Summer REU results
Despite making the shortlist for McDonald Observatory, they ended up not wanting me, although they communicated this in a weird way. I did, as expected, receive an offer from the Keck Consortium, but it was at Williams (although the project I got assigned to was very cool-looking, and the professor I'd be working with emailed me and said she knew that I has asked to be near a larger city, but they thought that I would be best suited for this position, and that my application was very strong, yadda yadda).
I emailed the guy at McDonald, from the hostel in Paris, and asked him when they'd have decisions. I was irritated at having to prod them while I was supposed to be enjoying my time abroad. He emailed me back saying he had gotten the impression from my awkward 5-minute phone conversation with his colleague that I wasn't interested in the projects they were doing, which is really not true at all. I tried to parlay him away from that, but he said he wanted to talk to me on the phone about it. My cellphone doesn't work in Europe (duh) and I really didn't want to try to somehow get them to make an international call to the hostel's number and blah blah. So he told me to just accept Keck, which I did.
So, long story short, I'm going to be living at Williams College this summer. The good news is that the stipend is larger than McDonald and they subsidize housing as well (although not meals). I'll still have my car too, so I plan to drive places and visit people.
I emailed the guy at McDonald, from the hostel in Paris, and asked him when they'd have decisions. I was irritated at having to prod them while I was supposed to be enjoying my time abroad. He emailed me back saying he had gotten the impression from my awkward 5-minute phone conversation with his colleague that I wasn't interested in the projects they were doing, which is really not true at all. I tried to parlay him away from that, but he said he wanted to talk to me on the phone about it. My cellphone doesn't work in Europe (duh) and I really didn't want to try to somehow get them to make an international call to the hostel's number and blah blah. So he told me to just accept Keck, which I did.
So, long story short, I'm going to be living at Williams College this summer. The good news is that the stipend is larger than McDonald and they subsidize housing as well (although not meals). I'll still have my car too, so I plan to drive places and visit people.