Confirmed

Though mundane, I clicked confirm last night, so now I am locked in to go to LSE. This is good news, right?

Accepted!

So I was accepted to LSE the other day. This is good news, especially because I told my parents and they were generally happy. It looks like I will be going to LSE next year. This is some excellent news, but I still hate that there is this ambiguity among my parents about it. They seem aloof or nonchalant about it, as if I will forget about it and not bug them.

But otherwise, I need to fill out some more forms and go through some sort of orientation. I am so excited about this, even though it's just paperwork and liability nonsense. The only problem is that I don't know when these forms are due, so I should ideally submit my forms as soon as possible. Yet I sit here waiting on my parents as they avoid the topic like time is not of the essence.

Veery's E-mail

So, I e-mailed some girl named Veery, and she responded with the following e-mail:

Overall, I loved living in London. That being said, it was extremely expensive, which grew very tiresome. LSE itself was an interesting experience, because it is so different from Georgetown. I am in the MSB, and found my two business classes there to be very challenging because there is very little teaching and a lot of independent learning. My two non-business classes, one Sociology and one Environmental, were fantastic. So, it definitely depends on what you are interested in studying.

In terms of internships, it is definitely difficult. I had an internship previously lined up, and they were willing to be flexible on my start date. Georgetown and LSE both tell you that you can't plan to begin any work until July, but as it turned out for me, my last final was on May 29th. So you just never know, and you don't find out until the end of March.

Let me know if I can answer any other questions for you... but seriously, London is great, just make sure to take lots of money and warm clothes!

90 Day Waiting Period

Like buying a gun, I must sit here and wait for them to get back to me. There's nothing I can do now though, so what is there to worry about. I think I wrote a decent essay, my GPA/QPI is high enough, I should have good recommendations from esteemed faculty. That's all they can judge me on anyways, so I hope it goes well. I still need to convince the folks though that this whole process is worth it. Otherwise this was all for naught. The way I see it, (1) studying at LSE is rewarding because only the best can go. It's a privilege that I hopefully will earn. Also, (2) the job market is tough right now, so finding a summer internship is very difficult to begin with. If I instead do the next best thing and study abroad, then that gives me an advantage over all the kids who can't get internships and end up working at Dairy Queens at home. It's almost a really good excuse for not having an internship. The way I see it, I might as well take advantage of the opportunities that are available instead of hoping for others to come by. What happens if I don't get an internship over summer anyways, then I have no reason to not go to LSE. At the same time, (3) there is the possibility that I could interview over winter break when I return to Amerika. And I am able to let firms know that I will be in London and can schedule interviews there or phone interviews. This is what others have done in the past. I have heard that 3-5 of the 30 get internships in America, while some more get jobs in London. But it is much harder and requires a great deal of flying back and forth to get a job. While it is important to get an internship after junior year, it's not as important since you can still get a job during senior year.
What most others do is take summer classes at Georgetown, travel, or work at home. But in interviews and on resumes, listing LSE as a reason for not having a junior year internship is looked at highly. Another issue I have heard is that it is difficult to make good relations with professors if I am gone junior year. And apparently, I need that for recs for grad school. Also, it's hard to make good friends at LSE since I will be entering during their junior year. But (4) nearly 25% of their students are also study abroad foreign students.

PSP

So, I have been thinking about buying a PSP pretty much since I found out that the commute can be up to 45 minutes to classes each day. But being the anal-retentive technophile from Silicon Valley that I am, I decided to wait until the PSP2 inevitably comes out. But the word on the internet is that the PSP is here to stay for at least 2 years, so it seems like a good purchase, especially because they recently released the latest updated version, the PSP-3000.

Then I saw on Amazon that they had a Black Friday deal, so I bought the PSP bundle with Ratchet and Clank and National Treasure 2 and a 1G card with Vice City Stories. Suddenly I was really excited about having a PSP. But the expected shipping date was after break, so I anxiously cancelled the order. The reasoning being that if it would have come after break anyways, then I could just as easily buy it after break when I return.

Also, say something retarded happens and I don't go to LSE, then having a PSP seems superfluous. And that is just my luck, owning superfluous shit.

Courses

Before I apply to LSE, I have to chose the courses I will take there. Here's the list:

http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/calendar2008-2009/courseGuides/undergraduate.htm

I spoke to the study abroad MSB dean and she said that for LSE, I can take one course in finance, one in government, and one in operations management. The last and fourth class is up to me based on what interests me. By taking the one government course, I will fulfill my government minor. With one finance class taken, I'll only have two more finance courses to finish my major. And the fourth class can easily involve something that will work towards my international business major.

I'm excited to take courses in London, but that is getting way to far ahead of myself.

At this point, I still need to fill out the study proposal and get it signed by both an MSB and a government dean. I still need to get my pictures taken. I still need to get my conduct waiver signed too. I also have that pesky essay to get through. Thankfully I've written it already, and just need to edit it immensely.

Where is King's College?

So, Decker is still looking at King's College, which would be awesome. That got us wondering, how far are King's and LSE?


Answer: about 300 feet apart.

Completing the Application

After my meeting with Ms. Everson, I finally have all the parts of the application. Now I can complete it and turn it in before December 5th. The main issue I have with the application is that I need to get quite a few signatures and approvals in a short amount of time. I guess it's a good thing that I am starting this whole process early, otherwise I'd be scrambling in the end.
For this app, I need to get the Office of Student Conduct, my dean, and most difficultly, the government dean to sign off before I can submit my application. I guess I need to figure out which courses correspond to which credits here with the dean before I do much else. The only other thing I can do right now is get my teacher recommendations in order. If that doesn't work out, then this whole application is for nought. We shall see...

Meeting With Liz Tomorrow

I have a meeting with Liz, the OIP adviser for England, tomorrow to discuss my prospects for studying next year in London. I doubt too much trouble will come up since I have a high enough GPA to study in my intended program. Also, I have come up with a few questions, mostly about choosing courses, so that it seems more like I am still a curious student who's heart isn't already set on LSE. It's good that OIP makes these meetings mandatory since most kids probably have no idea what they are doing when they apply to go abroad. The main reason I am having this meeting is so that I can acquire a study proposal from Liz, on which I must document my intended course load while abroad. And considering I still don't know how LSE courses correspond to Georgetown courses, I am glad I have this opportunity to ask Liz. We'll see how it goes...