What a week.

Saturday: Got my wait-list letter and thought it was the end of the world.

Sunday: Still thought it was the end of the world.

Monday: Got in the car and drove for 5 hours. I pulled myself together for the admissions presentation, where I found out that not only is the wait-list brand new, but so is the November 30 application deadline. So new in fact, that there was no deadline when I applied at the beginning of December. By the time the 60 minute admissions presentation was over (too little, too late) I was certain that Erie was full and I would have to go to Niagara and not learn my major and end up on the street sleeping under a newspaper. Then a met with a wonderful admissions counselor who sat through my panicked schpeel, told me that they only wait-listed a few select students and that I should be flattered. Then she got me into the Erie campus (the Behrend College) in about 45 seconds. I smiled for the rest of the day. Oh, and this admissions counselor was married to the head of the Penn State Film Department. She said I would go places in life because I was flexible.

Tuesday: I met with a head student services of the Penn State Communications College. (This was set up less than 24 hours before by my life-saving admissions counselor.) To be a film major you have to send in a portfolio your sophomore year. That will not be fun. But we talked about how because of this portfolio, I would be sent to University Park a semester early. He set me up with a tour of the Communications facilities (incredible) and a meeting with an advisor at Erie for the next morning. I also got to the bookstore and got a T-shirt. Then we drove the four hours to the Erie campus, ordered a pizza, watched Star Wars and went to bed.

Wednesday (today): I got up ridiculously early and was on the Behrend campus at 9 am. I went into the admissions building, which is an old, cobblestone farmhouse. I met with an admissions counselor and talked about boring stuff; money, housing, APs, blah blah. I went on the tour. Behrend is beautiful. Most of the building are new, and the old historic ones are preserved really well. There's none of the 60's era cement block building thing going on. It's all woodsy, and they have a hill that the students have sledding and bonfire parties on. Then I met with the head of the student services of Communications at Behrend. Apparently it's a really big deal that I got wait-listed, and on top of that chose another campus to start out in. She said that my APs might count for a whole semester, which means only one year at Erie and three at University Park.

It was an insane three days. I picked Behrend before I even looked at it. I went to Behrend and loved it. I'm going to University Park sooner than I thought. (Behrend even costs less!) The craziest thing was the people I met with. It's a university of 80,000 students total, and I don't even go there yet, and they were amazing. Setting up meetings in 24-hours notice, sending out an application in 3 seconds. I would call someone and start out "Hi, I'm Rachel Reeves," all ready to introduce myself and they're like "Oh Rachel! I just talked to Jamey about you! We have a 10:00 tomorrow, right?" Jamey as in a head of the student serices communications department of the entire Penn Sate. As in I walked out of his office three hours ago. This is the most massive school in the country, and you know my name? It was just insane.

I can't believe it all worked out so perfectly. I can't believe I love it this much. I think I'm going to be happy.