Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Why?
Whenever I tell people I want to go to
“
“Yeah…”
“Well how close is it to
“Uh…it shares a border.”
::visibly taken aback:: “I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Michael.”
I think this incredulity is rooted in some misconceptions about
Turkey
Aside from geopolitics,
In modern times,
It’s been a stable, secular democracy for years, which is particularly interesting given its demographics and region. It’s a nation on the cusp of Weberesque modernity due to its history of pluralism and the tons of money it’s dumped into education in recent decades. Given all this, my interest in technological developments and a society’s interaction with technology (the ISF degree), and its future potential,
Anti-Americanism down, Anti-Jihadism up in Muslim countries
Ankara
As I said below, Bilkent is in
Wikipedia has a good entry about Ankara.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Cool stuff about Turkey OR Why I'm not so crazy
Bilkent University in pictures (looks an awful lot like a cross between Cal and UCLA)
The Economist writes about Bilkent
There's a five star hotel on compus
Saturday, July 23, 2005
What would Brian Boitano do?
It turns out that when you spend your time studying abstract political theory and researching society’s interaction with technology, you don’t really develop skills that make other people money.
“Sorry, your experience is not to the level we require for this position.”
“But I can tell you the difference in Millsian and de Tocquevillian democracy!”
::Blank stare:: “Do you know the filing requirements for our circuit?”
::Blank stare:: “uh…go bears?”
Fine. I speak Turkish with all the fluency of Peggy Hill. I’ll do graduate school in Turkey.
Ankara, Turkey to be exact. Bilkent University in Ankara to be anal.
GRE: check
Personal statement: check
Application: check
Two pictures: check (not sure why they need those, I was tempted to photoshop them a bit, then realized I don’t have Photoshop)
Envelope: check
Signed, sealed and, in 4-7 days, delivered. To Turkey, their postal system has to take it from there.
Classes start on September 12th, it takes two weeks to get an expedited passport, and at least two weeks to get a student visa, which requires a passport first. I’ll assume two weeks is enough time for the Turkish government. Student loans take I have no idea how long, but can’t be more than two weeks. BTW, the Department of Education won’t loan me any money because its Turkey. And we wonder why our intel sucks over there.
By my calculations, if they let me know I’m accepted by the first week in August I can pull off everything I need to make it in time.
The admissions staff is on vacation until August 15th. Whatever.