Waiting on Rhodes

As I write I'm waiting to get a call about my Rhodes application, which is due at midnight. The whole process has been such a whirlwind... and apparently in the whirlwind I made a mistake on my application form which is hopefully being straightened out now. Our new MHC Hunter director is being super helpful tonight in dealing with the Rhodes committee, which is great. Other than that... just a few glitches to fix, a couple recommenders who haven't yet uploaded their letters but theoretically will before 11:59, and a submit button to press and wham - I'll be a Rhodes candidate.

The Rhodes application process is unlike pretty much any application I've worked on before; I encourage anyone even kind of sort of thinking they might do it to start thinking about it far in advance, NOT in September like I did. There's been a ton of heat and pressure, and having six different people reading your essay and making sometimes not-so-nice comments about it can be tough, not to mention scrounging up and keeping track of 7 recommenders. But at the end of the day, it's still at least a chance to get an amazing opportunity, to have all kinds of doors open for you and to spend a couple years at Oxford.

For me the most beneficial, and one of the most stressful, aspects has been the forced introspection. I jumped on the Rhodes application because I'd realized it was time to face my nagging doubts about graduate school rather than plowing ahead with my applications, and even if this doesn't come through I think it was a good choice. Figuring out what I would do with the chance to study at Oxford has made me give a lot more credit to alternative ideas that I've mostly ignored while working in neuroscience, generating a lot of food for thought as I move foreword.

Still no call yet... oh well, hopefully soon. Right now I'm just looking foreword to having this all over and done with, spending the weekend with my boyfriend at his upcoming synthetic biology competition (yes, we are that nerdy) and finally getting to focus on my classes and lab work.