1 interview down? Kinda?

This has been a long day. Up at 5:30 to be ready to get to Waterloo by 7:30, only to turn back around and ride to Syracuse for a training that was supposed to end at noon and theoretically have us back at the office by 1:30. Theoretically. We ran late and didn't get back to the office until 2:45ish. The drive to Rochester is about an hour and the email I received for meeting confirmation said to plan up to 30 minutes for parking and making it to the building. I was panicked.

So, I hopped in the Jeep and headed down the thruway. Of course I took two wrong turns before I finally made it to the campus, which is beautiful (even in the winter). As I entered the campus I stopped at the info booth to ask about parking only to find out it was going to be tight because Jesse Jackson was on campus. Fabulous. At this point it is 4:18 and I am freaking out. I tell the lady at the info booth I have a 4:30 meeting and need to know where to park. She told me where to go. I had no idea where she meant and picked my own spot, which was apparently okay because I didn't get a ticket. I parked, hopped out of the Jeep, and started rapidly approaching a building that I had no idea were it was. Much like my first day on campus at Penn State, I asked a student where Dewey Hall was and thankfully they sent me to the right building.

I walked in and gave my name at the info desk. The woman introduced herself, but I have no idea what her name is. She had a professor from Curriculum and Teaching take me downstairs to meet with the prof I was to interview with. It is now 4:25. We make it to her office and she is meeting with someone else. Prof 1 places me in a room and goes back to tell interview prof where I am.

At about 4:45, interview prof comes and gets me from the "waiting room." Apparently I am one of those people that people just feel comfortable talking to? She informed me that her son had a dentist appointment and that she had to go pick him up because her husband thinks she doesn't have anything else to do. Her handshake was also very limp. Not good sign.

We make it to her office (which looks like a typical disorganized prof's office - I will fit in well) and I take a seat. She asks what I am doing now and why I am interested in the program at this point in my life. I explain it, blah blah blah...

Shortly after, the phone rings. Apparently it was her daughter who had been arrested and placed in jail for four days because she had been written up at her University and missed the ticket in the mail to show for court. She missed court. They arrested her. Yes. This was discussed in my interview. If you know me well, you really shouldn't be surprised that this would have happened to me. It seems like I have weird crap like this happen all the time.

Here's the part that really frosted my mini wheats... She says to me, "I didn't get a chance to read your writing sample. Based on how you talk, I would assume you are a strong writer. Can you explain to me what this paper is about?" Are you KIDDING ME? I spent a HUGE number of hours on that paper. Large amounts of research. Many hours of writing. Several of editing. And it wasn't even read. Ouch. Welcome to a Ph.D. program?

She did make a decent recommendation that I consider the Ed.D. program rather than the Ph.D. program. Ed.D. tends to be more theory and application, whereas Ph.D. tends to be more research oriented. I am not sure I can spend most of my days doing research, so I may change to Ed.D.

So, after relaying all of this to my office mate, she has recommended that I request another interview with a person more qualified to make an accurate assessment and recommendation for my admission. She is probably right. I am hoping Thursday's interview will go much better? It never gets easy to talk about myself (regardless of what some people think).

That's pretty much the full report....oh...she did notice that I didn't do so hot in statistics. That kind of sucked. I made up an excuse and she probably bought it. In reality I just really hate stats.

After the interview I headed to the Eastview to find something to wear for Thursday's interview. Once again, I found nothing. I also exchanged my Nike+ for a brand new chip and sensor, and I am once again hopeful it will work this time. Cross your fingers again.

I did not find clothes for Thursday's interview, but I did find a great new running tank. Lucky me!