random commentary on April Fools Day

[brasssun]

It occurs to me that if aliens ever attack, and if htey do their research ahead of time, they really should land on April 1st. It will give them a whole day of delayed reaction as everyone rolls their eyes at the news, says "ha, ha, very funny," and doesn't believe it one little bit. Whole countries could be conquered on prime time television and

Comments

[sildra]

Hey, I keep meaning to e-mail you. Have you heard from the schools you applied to yet?

[brasssun]

Oh, yup. I got accepted into UT Austin and UCLA. I decided to stick around in Austin for the masters program and then reassess my situation in two years. Now, I'm nose deep in financial aid issues, but very excited about starting classes in the fall. Yay!

[sildra]

Congrats! Although, of course, I'm a bit selfishly disappointed that you didn't choose UCLA.

[brasssun]

I was disappointed, too, actually, but some of the statistics about the UC system scared me off. Sigh.

[sildra]

Oh? I knew there were some problems with the system for undergrads, but I thought it was ok for grad students. What sorts of statistics did you run into?

[brasssun]

Graduation rates were less than half of any of the other schools I applied to and they were trying to save costs by laying off some un-tenured professors--not the bad teachers just the un-tenured ones. That, in addition to the fact that none of the schools were giving me financial aid packets until after I'd accepted them, made me cautious.

[sildra]

Well, they can't lay off the tenured ones.

California is broke. So that's why they're taking such extreme measures. The CalState system--the schools that go up to Masters degrees, as opposed to the UCs, which go up to doctorates--has been furloughing their professors and not accepting new students for the spring term.

[aryky]

Well, hey, congratulations on having the big issue settled, even if there are always more issues.