I still remember Kevin calling my cell phone as I volunteered at Evangeline's co-op February 7, 2019. I was worried because he usually never called on mornings, and I thought something was wrong. I immediately answered saying, "Kev, are you ok???"
And he shouted, "WE ARE GOING TO ROCHESTER, BABY!!!!"
To that, I howled with joy, and started laughing like a maniac.
Kevin had been applying for PhD programs the last two months and dedicated blood, sweat, and tears to having a bomb mission statement and working hard for a high GRE score. After a lot of stress and being disappointed in his ultimate score, and over $1,000 spent on prep material and applications, it was a HUGE weight lifted off his shoulders! And mine too... he spent so many days worried that no school would accept him because in his words: "It is REALLY competitive to get into a PhD program...and even harder to get a tenure position after all that time dedicated to school."
So he stalked a lot of graduate forums and joined the ranks of many PhD prospective students who freaked out and shared whenever they got accepted, waitlisted, or rejected from a school. I remember earlier that week he had gotten rejected at two schools. One of those schools was Baylor, and he was REALLY sad about it. I was too. I thought that we were meant to live in Texas. I had a good friend move there recently, and I also loved the idea of raising our family in a state with conservative (yet still diverse) people. We just wanted to live somewhere with old time values, and Texas also was a lot more affordable than Southern California. When he got rejected, he was really sad. I tried to comfort him and went to bed that night and prayed, "Oh God...please let him get into at least one school. He worked so hard, and he will be such a good professor and he wants to teach people about you. Please PLEASE let him get into at least ONE!"
The next day, he got waitlisted at Tennessee. And then the following day, he got accepted into Rochester University, which is listed in the Top 50 PhD programs in the US. I actually remember him saying in the past, that if he didn't get into Baylor, he would be fine with going to Rochester, New York because of the epidemiologists who were teaching there. It was a dream come true! We weren't going to Texas, but we were definitely setting our sights on New York!
For two weeks, we kept playing songs that had to do with New York. Frank Sinatra and Jay-Z played over and over in our home. We did research on Rochester and I even contacted a woman there who was part of the co-op that Evangeline would be joining. We researched churches and our mindset was ALL IN.
Of course, whatever in the world we were planning changed because that's what God always does to us! On February 27, Kevin got an email saying he was waitlisted at University of Miami, which is ranked higher than Rochester. And he wasn't ONLY waitlisted, he was told that he was on the top tier of the waitlist, and that there was a very high chance he would be accepted into the program in due time. And then he was touched and flattered to receive another email by another professor at University of Miami saying he wasn't part of the committee that chose who would be accepted, but he was able to read all the statement papers from those on waitlist and he loved Kevin's work and said he genuinely hoped Kevin would accept the position offered to him if he got off of waitlist.
We were confused because we really thought Rochester was IT. Kevin knew how competitive the entire PhD process was, and he just felt thankful to be accepted into a Top 50 school. Most schools have a deadline for April 15, so there was a possibility he would be on waitlist til mid April.
So we did what every other person would do....
We played Will Smith's "Miami" song on repeat, which was way more fun than the Jay-Z one lol! Our girls even got used to the song and Elianna starts dancing whenever she hears the word "Miami!"
Imagine how much MORE confused Kevin became when he got another message:
He was WAITLISTED at University of Massachusetts as well!!!! Which was the highest ranked one out of the options he currently had (Tennessee, Rochester, and Miami) so he didn't know what God wanted for him or for our family!
A few days ago, he received an email saying he was officially accepted into University of Miami, so there's that! UMass has until mid April to accept Kevin too so it's all a waiting game. Kevin is still waiting to hear back from Ohio too, which is tied with UMass for the 28th ranking in the US for PhD philosophy programs. Unfortunately, Kevin was told that there was no ranking on the waitlist and that it would be decided based on various factors to ensure diversity.
Kevin is flying out to Miami next week to check out the school, and the following week he is being flown out to Rochester. We were sad that there was no option for me or the girls to be flown out alongside him but it makes sense. We tried booking some last minute flights to Miami but the tickets were way too pricey, and not worth all that money if the 3 days we would be there, Kevin wouldn't even be with me or the girls. We decided to use that money on a trip to Nor Cal later in May or June.
So that's the update for all that's been going on in this house for the beginning of 2019! It's been a crazy few weeks with lots of question marks and an excitement and sadness about moving. We will miss our family and friends in California, but we are also excited for all that's to come....whether that be in New York, Florida..or even possibly Massachusetts or Ohio!
A lot can change in the next month so I'll make sure to update. It's been a fun journey so far. We are probably going to move in July or August so we only have 4-5 months left here! AHHH it's passing by so fast!
And he shouted, "WE ARE GOING TO ROCHESTER, BABY!!!!"
To that, I howled with joy, and started laughing like a maniac.
Kevin had been applying for PhD programs the last two months and dedicated blood, sweat, and tears to having a bomb mission statement and working hard for a high GRE score. After a lot of stress and being disappointed in his ultimate score, and over $1,000 spent on prep material and applications, it was a HUGE weight lifted off his shoulders! And mine too... he spent so many days worried that no school would accept him because in his words: "It is REALLY competitive to get into a PhD program...and even harder to get a tenure position after all that time dedicated to school."
So he stalked a lot of graduate forums and joined the ranks of many PhD prospective students who freaked out and shared whenever they got accepted, waitlisted, or rejected from a school. I remember earlier that week he had gotten rejected at two schools. One of those schools was Baylor, and he was REALLY sad about it. I was too. I thought that we were meant to live in Texas. I had a good friend move there recently, and I also loved the idea of raising our family in a state with conservative (yet still diverse) people. We just wanted to live somewhere with old time values, and Texas also was a lot more affordable than Southern California. When he got rejected, he was really sad. I tried to comfort him and went to bed that night and prayed, "Oh God...please let him get into at least one school. He worked so hard, and he will be such a good professor and he wants to teach people about you. Please PLEASE let him get into at least ONE!"
The next day, he got waitlisted at Tennessee. And then the following day, he got accepted into Rochester University, which is listed in the Top 50 PhD programs in the US. I actually remember him saying in the past, that if he didn't get into Baylor, he would be fine with going to Rochester, New York because of the epidemiologists who were teaching there. It was a dream come true! We weren't going to Texas, but we were definitely setting our sights on New York!
For two weeks, we kept playing songs that had to do with New York. Frank Sinatra and Jay-Z played over and over in our home. We did research on Rochester and I even contacted a woman there who was part of the co-op that Evangeline would be joining. We researched churches and our mindset was ALL IN.
Of course, whatever in the world we were planning changed because that's what God always does to us! On February 27, Kevin got an email saying he was waitlisted at University of Miami, which is ranked higher than Rochester. And he wasn't ONLY waitlisted, he was told that he was on the top tier of the waitlist, and that there was a very high chance he would be accepted into the program in due time. And then he was touched and flattered to receive another email by another professor at University of Miami saying he wasn't part of the committee that chose who would be accepted, but he was able to read all the statement papers from those on waitlist and he loved Kevin's work and said he genuinely hoped Kevin would accept the position offered to him if he got off of waitlist.
We were confused because we really thought Rochester was IT. Kevin knew how competitive the entire PhD process was, and he just felt thankful to be accepted into a Top 50 school. Most schools have a deadline for April 15, so there was a possibility he would be on waitlist til mid April.
So we did what every other person would do....
We played Will Smith's "Miami" song on repeat, which was way more fun than the Jay-Z one lol! Our girls even got used to the song and Elianna starts dancing whenever she hears the word "Miami!"
Imagine how much MORE confused Kevin became when he got another message:
He was WAITLISTED at University of Massachusetts as well!!!! Which was the highest ranked one out of the options he currently had (Tennessee, Rochester, and Miami) so he didn't know what God wanted for him or for our family!
A few days ago, he received an email saying he was officially accepted into University of Miami, so there's that! UMass has until mid April to accept Kevin too so it's all a waiting game. Kevin is still waiting to hear back from Ohio too, which is tied with UMass for the 28th ranking in the US for PhD philosophy programs. Unfortunately, Kevin was told that there was no ranking on the waitlist and that it would be decided based on various factors to ensure diversity.
Kevin is flying out to Miami next week to check out the school, and the following week he is being flown out to Rochester. We were sad that there was no option for me or the girls to be flown out alongside him but it makes sense. We tried booking some last minute flights to Miami but the tickets were way too pricey, and not worth all that money if the 3 days we would be there, Kevin wouldn't even be with me or the girls. We decided to use that money on a trip to Nor Cal later in May or June.
So that's the update for all that's been going on in this house for the beginning of 2019! It's been a crazy few weeks with lots of question marks and an excitement and sadness about moving. We will miss our family and friends in California, but we are also excited for all that's to come....whether that be in New York, Florida..or even possibly Massachusetts or Ohio!
A lot can change in the next month so I'll make sure to update. It's been a fun journey so far. We are probably going to move in July or August so we only have 4-5 months left here! AHHH it's passing by so fast!
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