Everything falls apart?

On Friday I got an email. I was rejected from the masters in electrical engineering program at Long Beach.

I had not applied to any other schools because I thought I had the best chance of getting into Long Beach. I also had a ridiculously busy April. I have taken 7 classes at Long Beach in the last 2 years with a 3.4 GPA. I figured, if they do not want me what other school would. Immediately I looked online and called another school to confirm they are still accepting applications for their electrical engineering program. I then ordered all of my transcripts to be sent there. I started working on the application. Since it is a Cal State, the application is the same. The only change I need to make is removing the Long Beach specific references from my personal statement.

I am still shocked by their decision. I could site a half dozen reasons why they are wrong. They include the classes I got better grades in than students that were admitted to the program, my undergraduate school being a lot better than anyone else's (Berkeley > USC or any Cal State), my volunteer work experience (anyone else a lead test engineer?), my GRE scores (790 in math anyone?), the recommendations of the Long Beach professors I listed they probably did not talk to (one of the best students in class), my dedication to Long Beach (taking classes there for two years), or my friend who is in the program saying "I am 100% sure you are going to get in, you are better than me."

My biggest disappointment about not getting in is the friends I have made at Long Beach. I met a lot of great people at the Catholic Newman group and was looking forward to doing stuff with them this year.

I emailed my professor earlier today. He said he is trying to get my application reconsidered and get me admitted.

Now for something happier. Yesterday my neighbor told me I should apply to an internship at her company. She said they interviewed a lot of people, but none of them were qualified. I sent her my resume yesterday and today someone from their HR department called me to set up an interview tomorrow. I do not know too much about the internship, just that it is in Irvine and the company does a lot of optics related stuff. I will avoid telling them my worst and most despised area in physics was optics. A big reason I did not like optics was because I was bad at it. I have kept all of my physics textbooks (including a class I dropped after two weeks) except for my optics book. However, my experience with a CO2 laser is pretty good stuff for the opportunity.