Report on the U of Oregon.
Arrival: I arrived at UO around 3 PM on Friday, and was greeted by a friendly cog/neuroscience grad student named Rose. She picked up another prospective grad student named Chris from Davidson, which is a school in one of those Carolina states, or something. Chris's luggage did not come with him on the plane in from Charlotte. We stood around for a while, organized to get the stuff to him at a later date and ended up heading into UO.
I was kind of early, though. The first "prospective student event" was at 6 PM, and it was, like, 3. There are about 10 gates in teh Eugene, OR airport, which means that it's easy-in, easy-out*. In any case, when we got there, there was a job talk--the cog/neuro people are looking for two more faculty. The dude giving the talk was a guy from Dartmouth who had this presentation regarding which section of the brain is responsible for picking up tools. not picking up *stuff,* and not *using* tools, but *picking up tools* as if to use them. Turns out that there's a different part of the brain that is activated in cases like this, which is to say, there's a notion of semantics inherent in the way we think about what we're picking up that's not there if we're just picking stuff up vs just using things. It was pretty cool
When I got there, and before the talk, I saw Sara Hodges again. She's the person I'd probably work with if I were there; she does work in feature matching (e.g., when you're deciding between two things which have similar features, how you deal with the similar features. Example: Deciding between job candidates. They all have Ph.D.'s, and great rec letters...so how do you go about discounting those factors? Etc), empathy (People seem to attribute greater understanding and empathy to people who have "shared their experience" even though there isn't a difference in empathy or understanding), and a certain amount of affective forecasting and affective memory (How accurate are your expectationsn about how things will make you feel, vs how accurate are your recollections about how you felt, respectively). She was friendly, but hurried, as she wanted to get to the talk, too.
After the job talk, I hung out and chatted with some social psych Ph.D. and masters students, as well as a couple other prospective students from various departments. I also got to meet my host, a guy named Casey who is a master's student.
General reflection: These people seem nice and friendly, fairly cool. The other prospective female grad students are attractive. The undergrads are considered "more attractive than average" to people who didn't even do their undergrad at CMU. But moreover, the current grad students seem relaxed, not overstressed. They also are quite abel to talk about the work they're doing, which suggests they're not just lazy and uncaring...
So, at 6, there was a "graduate student poster party." This means that the current grad students put up their recent-work posters, and talk to us about them, while we have soft drinks and cheese and crackery things. Plenty of Oregon grapes, which are pretty tasty. Fun enough. Eventually, people get more hungry than that, and one grad student stands up and says, "Hey! Whoever wants to go, we're going to Pegasus in like ten minutes." The irony is that "Pegasus" is a happenin' gay nightclub in Pittsburgh, but a popular pizza place in Eugene. Conclusion: For the next 10 minutes, I am slightly confused, but amused. We go to Pegasus, have a few beers, realize that the place is way crowded, and that we can't get pizza for like an hour, so we go back to Jess and Merideth's place for a "party," which is more gathering-style. We stand around and drink more beer, and order pizzas. The beer is all local, all microbrewed, all tasty. Well, that and Pabst Blue Ribbon...which, it seems, is the ONLY popular macrobrewed beer in Oregon. They say that a lot of bars actually have it on TAP. People talk about the Deschootz brewery and the Rogue brewery. They are impressed when I tell them that Fat Head's (in the southside of Pittsburgh) has contracted with Rogue to make them their own beer (Rogue makes the ever-popular "Dead Guy Ale" and "Shakespeare Stout." Both are hoppy, but tasty). Talked to some other single people about things ranging from dating while in grad school (Cute girl: Date developmental psych girls, like me, because they will make good mothers!). We talked about how Chris actually hooked up with another prospective when he was visiting UWashington the week before. People seem to think that finding someone to date is easy enough. No signature CMU-style bitterness...way cool. We go home around 11, because my host is kinda tired from a long week at school, and I'm FRIGGIN' TIRED because I woke up at 6:30 AM to get to Oregon, and their 11 PM is my 2 AM.
Day 2, Saturday, begins at 8 AM. I shower, and head to Straub Hall, which is the name of the psychology building. They have a whole BUILDING for psycholgy, compared to CMU only having a FLOOR of a building. Whoooo. Well, UO is like 20,000 students strong, or about 2.5 times the size of CMU. Which I didn't know, but which is OK. Early morning is pastries and coffee in a lecture hall. The industrial university-coffee is much better than CMU's; I'm told that coffee and beer are the liquid reasons to go to UOregon. The lecture hall hosts every area of the UO psych departmentt. First go the clinical guys. They're represented by Gordon Hall, who talks REALLY monotonously, but who includes "pictures" of the faculty members he introduces. The pictures include, but are not limited to, pictures of Tom Cruise, Macauley Culkin, and Kermit the Frog. He does not make note of the fact that these are not actual pictures of the faculty members. Next is Kirby Deater-Deckard, or something similar-sounding, who explains what the developmental people do, and talks about the grad program in general. First-year students have to take stats, an "issues" course which is basically a proseminal, and do a first-year project, which is basically a research project that you HAVE TO HAVE DONE by the end of year 1. I like this mentality, because it means I'll be done, instead of doing the whole many-year-thesis thing. The first-year project culminates, and once you're done, you have your MS. Your FYP is guided by three faculty members: one primary advisor, and two secondary. You choose who these people are, and they needn't be from your area of psychology. The program itself seems pretty laid-back.
Social & Personality psych faculty go next, and they all show up to talk about themselves in, like, 5 minutes, instead of having one faculty member represent all of them. They all talk about what they do, and a couple of them talk for the people that aren't there. Sara talks about the stuff she does and the stuff that the new guy, whose name is long and Indian and which I don't remember, does. He does personality work, and some interpersonal relationships stuff, too. Bertram Malle does work in intentionality, theories of mind, and moral emotions like shame and guilt, which is pretty neat. Robert Mauro does work in a more applied sort of sense; he works with NASA on emotions in decision making for pilots, and does some psych of law work on the effect of affect on expert testimony's effect on juries. Holly Arrow talks about group dynamics, Lew Goldberg talks about his and Gerard Saucier's personality work, as Dr. Saucier is looking at the presence of personality traits in language, and is taking a sabbatical this year to study this in the Masai, in Africa, learning their language and the like. A grad student speaks on Paul Slovic's work, which is currently looking at how affect (emotional state) might really be the "common currency" that people use to compare across domains when making a decision. This is to say, if you're trying to make a decision between, say, grad schools, you have to choose between location (is it a cool city?), program (is the program's policy good? Easy? Challenging? Etc), faculty (do the people there do the work you want to do), and the like. What's a better faculty match worth, in comparison to a program that doesn't fund you for all four years? The idea is that "how you feel about it" is really the way people make comparisons like this...so the question is how exactly that sort of thing works. Cool stuff, cool stuff. Dr. Slovic, however, isn't really at UO much; he's got his own decision research institute...so he works with students, but it's sort of a pain to actually be in contact with him on a "primary advisor" status. Too bad, because he's all famous and stuff, but honestly, I totally get the feeling that it's going to be about 80% lotteries and probability measures, which isn't really my bag. It's cool, but I sort of want something more people-oriented. But, like, that's fine, because Sara and Bertram do that in the lab, and Robert does it in the field. (Note: students, faculty, and prospectives are on a first-name basis.)
Then, we tour the fMRI section of the building. Turns out, UO psych has its own fMRI system, with which they watch what your brain does in a bunch of different scenerios. Which is cool and all, and I don't really know what it all means, but I could totally learn. Then, lunch. Sara, Bertram, and Holly (social faculty) lunch with us, because hey, free lunch. There're discussions about the trip to the coast the next day, and the wonders of Oregon wine, which Bertram is an expert on, it seems. Then, the cog/neuro people talk to us for a while, and I miss most of it because I don't really have all the background I need...they were talking to the students as if the students knew what they were talking about, which is pretty cool in terms of prof/student relationships. And granted, the other students might not have gotten all the terms when the social group presented...so it's all good.
After cog/neuro, individual meetings took place. I met with Sara first, who talks much faster than I do. I definitely could keep up (which impressed other people), and we covered, like, 2 hours' worth of material in our 30 minute meeting. We talked about Oregon, about her work. We talked about some good dimensions to evaluate grad schools on. We toured the building. They have a full video/audio recording room, so we can really see what's going on with subjects. Saw parts of her lab...good stuff.
Met with Bertram next. We spent a bunch of time talking about the status of emotions research. I really agree with a lot of his views on it; "Normativity needs to be justified before it can be assumed," "lotteries aren't everything," "definitions can be misleading." Generally a very cool conversation. After this, I met with Robert, who talked in a very deliberate manner...basicalyl, this meant that his first sentence was a mind-blowing eternity, given the previous speed of conversation...but then all was good. We talked for like an hour about his work (studying pilots' emotional states and the problems and tribulations of trying to collect real-world useful data when you can't manipulate variables except in simulators), the program, other programs, my application (strong!), and UO statistics (good enough, but not fantastic).
After meetings, i didn't really know what to do, so I went back to the lecture room, talked to Jamie (developmental prospective, from WashU) and Emily (neuro prospective, from Smith) about their thoughts. Emily likes UO more, but after living in Northampton for so long, she isn't sure that Eugene will be as tolerable as Berkeley, where she also got in. Jamie and her bf Fred (who was also accepted to UO, in social) seem to like it here. Then, Sara stopped by and convinced us to go walk around the campus a bit. We saw Hayward Field, which is a pretty cool track field, hung out, talked, etc. Then, I found my host again, and we walked around the rest of campus until the faculty potluck at 7 PM. Campus is pretty, buildings are new. Their UC isn't like CMU's; it's a STUDENT center. They've got student offices, craft centers, etc. Pretty cool. Walked around more. One thing is for sure: Oregon is GREEN. Grass is everywhere, and unlike at CMU, it is *alive.* Yeah, for real. Anyway. Then, around 7, we went to Don Tucker's house (he's a cog/neuro guy) for a potluck catered by faculty. Lots of local beer and wine...the food was generally tasty; looks like faculty can cook.
Faculty brought their family; lots of kids between 2 and 4 in the department, it seems. Everyone talked friendly-like, as if this was a solid group of people who get along well and are friendly. Students and faculty get along, faculty make casual conversation across departments. Don Tucker's house was INSANE. He just built it, up on a mountain outside of Eugene. Fantastic view, ski-lodge-like decor. Easily held the 50 or so people there. Spent a lot of time talking to Kerry (developmental person, now working at NIH/NIMH), Casey (my host), Chris (who had gotten his luggage back), and assorted other people, including the job talk guy (who was VERY into UO, spent time at UMass, Amherst, and set the Greenfield Triathalon record in 1997. Small world...), Sara, Bertram, random other grad students and prospective grad students. Things calmed down around 10:30 or so, and me, Kerry, Chris, and Casey, as well as two other grads named Kieth and Vivian, went to some OTHER grads' party. It was a Saturday Night Live themed party, and everyone was dressed up as their favorite character.
THIS, I might note, did the BEST job of convincing me that UO is a solidly viable place to spend my next 4-5 years...the grad students are friendly, and get along. There were undergrads at the party (...wow. I mean, the one dressed up in the Spartan cheerleader outfit...like, damn. She was hot, and could dance, and did. Half in-character, too...), and it was cool. Had a few more beers, got tired. Halfway through the party, Kieth and Vivian (who I didn't know were "together") informed Chris (Kieth is his host) that they were going to "go home and start a party of their own." Chris was highly surprised and amused. We hung out at that party some more, and gave Kerry and Chris a ride home around 12:30 or so. Veronica (a clinical student who seems to know how to have a good time) took Trafton (another prospective in cog/neuro) to a THIRD party...but I did'nt go bceause I was tired and my host wasn't really into the idea. Which was OK. I slept until 8, got up, showered. Hit a Starbucks with Casey on the way to campus, when I got into the car with Holly (social prof) and Trafton (cog/neuro prospective) and caravaned with Jess (social prospective from Wake Forest), Jess' mom, and Susan (cog/neuro student also from Davidson, who just missed Chris' departure). Susan seemed pretty cool. Friendly, laid-back. The third person (besides me and Kerry) to have remarked on how nice Oregon smells...
We go from coastal site to coastal site, checking out the absolutely gorgeous scenery. This is about an hour from campus. At the first site, I walk around the rocks, get nailed by a wave, and soak my shoes through with Oregon Pacific seawater. I am now chilly. We go to a couple more places, see some sea lions, and get lunch in a place called "Crab and Chowder" in Yachats, OR. The crab chowder is fantastic, and I have more local beer. After this, more sightseeing of natural beauty. We drive back to Eugene so Trafton can catch his flight, and I plan to hook up with Susan and Casey to sample Eugene's indian food supply, but Susan ends up going out with potential people from her department, since she totally missed the first day when the rest of us got oriented because she was visiting UCLA or some other school. Casey and I get indian food. It's not Sree's, but it is tasty, though it's the creamy style instead of the vegan style. Whatever...gotta remember to email Sree and get him to teach me how to make the stuff he makes before I leave...we'll see how that works...the plan at this point was to hook up with Susan and Jess and Chuck (a 4th-year social grad) to get some beers in the evening, but Jess ends up feeling bad after dining with her mom, Susan gets tired, and Chuck has work to do. Me and Casey end up watching a movie at a friend of Casey's house. He has a wife and two kids, and lives in some of the nice campus housing that's for grad students with families. We see the Academy Awards there (Note: being in pacific time means you can see the awards and STILL go out that night!), then get some more beers (6-packs for around $7) and watch a movie called A Chef in Love, which is a French/Georgian film about a chef in love during the time that the Red Army took over Georgia. Casey's friend, a Ukranian, makes interesting commentary on how Georgia, the poorest country in Europe, has people who just hang around drinking and eating kabobs all day. Sounds like fun...whatever. After the movie, we go back to Casey's house, fall asleep.
Wake up at 8, Monday morning, hit the Starbucks again (it's on the way to everything from Casey's house), and then the airport. My plane is delayed into San Francisco, which means I'll miss my flight to Pittsburgh. Shit. OK...when's the next one? It's a red-eye. Shit. So, I fly to Portland on a turboprop. OK, Portland to Chicago to Pittsburgh. Home at 11 PM, instead of 9. I can handle that. Flight to Chicgao is delayed for like an hour. I'll miss my flight to Pittsburgh. Shit. Maybe I can catch a later one...
...or maybe not. I don't know, because it's 7:37 PM, Central time, and I'm in the air between Portland and Chicago, on my laptop, bored. I'll go back to doing statistics for my MS thesis back at CMU--login variance looks promising--and post this to livejournal when I get more internet access. With luck, I'll avoid a $40 taxi fare.
Now, still waiting on Harvard and UChicago...but they'll have to make a good case to do better than UO. Four years' stipend covered, pretty free range to teach what I want. Ability to work with some of the best faculty in my area, and a completely open department. Friendly people, beautiful countryside...though Eugene isn't a big city, and there's not a lot of nightlife...but the students there seem to do pretty OK anyway, and none seem to regret their choice...and nobody seems to transfer away...they really do make a good case.
Epilogue: 3/5 planes today were egregiously late, 1 was of "undeterlmined status." The 30 minute turboprop, however, was ON TIME. I'm GOING TO BED now, 2 AM, Pittsburgh.
*: That's what my prom date said.
I was kind of early, though. The first "prospective student event" was at 6 PM, and it was, like, 3. There are about 10 gates in teh Eugene, OR airport, which means that it's easy-in, easy-out*. In any case, when we got there, there was a job talk--the cog/neuro people are looking for two more faculty. The dude giving the talk was a guy from Dartmouth who had this presentation regarding which section of the brain is responsible for picking up tools. not picking up *stuff,* and not *using* tools, but *picking up tools* as if to use them. Turns out that there's a different part of the brain that is activated in cases like this, which is to say, there's a notion of semantics inherent in the way we think about what we're picking up that's not there if we're just picking stuff up vs just using things. It was pretty cool
When I got there, and before the talk, I saw Sara Hodges again. She's the person I'd probably work with if I were there; she does work in feature matching (e.g., when you're deciding between two things which have similar features, how you deal with the similar features. Example: Deciding between job candidates. They all have Ph.D.'s, and great rec letters...so how do you go about discounting those factors? Etc), empathy (People seem to attribute greater understanding and empathy to people who have "shared their experience" even though there isn't a difference in empathy or understanding), and a certain amount of affective forecasting and affective memory (How accurate are your expectationsn about how things will make you feel, vs how accurate are your recollections about how you felt, respectively). She was friendly, but hurried, as she wanted to get to the talk, too.
After the job talk, I hung out and chatted with some social psych Ph.D. and masters students, as well as a couple other prospective students from various departments. I also got to meet my host, a guy named Casey who is a master's student.
General reflection: These people seem nice and friendly, fairly cool. The other prospective female grad students are attractive. The undergrads are considered "more attractive than average" to people who didn't even do their undergrad at CMU. But moreover, the current grad students seem relaxed, not overstressed. They also are quite abel to talk about the work they're doing, which suggests they're not just lazy and uncaring...
So, at 6, there was a "graduate student poster party." This means that the current grad students put up their recent-work posters, and talk to us about them, while we have soft drinks and cheese and crackery things. Plenty of Oregon grapes, which are pretty tasty. Fun enough. Eventually, people get more hungry than that, and one grad student stands up and says, "Hey! Whoever wants to go, we're going to Pegasus in like ten minutes." The irony is that "Pegasus" is a happenin' gay nightclub in Pittsburgh, but a popular pizza place in Eugene. Conclusion: For the next 10 minutes, I am slightly confused, but amused. We go to Pegasus, have a few beers, realize that the place is way crowded, and that we can't get pizza for like an hour, so we go back to Jess and Merideth's place for a "party," which is more gathering-style. We stand around and drink more beer, and order pizzas. The beer is all local, all microbrewed, all tasty. Well, that and Pabst Blue Ribbon...which, it seems, is the ONLY popular macrobrewed beer in Oregon. They say that a lot of bars actually have it on TAP. People talk about the Deschootz brewery and the Rogue brewery. They are impressed when I tell them that Fat Head's (in the southside of Pittsburgh) has contracted with Rogue to make them their own beer (Rogue makes the ever-popular "Dead Guy Ale" and "Shakespeare Stout." Both are hoppy, but tasty). Talked to some other single people about things ranging from dating while in grad school (Cute girl: Date developmental psych girls, like me, because they will make good mothers!). We talked about how Chris actually hooked up with another prospective when he was visiting UWashington the week before. People seem to think that finding someone to date is easy enough. No signature CMU-style bitterness...way cool. We go home around 11, because my host is kinda tired from a long week at school, and I'm FRIGGIN' TIRED because I woke up at 6:30 AM to get to Oregon, and their 11 PM is my 2 AM.
Day 2, Saturday, begins at 8 AM. I shower, and head to Straub Hall, which is the name of the psychology building. They have a whole BUILDING for psycholgy, compared to CMU only having a FLOOR of a building. Whoooo. Well, UO is like 20,000 students strong, or about 2.5 times the size of CMU. Which I didn't know, but which is OK. Early morning is pastries and coffee in a lecture hall. The industrial university-coffee is much better than CMU's; I'm told that coffee and beer are the liquid reasons to go to UOregon. The lecture hall hosts every area of the UO psych departmentt. First go the clinical guys. They're represented by Gordon Hall, who talks REALLY monotonously, but who includes "pictures" of the faculty members he introduces. The pictures include, but are not limited to, pictures of Tom Cruise, Macauley Culkin, and Kermit the Frog. He does not make note of the fact that these are not actual pictures of the faculty members. Next is Kirby Deater-Deckard, or something similar-sounding, who explains what the developmental people do, and talks about the grad program in general. First-year students have to take stats, an "issues" course which is basically a proseminal, and do a first-year project, which is basically a research project that you HAVE TO HAVE DONE by the end of year 1. I like this mentality, because it means I'll be done, instead of doing the whole many-year-thesis thing. The first-year project culminates, and once you're done, you have your MS. Your FYP is guided by three faculty members: one primary advisor, and two secondary. You choose who these people are, and they needn't be from your area of psychology. The program itself seems pretty laid-back.
Social & Personality psych faculty go next, and they all show up to talk about themselves in, like, 5 minutes, instead of having one faculty member represent all of them. They all talk about what they do, and a couple of them talk for the people that aren't there. Sara talks about the stuff she does and the stuff that the new guy, whose name is long and Indian and which I don't remember, does. He does personality work, and some interpersonal relationships stuff, too. Bertram Malle does work in intentionality, theories of mind, and moral emotions like shame and guilt, which is pretty neat. Robert Mauro does work in a more applied sort of sense; he works with NASA on emotions in decision making for pilots, and does some psych of law work on the effect of affect on expert testimony's effect on juries. Holly Arrow talks about group dynamics, Lew Goldberg talks about his and Gerard Saucier's personality work, as Dr. Saucier is looking at the presence of personality traits in language, and is taking a sabbatical this year to study this in the Masai, in Africa, learning their language and the like. A grad student speaks on Paul Slovic's work, which is currently looking at how affect (emotional state) might really be the "common currency" that people use to compare across domains when making a decision. This is to say, if you're trying to make a decision between, say, grad schools, you have to choose between location (is it a cool city?), program (is the program's policy good? Easy? Challenging? Etc), faculty (do the people there do the work you want to do), and the like. What's a better faculty match worth, in comparison to a program that doesn't fund you for all four years? The idea is that "how you feel about it" is really the way people make comparisons like this...so the question is how exactly that sort of thing works. Cool stuff, cool stuff. Dr. Slovic, however, isn't really at UO much; he's got his own decision research institute...so he works with students, but it's sort of a pain to actually be in contact with him on a "primary advisor" status. Too bad, because he's all famous and stuff, but honestly, I totally get the feeling that it's going to be about 80% lotteries and probability measures, which isn't really my bag. It's cool, but I sort of want something more people-oriented. But, like, that's fine, because Sara and Bertram do that in the lab, and Robert does it in the field. (Note: students, faculty, and prospectives are on a first-name basis.)
Then, we tour the fMRI section of the building. Turns out, UO psych has its own fMRI system, with which they watch what your brain does in a bunch of different scenerios. Which is cool and all, and I don't really know what it all means, but I could totally learn. Then, lunch. Sara, Bertram, and Holly (social faculty) lunch with us, because hey, free lunch. There're discussions about the trip to the coast the next day, and the wonders of Oregon wine, which Bertram is an expert on, it seems. Then, the cog/neuro people talk to us for a while, and I miss most of it because I don't really have all the background I need...they were talking to the students as if the students knew what they were talking about, which is pretty cool in terms of prof/student relationships. And granted, the other students might not have gotten all the terms when the social group presented...so it's all good.
After cog/neuro, individual meetings took place. I met with Sara first, who talks much faster than I do. I definitely could keep up (which impressed other people), and we covered, like, 2 hours' worth of material in our 30 minute meeting. We talked about Oregon, about her work. We talked about some good dimensions to evaluate grad schools on. We toured the building. They have a full video/audio recording room, so we can really see what's going on with subjects. Saw parts of her lab...good stuff.
Met with Bertram next. We spent a bunch of time talking about the status of emotions research. I really agree with a lot of his views on it; "Normativity needs to be justified before it can be assumed," "lotteries aren't everything," "definitions can be misleading." Generally a very cool conversation. After this, I met with Robert, who talked in a very deliberate manner...basicalyl, this meant that his first sentence was a mind-blowing eternity, given the previous speed of conversation...but then all was good. We talked for like an hour about his work (studying pilots' emotional states and the problems and tribulations of trying to collect real-world useful data when you can't manipulate variables except in simulators), the program, other programs, my application (strong!), and UO statistics (good enough, but not fantastic).
After meetings, i didn't really know what to do, so I went back to the lecture room, talked to Jamie (developmental prospective, from WashU) and Emily (neuro prospective, from Smith) about their thoughts. Emily likes UO more, but after living in Northampton for so long, she isn't sure that Eugene will be as tolerable as Berkeley, where she also got in. Jamie and her bf Fred (who was also accepted to UO, in social) seem to like it here. Then, Sara stopped by and convinced us to go walk around the campus a bit. We saw Hayward Field, which is a pretty cool track field, hung out, talked, etc. Then, I found my host again, and we walked around the rest of campus until the faculty potluck at 7 PM. Campus is pretty, buildings are new. Their UC isn't like CMU's; it's a STUDENT center. They've got student offices, craft centers, etc. Pretty cool. Walked around more. One thing is for sure: Oregon is GREEN. Grass is everywhere, and unlike at CMU, it is *alive.* Yeah, for real. Anyway. Then, around 7, we went to Don Tucker's house (he's a cog/neuro guy) for a potluck catered by faculty. Lots of local beer and wine...the food was generally tasty; looks like faculty can cook.
Faculty brought their family; lots of kids between 2 and 4 in the department, it seems. Everyone talked friendly-like, as if this was a solid group of people who get along well and are friendly. Students and faculty get along, faculty make casual conversation across departments. Don Tucker's house was INSANE. He just built it, up on a mountain outside of Eugene. Fantastic view, ski-lodge-like decor. Easily held the 50 or so people there. Spent a lot of time talking to Kerry (developmental person, now working at NIH/NIMH), Casey (my host), Chris (who had gotten his luggage back), and assorted other people, including the job talk guy (who was VERY into UO, spent time at UMass, Amherst, and set the Greenfield Triathalon record in 1997. Small world...), Sara, Bertram, random other grad students and prospective grad students. Things calmed down around 10:30 or so, and me, Kerry, Chris, and Casey, as well as two other grads named Kieth and Vivian, went to some OTHER grads' party. It was a Saturday Night Live themed party, and everyone was dressed up as their favorite character.
THIS, I might note, did the BEST job of convincing me that UO is a solidly viable place to spend my next 4-5 years...the grad students are friendly, and get along. There were undergrads at the party (...wow. I mean, the one dressed up in the Spartan cheerleader outfit...like, damn. She was hot, and could dance, and did. Half in-character, too...), and it was cool. Had a few more beers, got tired. Halfway through the party, Kieth and Vivian (who I didn't know were "together") informed Chris (Kieth is his host) that they were going to "go home and start a party of their own." Chris was highly surprised and amused. We hung out at that party some more, and gave Kerry and Chris a ride home around 12:30 or so. Veronica (a clinical student who seems to know how to have a good time) took Trafton (another prospective in cog/neuro) to a THIRD party...but I did'nt go bceause I was tired and my host wasn't really into the idea. Which was OK. I slept until 8, got up, showered. Hit a Starbucks with Casey on the way to campus, when I got into the car with Holly (social prof) and Trafton (cog/neuro prospective) and caravaned with Jess (social prospective from Wake Forest), Jess' mom, and Susan (cog/neuro student also from Davidson, who just missed Chris' departure). Susan seemed pretty cool. Friendly, laid-back. The third person (besides me and Kerry) to have remarked on how nice Oregon smells...
We go from coastal site to coastal site, checking out the absolutely gorgeous scenery. This is about an hour from campus. At the first site, I walk around the rocks, get nailed by a wave, and soak my shoes through with Oregon Pacific seawater. I am now chilly. We go to a couple more places, see some sea lions, and get lunch in a place called "Crab and Chowder" in Yachats, OR. The crab chowder is fantastic, and I have more local beer. After this, more sightseeing of natural beauty. We drive back to Eugene so Trafton can catch his flight, and I plan to hook up with Susan and Casey to sample Eugene's indian food supply, but Susan ends up going out with potential people from her department, since she totally missed the first day when the rest of us got oriented because she was visiting UCLA or some other school. Casey and I get indian food. It's not Sree's, but it is tasty, though it's the creamy style instead of the vegan style. Whatever...gotta remember to email Sree and get him to teach me how to make the stuff he makes before I leave...we'll see how that works...the plan at this point was to hook up with Susan and Jess and Chuck (a 4th-year social grad) to get some beers in the evening, but Jess ends up feeling bad after dining with her mom, Susan gets tired, and Chuck has work to do. Me and Casey end up watching a movie at a friend of Casey's house. He has a wife and two kids, and lives in some of the nice campus housing that's for grad students with families. We see the Academy Awards there (Note: being in pacific time means you can see the awards and STILL go out that night!), then get some more beers (6-packs for around $7) and watch a movie called A Chef in Love, which is a French/Georgian film about a chef in love during the time that the Red Army took over Georgia. Casey's friend, a Ukranian, makes interesting commentary on how Georgia, the poorest country in Europe, has people who just hang around drinking and eating kabobs all day. Sounds like fun...whatever. After the movie, we go back to Casey's house, fall asleep.
Wake up at 8, Monday morning, hit the Starbucks again (it's on the way to everything from Casey's house), and then the airport. My plane is delayed into San Francisco, which means I'll miss my flight to Pittsburgh. Shit. OK...when's the next one? It's a red-eye. Shit. So, I fly to Portland on a turboprop. OK, Portland to Chicago to Pittsburgh. Home at 11 PM, instead of 9. I can handle that. Flight to Chicgao is delayed for like an hour. I'll miss my flight to Pittsburgh. Shit. Maybe I can catch a later one...
...or maybe not. I don't know, because it's 7:37 PM, Central time, and I'm in the air between Portland and Chicago, on my laptop, bored. I'll go back to doing statistics for my MS thesis back at CMU--login variance looks promising--and post this to livejournal when I get more internet access. With luck, I'll avoid a $40 taxi fare.
Now, still waiting on Harvard and UChicago...but they'll have to make a good case to do better than UO. Four years' stipend covered, pretty free range to teach what I want. Ability to work with some of the best faculty in my area, and a completely open department. Friendly people, beautiful countryside...though Eugene isn't a big city, and there's not a lot of nightlife...but the students there seem to do pretty OK anyway, and none seem to regret their choice...and nobody seems to transfer away...they really do make a good case.
Epilogue: 3/5 planes today were egregiously late, 1 was of "undeterlmined status." The 30 minute turboprop, however, was ON TIME. I'm GOING TO BED now, 2 AM, Pittsburgh.
*: That's what my prom date said.