A letter came in the mail today. An honest-to-God letter in a really-and-truly envelope that was sitting in my actual, physical mailbox. I thought that was a nice touch. The letter came from the Japan Studies Program at the University of Washington and informed me that they "are recommending to the Graduate School that [I] be offered admission to [their] program for Autumn 2004." The letter went on to say that the Japan Studies people "expect that [the Graduate School] will concur in [their] recommendation and send [me] an official offer."
Take careful note of what's going on here: The program that I want to go to wants to accept me, but it's concievable that the school will say no. I've been in a situation like that before, only replace the "Japan Studies program" with "a girl I used to date" and the "Graduate School" with "her insane parents." I'm thinking of reasons why the Graduate School might disregard the Japan Studies Program's recommendation and turn me down, but all of the ones I can come up with involve circumstances that are a bit beyond the every day. Not that those have ever been lacking from my life...
The whole thing gets even more fun when you look at the form that came with the letter - the form I fill out and mail back to the Japan Studies Program in order to accept their offer of admission. The offer of admission that might never actually come. It'd be like buying tickets to see a movie that was never actually going to be released.
What makes this news particularly apt, though, is that it comes the day after Adi's birthday party, where the delightful Jeni Garber told me she planned to move to Seattle at the summer's end. How's that for timing?
And for the record: I'm waiting to send that form back until I a) get the actual admissions offer from the actual Graduate School and b) hear back from the other school's I've applied to. Yes, UW is my top choice, but I'm torn between their China and Japan Programs and if someone else offers me more money... well, sometimes want must bow to need.