Twas the week before Christmas…

I’ve officially signed on again with EPIK for one more year.  I finalized the paper work with immigration on Friday.  My masters application still isn’t finished, but I figure it’ll all be sent in some time early this coming week.   I’m still wrangling references.   I had a reference letter sent in from Canada but decided against using it.  I opened a copy of the letter to scan it.  I commonly do this sort of thing because when I apply for work over here I usually send along a resume, photo, scans of my transcripts, a scan of my degree, and a few references letters from old employers.   Sealed confidential references are something I don’t have experience with over here.  My sister has since informed me that when it comes to grad schools at least they want confidential references.

Anyways, because I opened the letter I got a chance to also read it.  Mostly good stuff, but there were a couple of remarks I thought weren’t really warranted.   I won’t go into details, but I will say that the comments were not accurate.   In all of my dealings with the prof I was never in any way impolite, improper,  or unprofessional.    I was actually upset enough that I posted a rebuttal for about a day on this blog.  I posted the remarks and refuted each of them.  I took it down after a day or so because I was asked to play nice by my family, especially in public forums  My sister also pointed out the confidentiality issue, so I was in the wrong to open the letter in the first place.   I’m still glad that I opened it.  Although I think I’d still get into the school with it, I prefer not to use it on matter of principle.  When I got my application materials, reference forms were provided by the school. They are to be filled out by the references and sent back to the university directly.   So I’ve had to ask my professional reference to re-write the letter. As for the academic reference, my CELTA course tutor said he’d be happy to write it for me which is a big relief.  The application will take two months and if everything works out I’ll be starting the program in April.