So, our trip to New Orleans last month inspired a series of things, the result of which will land me in Nashville in just a few short hours. I won’t bore you with the back story (which is probably not all that interesting, to be sure), but suffice it to say I am flying to Music City today to spend a day looking at Vanderbilt University as a potential new location for my doctoral studies. I made the decision to apply there only just a few short weeks ago, and since then have sent them a full dossier of my credentials, retaken the GRE (ugh), and enjoyed the fact that a good school seems to be trying to woo me with things like, well, a trip to Nashville to check them out.
My day tomorrow is chock full of meetings with some of their top-notch faculty, including two different political scientists whose books I own (Daniel asks, “Can you ask them to autograph the books, or is that weird?”) and a relatively young guy who (presumably) is their ‘methods guy.’ Given that I would be hard-pressed to move to a department that didn’t have some strong methodology faculty, I am going prepared with many questions I want to ask him about some of the methodological issues I’m having right now, and hope that he will/can be of help while giving me the Vandy sell. 🙂
I’m also looking at UNC-Chapel Hill. Many of you know that I have long been in love with the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, and that I seriously considered Duke as a possibility for undergraduate studies (and if I had gone to Duke, would have most likely been in this position — of applying to strong Ph.D. programs in political science — many, many years sooner). So, UNC is rather appealing. However, for many reasons (none having to do with the actual program at UNC, which is one of the nation’s best, in my opinion), it seems likely that Vanderbilt has the edge. Unless and until either offers me a place for next fall, though, the decision between them is somewhat moot, so I am tabling it for now.
Exciting stuff! (Scary, bizarre, unexpected, and whirl-wind-y, but exciting!)