraderie will happen over email instead of at our bar on
posted by StudentAffairs.com @ 11:05 AM
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