A More-Recent Christmas Surprise

The following is a true story.

Date: December 21, 2006
Time: Approximately 8:30am
Place: My Office, Glendora, CA

I raise an eyebrow in surprise as I glance through my email inbox. "An email from Biola? Wonder what that's about..." I open the email and begin to read:

Dear incoming Talbot student,

"'Incoming Talbot student'? That can't be right; they won't make acceptance decisions until next April." I read on: The email notifies the recipients that the Biola admissions office will be closing for Christmas, etc, etc. Then my eyes widen again:

Your status is currently Accepted, although we have not yet received your $50 enrollment deposit to secure your place with the registrar. We will need this before you can register online starting January 9th.

This does nothing to ease my confusion. Nor does the rest of the email, which is typical info-for-the-incoming-student material. Thoroughly confused by now, I reply to the email, asking for an explanation. It's not long before I have a reply:

Well, it looks like this might be good news for you. The department decided to accept a few applicants for the spring, as they had a few extra seats available. Somehow your application was reviewed early, thinking that it was for spring, not fall. So the good news is that you are accepted for the spring, if you are interested in attending early.

I understand that this may not be convenient at this short notice, however. The better news is that if you decide not to attend this spring, your acceptance would still be good for the fall, since you had already received an offer of acceptance. So you are officially accepted, before the April 15th deadline.

Just let me know what semester you are interested in attending, and we'll mark it accordingly.

I am stunned. For at least a minute, I just sit there, rereading the email and waiting for it to sink in. Then, with a sudden surge of adrenaline, I fire off another email, expressing my delight and asking that my enrollment be deferred until Fall 2007. The admissions counselor assures me that this will be no problem. And with that, my day is officially made.
***
Yes, dear reader, it is true: I have been accepted to Biola University's Talbot School of Theology to pursue a Master of Arts in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics (*waits for Capitalization Shock to wear off*). As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm somewhat pleased. And as you no doubt realize, the previous sentence was somewhat of an understatement. *happy dance*

The acceptance by itself is great, but the fact that I've found out about it four months early means that I have plenty of time to prepare: making housing arrangements, finding financial aid, working out job details, etc. In the meantime, I'll be taking the GRE this Saturday, so I'll spend the better portion of this week's free time cramming a bit.

Happy New Year!