Comments on: Wednesday September 21, 2005

By: WatkinsTalkins

WatkinsTalkins — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 23:28:00 +0000

Yeah!

By: bethanyhartman

bethanyhartman — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:53:00 +0000

What a GREAT story! He is a lucky guy (I told him that). I can’t believe you didn’t share ANY of this before now!!

By: SuedeKnight

SuedeKnight — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 21:00:00 +0000

In the words of Stella "yaaaaaaaaay!"

And in case anyone reading this hasn't done so yet, check out my site for the real scoop on this story! :)

I should go into advertising.

By: Carolyn1106

Carolyn1106 — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 16:18:00 +0000

Mabrouk, ya Esteer!!!

By: kathrynxa

kathrynxa — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 06:56:00 +0000

Ester…good job.

By: lew829

lew829 — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 06:20:00 +0000

I left this comment on Nick's site and then realized midway through that I should be leaving it on your site ... so I'll copy it here. I was commenting on grad school at the UofC. Univ. of chicago is notoriously hellish (and in my mind unethical) with regard to funding in classics and ancient near eastern studies. If I recall correctly, their NE department crams ancient with modern and medieval into the same department. At least regarding ancient near eastern whatnot, they notoriously do not fund their students and consequently have a high attrition rate in Hebrew Bible. I am unsure if they fund their more modern near eastern students. In Ancient whatnot last year, the fourth person on their admissions list (who came into Hopkins with me this year) got an 12 grand which was amazing for Uof C but still less than every other program to which he was admitted. When I was admitted to UCLA and visited, I also spoke with an Egyptology student who only got 3 grand from UofC in stipend and when she visited them on their student days the other students told her she should be thrilled with three grand. My undergrad mentor graduated from U. of Chicago in classics and she said that near eastern students entered the labyrinth of the program and the minotaur captured them never to relinquish them from projects like the Hittite dictionary.

I only learned to ask these hard hitting questions of grad schools toward the end of the process. It is better to ask early blunt questions like rates of attrition, funding, and ability to get a job upon completion of the program. Fortunately I had professors who alerted me to such issues. But I should probably end this diatribe with a disclaimer. I am only familiar with ancient near eastern whatnot and, even more specifically, Hebrew Bible. But it can't hurt to ask the questions in September as you decide to which programs you will apply.

BTW, what do you want to do with your degree? Are you going for a masters or a combined Ma/Ph.D.?

By: sherylshearer

sherylshearer — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 04:45:00 +0000

how sweet. what a story that you met through xanga. you two look cute together.

By: bullmeister

bullmeister — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 02:08:00 +0000

Hey wanna share some more of the pictures? I thought I was gonna get a CD of this goodness. :-P

Oh and what a lucky guy!

By: presvlisa

presvlisa — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:11:00 +0000

Lovely!! You make an adorable couple! How exciting!!

By: tree25

tree25 — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 23:40:00 +0000

You make a lovely couple :-) Now, to go start my “We Love Nick and Esther Together” facebook group…..;-)

And we gotta talk one of these days. Maybe someday we’ll actually be online at the same time…