Full Circle

So, it's been eventful... well, few months, but I think I will just focus on the last week here. This is hopefully wrapping up a lot of things that I've been talking about over the last few months.

As many already know, I have been finishing up my degree for a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering over this past year. On Saturday, I officially graduated from the University with my degree. It was definitely an exciting time, and I am very thankful that I've had great family and friends to keep me sane through all of it. They all came down to see me this weekend, and I enjoyed seeing them all. All in all, it was an amazing weekend with some amazing people.

Of course, graduation is only a small piece of everything else that's happened.

First of all, our senior design was finished a few weeks ago. It looked amazing at design day, although it sadly did not win any awards. We're prepping for a full flight coming up this week, so that will be very exciting. The theory behind it implies a huge potential benefit, so that is something I'm really looking forward to.

I think, though, that one of the best (and/or weirdest) moments from this weekend is concerning the final tally of grad school.

For reference, I applied to three schools initially - Penn State, The University of Illinois, and The University of Washington. As I've mentioned in previous entries, I have gone out to tour Penn State, and the University of Illinois.

The University of Illinois actually flew me out while making no secret of my likely acceptance into their program, and I went feeling that it was actually a very interesting opportunity. My day there, as I already wrote, was very interesting, although I ultimately felt it was not for me. As a result, I declined their offer.

Penn State and the University of Washington ultimately ended up not offering me admission to their programs. For those of you doing the math, this presents a bit of an issue, doesn't it? 3 programs - 2 said no, and I declined the third. Therefore, I'm kind of up the creek without a paddle in terms of Grad School, aren't I?

Not so quickly.

Due to some life events in March, I started seriously considering my options for graduate schools. Due to a passing in my family, amongst other things, I began to seriously question whether or not I really wanted to move away from my family. All told, it is actually quite nice to be able to see my family on a whim instead of having to arrange a plane ticket and fly out. Definitely not something that is as easy to do. To that end, I decided to see if I could work in Arizona for a year and then apply to grad school again for next year.

I sat down with the department head of AME to ask him about what I could do to make myself competitive to apply for graduate school again next year (seeing as the deadline had passed). He actually encouraged me to apply to the program if I was even considering it as the deadline was more of a suggestion/deadline for university funding than a deadline for admission. This funding was separate from TA/RA positions, so I went ahead and threw an application in. This was all before Penn State or Washington had gotten back to me (I had already declined Illinois), so I was back up to 3 applications in the pool.

At this point, school got... "hectic". The next several weeks were best described as a blur as I worked to complete everything I needed to. It all gone done, but as of the beginning of May, I had not yet heard back from Arizona, although Penn State and Washington had already sent their letters. This was slightly frustrating as I had hoped to know about grad school in time to tell my extended family.

So, Friday came and went. The department graduation was nice, and it felt good to be recognized for my work. I went to lunch and dinner with my family and my girlfriend. It was a great chance to just talk, and to introduce her to my family. All told, we were out until about 8 or 9 that night before heading home to get sleep for the next day's events.

I went to check my email before heading to bed - and lo and behold, what should be in my inbox but the response to my application to the U of A. Needless to say, there was a moment of "do I really want to open this?" before I finally bit the bullet and began to read.

To that end, I am pleased to say that I have been accepted to the University of Arizona's Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering program for Fall of 2012. I have accepted the offer, and am in the process of getting everything set up. The opportunity is more than exciting, and I've had some great people help me get this far. I'm also positive that those great people will help me as I continue my education - hopefully all the way to my Doctorate degree.

I was sorely tempted to call my parents right away. Given the time, though, I decided to wait until lunch the next day when I could tell everyone all at once. The reaction on everyone's faces made it well worth waiting - although some will say I should've said anyway :P

This is also convenient as I was running out of topic ideas after this graduate school stuff began to wrap up. Instead, I now have graduate school, this summer, moving, and everything else to make for an interesting chronicle of life events.

So, at the end of it all, I've graduated with my B.S in Aerospace Engineering, and I will be continuing on into graduate school. I've had some amazing things come my way in the last few months, and I'm feeling very lucky and happy about my current state. I hope that things continue to go this way, and with the support that I have been so fortunate to have, there's nothing that can't be done right now.