Many thanks to everyone for all the emails and comments and phone calls - its awesome to be able to share my excitement with so many people! :) Its finally beginning to feel real for me, even though I haven't received my "official" letter from the admissions office yet. I've told everyone at the office, and this weekend I started a massive financial projection spreadsheet that would make my Dad proud. I don't know if it rivals the infamous Apartment Matrix, but I have three years to perfect it.

Since I really haven't written much about it (jinxes, you know), this all started back in November, when I flew up to RISD for an info session and made the decision that this would be the year I applied. From that point until the end of January, my only goal in life was to prepare my portfolio. The portfolio is both the best and worst part of applying for a design program: on the one hand, there is no studying, no prep courses, and no test to take; on the other hand, you have absolutely no frame of reference for how you stack up against your peers. Its completely subjective, and working for months and months towards a nebulous goal without any boundary or reference point completely wears you down, physically and creatively.

But ultimately I finished, and raced it off to the post office at the absolute last minute (typical Katy style). Fast forward to two weeks ago, when I got an email from the department head. RISD narrows the initial applicant field down to a smaller group (30 if I remember correctly from the info session) and then asks them all to come up for an interview on campus. So Adam and I hopped on a flight up to Providence!

There were some stressful moments - losing my luggage and racing frantically to purchase new clothes, practicing tough interview questions with Adam, last-minute internet research in the hotel Starbucks - but ultimately I had a great interview and left feeling more confident that it was a place I could thrive in. I've never to date had a leisurely, planned-in-advance trip to Providence, but I do hope I'll get one eventually!

Last week I got another email, with the excellent news that I was accepted into the program - a three-year MFA program in Graphic Design. I'll spend my first year taking core design classes like typography and color theory, and then spend two years in graduate studios working towards a thesis.

So if you've ever wanted to travel to New England, now's your chance - I hope to have lots of visitors. :)