Dartmouth: Accepted!

It is fair to say that I have been on edge for the past few weeks/months. Patience is a virtue I really struggle to exhibit, and applying to graduate school has been a long process full of waiting. However, on Tuesday, I received an email from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business that they were moving up the decision date from March 18 to March 11. I was thrilled to cut 7 days off of my waiting period, but at the same time, I was so nervous to actually here the decision.

Jeremy spent Wednesday and Thursday morning scouring the Admissions wikis and chat rooms in an effort to figure out if the admission committee had begun making any calls to students to inform them of the decisions. (I was too anxious to follow these websites, so I was very appreciative of Jeremy's reconnaissance efforts.)

No news on Wednesday, but on Thursday morning, Jeremy reported that someone in London had posted a note on one of the message boards that he had been accepted. So the calls had started! I tried to not think about it too much, and I actually succeeded. I had plans to eat lunch with a few co-workers on Thursday, so a little before noon, we left the office for burritos. And since I felt so guilty eating a burrito without Jeremy, I asked him to join us for the meal.

We sat down to eat just before noon, and before I managed to take a bite of my lunch, the cell phone rang. Caller ID told me that a 603 area code number was calling. I jumped out of my seat and ran outside of the noisy burrito bar to take the call. It was Dartmouth! And they were calling to invite me to join the Class of 2013. Amazing! It was one of the best calls I have ever received. They said loved my application and thought I would be a great fit for their MBA/MPH program, and they even wanted to offer me scholarship. What a huge surprise!

And what a huge relief! I am thrilled not just because I can relax a little bit, now that I have been accepted somewhere. But who am I kidding? Dartmouth isn't just somewhere. It  is pretty amazing. Hugely amazing.  I think a part of me never wanted to get excited about Dartmouth and Tuck because I didn't really expect to be admitted. However now that I have gained acceptance, I'm really excited to visit Hanover, NH and see what life would be like there for three years. We're booked to visit for the Admitted Students Weekend in April, so we'll definitely report back on our trip in a few more weeks...

And how happy am I that I invited Jeremy to join us for burritos? He has been so supportive of me the past few months, and I'm so grateful for him. Of course, he was able to snap a few pics of me taking the call on his iPhone. You can't really tell, but I'm kind of shaking in these photos. And I couldn't eat my burrito when I went back inside, but I did manage to swallow a few glasses of wine with friends later that night for Happy Hour. Here I am at Mexico au Parc in South Park, San Francisco - my new favorite burrito place in the world!