The Art of Controlled Falls
"Fall scenery color. The canvas that is the College changes quickly in the fall. Each new morning boasts a fresh hue to embolden kaleidoscopic vistas. Each stint of rain reshapes the trees. Each breath of wind carves a new horizon. At William and Mary, the leaves fall amidst the traditions, reminding that each season can be a time of planting, harvest and change." Photo by Stephen Salpukas.
Well folks, Fall is officially here. Even though the leaves of green around Williamsburg have not yet been replaced by leaves of crimson and gold, I certainly feel as if there are a number of other ways in which I’m falling as the days grow cooler and shorter.
Specifically, I’m talking about the complete trust fall that constitutes applying to graduate school. I’m in the process of beginning applications for 20+ programs across 16 different schools (I know, I know), all of which are located overseas. That’s right – not a single one in the United States. And we’re talking everywhere from Edinburgh to Hong Kong.
Graduate school applications are a trust fall namely because you have to trust in your faculty mentors and advisers, and in administrators, to do everything in their power to help you get into that program of study of your dreams. At William and Mary, we’re lucky enough to have some of the best (and most well connected) faculty in the nation and world, and the process of looking at graduate programs (even halfway across the world) has re-impressed on me the notion that our faculty really are world-renowned scholars. One of the linguistics faculty members who I’m doing an independent study under this semester, for example, is personal friends with almost all of the graduate linguistics faculty I would want to study under abroad. Emailing these faculty as an anxiety-ridden undergraduate and asking about their program, I’ve been heartened to receive emails that have said things (verbatim) like:
“Of course I’d love to discuss this program with you! Did my old friend Professor Taylor recommend you to me?”
“I am very familiar with William and Mary and the caliber of its students – some years ago I was studying in Germany with some William and Mary faculty and students and was continuously impressed with their agency in research and their general intellectual curiosity.”
Faculty and administrators are more than happy to put together glowing letters of recommendation for you if you’ve proven yourself to be a good contributor to their classes, research, activities, and pursuits. Wherever I’ve asked, I’ve found tremendous support and interest in my future from my professors here – professors that are willing to stick their neck out on the line in order to help you pursue that program you’ve been fantasizing about.
So as I move into full gear with applying to graduate programs, I definitely haven’t been more nervous or excited since I applied to William and Mary a full four years ago. There’s nothing like applying to schools after William and Mary to put the fact that I’m now a senior in sharp relief. Despite my nervousness and stress regarding applications, however, I cannot imagine how I would ever make it through a process like this at a school where faculty were any less intimately invested in the futures and lives of their students.
William and Mary has a structure of support that is unprecedented, and I feel as if all of my interactions, both great and small, with faculty leading up to this point have prepared me as best as I could possibly be for this moment. I find it heartening that even as I shift my gaze slightly to look beyond William and Mary towards graduate school, that this ancient College will still be the vehicle that not only gets me accepted, but also the place that equipped me to interact personally with faculty advisers, undertake robust and novel research agendas, appreciate and bask in diversity, and savor intellectual curiosity and pursuit for knowledge’s sake.
Few things are certain in this world (especially admission into schools), but what is certain is that as a senior I find myself appreciating William and Mary more than I ever have before, for reasons that I never could have anticipated before this point. And come what may, and no matter how far I stray, I will always love this College. As it’s historic hymn reminds:
Our hearts are with thee, dear William & Mary
However far we stray…
O thou our guardian and our guide
Renew our courage ev’ry hour
And keep thy spirit by our side
To aid us in its watchful power
Throughout all our lives, dear William & Mary
We pledge our loyalty
Dear College now and ever-more
Thy children cry “All Hail to Thee!”
BF
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“Few things are certain in this world, but what is certain is that I find myself appreciating, more than I ever have before, for reasons that I never could have anticipated before this point. And come what may, and no matter how far I stray, I will always love”…(Brian Joseph Focarino)