Pointless worrying

So, I can't seem to stop wondering about grad school.

On the one hand, and what I say to anyone who asks, is that I'd be perfectly happy to go to any of the 8 schools I applied to, and that I really just hope I get in somewhere. This is basically true, although there's no question that I do have preferences within my 'I'd be happy...' range.

Geography is a pretty big thing to me. I didn't apply to any schools in the Southeast or the Midwest, because I don't think I'd want to live in either area, and only applied to 2 in New England...the rest are all out West. I applied to 1 school in San Diego, 1 in Santa Barbara (near LA), 2 in the Bay Area, 1 in Phoenix, and 1 in Seattle. Of these places, I think I'd like San Francisco or Santa Barbara the best. 60-70 degrees all the time sounds just about perfect for me...

However, there's also the fact that the best schools I applied to are (roughly in order of preference) Stanford, Harvard, and MIT. Unquestionably, if I get into Stanford, that's going to be my pick. (Unless something seriously unexpected surfaces in the interview process, natch.) Harvard and MIT, though, are both in Massachusetts...and while they are both wonderful schools, do I really want to live in New England? It's frickin cold up there!

UCSF and U Washington are probably next down the list in terms of the education, with UCSD, UCSB, and finally ASU bringing up the rear. The real question, I guess, is what I'd do if I got rejected from Stanford, but accepted into either Harvard or MIT and also, say, UCSF. That would be a pretty distressing choice... I guess I'd have to base my decision on the interview process.

Honestly, though, like I said before...just so long as I get in somewhere. I really don't know what I'd do if I didn't get in somewhere for next year. I guess I'd either have to do a master's degree here at UGA (not sure whether I'd do physics or genetics, though), which would be okay, although I really don't want to spend more time in Athens, or, alternately, I could just go to San Francisco or San Diego and try to attach myself to the school in some way. Maybe I could get a job as a lab technician or something, or just volunteer in someone's lab, while working full-time elsewhere, and hope they accept me for the following year. Hopefully it will not come to that!

On an unrelated note, I feel pretty shitty today. Just a head cold, I guess, but it's still pretty unpleasant. At least work is predictably stress-free this week. I think spending time at my parents freezing house tends to batter my immune system pretty hard. I wish they'd see the value of heating! (I mean, sure, it costs money...but being cold all the time messes with your health.)

I need to get cracking on my research project. I told Jake I'd have it done by the end of the break, and the break isn't all that long. I managed to leave my notes from our last meeting at home today, though, and I'm not really able to do much here without those, so I guess I'll really wade into it tomorrow. I'm not working tomorrow...I'm not really doing anything tomorrow, come to think of it, so I suppose it would be a good opportunity for me to settle down at Jittery Joes with my laptop and try to crank through this stuff.