(no subject)

[exsequar]

Okay, it's time for a cheerful and optimistic post about my future prospects!

Get this: I might get my Ph.D. at Trinity College Dublin.

....

I mean, EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Okay, it all started when I emailed one of my favorite profs from Ireland asking her if she knew about any job opportunities in Dublin for a person with a BA in Chemistry. She replied with this:

"Have you consider doing postgraduate studies here in Dublin?? I remember you were a brilliant student and I am certain that you could find funding here. I do not have a grant available just now but if you would like to work with me I could try to get some money here and there and we could prepare some proposal for you to apply here."

(Some of the odd grammar is because she's from Spain. She's such a lovely woman!) So basically she's saying, I would love you to work for me and I will MAKE IT HAPPEN. That email quite literally blew my mind. I hadn't let myself consider the possibility of going back to Dublin for a Ph.D., considering it prohibitive in a financial sense, but the more research I do into the matter, the more convinced I am that I could do it! For one thing, they ALSO pay their chemistry PhD students a stipend and waive the fees, just like here in America. (I didn't know that!) For another, the application process is so much simpler - no GRE, no personal statement. I just work with a professor at Trinity to develop a proposal along the lines of their current research, send in my CV and a couple recommendations, and bam. It happens. (I'm pretty damn sure I'd get in too. A BA in chemistry from a prestigious American school, very high grades here, and VERY high grades in the year I SPENT at Trinity. Plus this personal support, which I'm confident would be backed up by other members of the Chemistry department.)

My mind is blown.

And it's not like I'd be SETTLING for anything. Trinity is a damn fine school - ranked 53rd in the WORLD, and frequently mentioned in the same breath as Oxford and Cambridge. I'd be back in DUBLIN, the home of my heart. When I told Louise I was considering it, she was like YOU MUST DO THIS. I would be back with Louise and Niall and Paddy and Dara and Barry and Conor and Paul and Ronan and Niall C and EVERYONE and the thought just makes me want to explode for joy.

Another great thing is that I think I could really love working for this woman. Her name is Isabel Rozas and she's a medicinal chemist working on drug design. I absolutely loved the three classes I took with her, and I'm quite fascinated by the details of drug design. How cool would that be??? It combines organic chemistry and biochemistry in such a brilliant way. I don't think I'd want to do it for my life, since pharmaceuticals scare me, but as a Ph.D. project? Hells yes!

I think... I think this might actually happen! I have a meeting with the international studies dean here at my college tomorrow. I'm trying not to get my heart too set on this (I haven't even spoken to my parents, and this essentially amounts to MOVING OUT OF THE COUNTRY for four years) but oh. Oh I want to go.

&DUBLIN;

Comments

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

Really? Yay!! I keep waiting for someone who knows better to be like "No. No you're not allowed to be stupendously happy. Stop trying!" But instead everyone's like DO IT! This is giving me great joy. Thanks for the support! And yes, my family's in quite good health. I would prefer not to be so far from my dad, but everything else kind of outweighs that.

[jebbypal]

Yes, but your dad will understand. It's so much better to do this sort of thing now. Someone once told me, "In your 20s you talk about your gf/bf and education/starting job, and travels. Your 30s, you talk about your job and your kids. Your 40s, you talk about your kids and your parents. If that pattern gets messed up, you've done something wrong or had something catastrophic happen." All in all, it's pretty true.

The things that I can say to look into and make sure you understand are to know what your tax situation is etc -- most likely (based on foreign students I know here in the us), you'll be paying US taxes quarterly, but probably not be liable for european income taxes, but I'm not sure.