Limbo

You know how when you ask somebody if they'd like to hear the good news, or the bad news first, and they nearly always say 'bad news'?

It's like an inbuilt defence mechanism (not necessarily the Freudian type); by hearing something positive we may become overexcited and therefore more vulnerable to whatever 'bad' news is coming next. If we hear something unhappy first, well at least we haven't got our hopes up too much, and it may contrast so greatly with the previous nugget of information it seems even better than it really is. (After I wrote this I felt a little twinge of guilt; maybe my interest in Medicine is a real Freudian defence mechanism and I'd much rather be a psychologist. At least then I can electrocute people for 'science'...)

So today is the 31st March; tomorrow nearly every Medical place in the UK will be dished out. I say nearly because Bristol have opted for an 'extended interview window'; mind you, even that ends on April 15thish. And I still haven't heard anything from them...

The email they sent earlier in the month explained how they're basically a little bit behind and need some more time. Fair enough. Then listed the interview dates. Excellent, feeling a little hopeful. And said they'd be in touch soon. Fabulous.

Honestly, I thought that no admissions tutor would be mean enough to send applicants a list of interview dates without offering them one; but apparently not. On The Student Room's Bristol thread applicants are still reporting receiving rejections pre-interview.

Well, I don't want to speculate too much on what this means for me: no prizes for guessing my desired outcome. I was talking about it to mother last night, and came up with a bizarre analogy (which anyone who watched this week's Bang Goes The Theory will understand). Essentially it involves hanging upside down above a pool of water, with all your trust in factors outside of your control, waiting to fall in whist hoping to be the last person still clinging on.