Stanford is going well

Inteviews are pretty much as I expected, though one guy cancelled on me.  Ehhh ... no problem, I'm here to land the Big Fish Anyways (who is tommorow).  So many of the applicants here are so young, still in college.  They're taking the "I don't want to find a job, so I'll go to grad school" approach, rather than the "spend 2 years out of school, then get straight down to business" approach.  It's fine though, I've hit it off more with the experienced people anyways.

One thing I have to say for Stanford though:  It's campus is a frighteningly good recruiting tool.  I recently complained that everything at Stanford is so perfect and polished that it'll make you lose your drive to help others because your own world is perfect.  But, when you're immersed in that world in perfect 70 degree weather with the birds chirping, and free admission to an absolutely empty and wonderful art museum - it's hard to resist.  As well, I've yet to see a piece of broken or less than top-grade piece of lab/field equipment here.  Having less than top of the line equipment is definitely survivable, but having the good stuff makes your life alot easier ...

That having been said, the Stanford likelihood index has budged up an additional 1% to a 6% chance I'll be at Stanford in the Fall.  There's just something about readily available clean bathrooms without graffiti - it's like a planned community turned into a college - where everything is planned and optimized for use - having that much money and endowments will do that for you. Still, the comparatively grim and gritty world of Seattle is appealing in its own way - yadda yadda yadda.