There we have it! The official snail mail acceptance letter!This means I'll no longer feel compelled to continue checking the blackboard site for UNH to see if my "status" had magically changed. I'll no longer fear an apologetic email from the campus tech department saying there was a glitch in their database that caused all applicants to appear as "admitted." Nope. It's on paper now; that means it's official, baby!
But now that it's here in my hot little hands, I am on a mission to decipher its secrets. I know it's just a letter and not some Da Vinci Code artifact, but there's a telling silence in this four paragraph letter:
There's not one word about money.
Nowhere does it say there's a grant, scholarship or TA position with my name on it. Nor does it inform me that TA decisions have already been made and I can apply for one next year should I choose to attend UNH. Word on the MFAblog was that the office decided they would not send out letters until they had made TA decisions. If so, this is bad news. However, hope hinges on the fact that this letter comes from the Dean of the Graduate School, and was cc-ed to the English Department. The Graduate School doesn't make TA decisions, the individual departments do.
I'd love to hang my hat on the later speculation, but it turns out I have no hat.
The fact and fiction of the letter.
Yes, it reaffirms the existence of an acceptance --
but what mysteries does it hold beneath its introductory platitudes?
The best I can hope if there's no money involved is further debt for one year of out of state tuition (glug). Then a Starbucks (or equivalent) job to establish residency in the great state of New Hampshire so that the remaining 2-4 semesters will be more resonably priced.
Up Next: Notes on Craft and "Seasonal" Photography
