Admissions Update:

Harvard: Yes
Penn: Yes
Toronto: Yes
Berkeley: No
UBC and MIT: Still Waiting

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I finally had some time to sit down and type a longer post after what has been a pretty crazy week.

When I started applying for master's programs, my professors advised my that I should shoot for the top tier, so basically I took the top ten schools for Planning in North America and, given my elementary French and Spanish, said "non, merci" to UQAM and "no, gracias" to UNAM and ITESM, and then dropped UCLA based our agreement that two years in LA just wasn't something we were ready to do now. Then I applied to the rest.

So about two weeks ago, one of my professors e-mailed me and a friend of mine who is also applying to schools this year to see if we had heard anything yet. Neither of us had. The professor also told us that he had heard that applications to planning school were way up this year. Unlike my friend, who had also applied to a couple of the better second tier schools, I hadn't done a back up at all, so I've kind of (ok, a little more then kind of) been freaking out the last couple weeks.

But anyway, long story short, I heard from Penn this week (two weeks before they are supposed to be sending out responses) and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I visited the department a few months ago and liked it. The studio space used to be Louis Kahn's studio, so it's got a lot of good energy. Of course I'm also still hopeful that I'll have some choices.

Beyond that, I've been working at finding an internship for the summer so I can quit my job a little sooner, and I've had a lot of good responses. The one I've been having the most back and forth with is an organization that does housing policy stuff in Washington (DC not State). There is also one I'd really like in San Francisco doing sidewalk design.

So yeah. Lot of stuff in the works. More later.

*** I heard from the School of Design at Harvard today. Got in there too. yeah!

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I got accepted to the School of Design at UPenn...



in Philadelphia...



the city of brotherly love...



...more later.

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WalkBoston Event

Thursday, March 6
4:00pm

Downtown Development Walk - WalkBoston Annual Meeting Walk
Meet: South Station Summer St. entrance under the eagle.

Walk to the Annual Meeting led by John Palmierei, new BRA Director and Kairos Shen, BRA Director of Planning. Learn how proposed projects will benefit and impact pedestrians and shape the downtown streetscape. Please RSVP to info@walkboston.org or 617-367-9255

5:30pm

WalkBoston Annual Meeting/Celebration
60 State Street, 26th floor, offices of WilmerHale

Eat-Drink-Schmooze with WalkBoston Golden Shoe Awards and Speaker Jon Orcutt, New York City DOT Senior Policy Advisor. Jon was recently named the recipient of the 2008 Civic Leadership in Transportation Award by the NYU Wagner Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management. During his long and impactful tenures at Transportation Alternatives and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Jon won many improvements for bicycling, walking, and transit, including the restoration of bike access to the Queensboro Bridge and fairer funding for bike and pedestrian safety. Last year he joined the NYC DOT's "dream team" with Bruce Schaller, Dani Simons and other stalwarts of livable streets.

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