News at 11

So. This month marks a huge change in my life. I am moving to New York City and beginning graduate work at the City University of New York's new Graduate School of Journalism. When I began the tedious grad-school application process, I knew that I would apply to NYU and Columbia. I didn't intend on applying anywhere else, but then I read a New York Times article about this new journalism school that had just opened that was a part of CUNY, and it sounded terrific, so I decided to apply there as well.

After the essays, tests, interviews, etc., I got accepted at both NYU and CUNY and waitlisted at Columbia. The reason I chose CUNY--for anyone who's wondering, as I have had a lot of people express their surprise at my selection of CUNY over NYU--is because after I spent a lot of time researching all three programs, I came to the conclusion that the CUNY program is the most progressive, interactive, and attractive of the three. The (completely Mac-based) facility is amazing--it's housed in two stories of the old Herald Tribune building in Times Square, and the new New York Times headquarters are being built directly next door. I fell head over heels for the program, and I love that it's public education, and it has a terrific faculty--professors who have worked (and in a lot of cases, like most adjunct profs, still do work) at CNN, Rolling Stone, Newsday, the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Forbes, etc. These people have won Emmys, Pulitzers and the like, and I'm so excited to start learning from them.

Nate (one of my very best friends who's moving with me to NYC) and I got an awesome 4-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn and we are moving in on 8/30. I am already in the city because my orientation starts tomorrow. Today I was at the school to let the techies there install all this awesome new software on my computer. (Seriously, we got hooked up.)

I was very sad to leave Metroland, but the time had come. I was feeling a bit burnt out, and I was dealing with some difficult circumstances. But I love the paper and hope that they get a new website going and make the changes they have talked about recently.

That is the update for now. Plenty more to come. Wish me luck!