Lexington At The Helm

Now, my ruthless insistence on anonymity is well known in the blogger community. It's a key to my self-chosen mission of telling it like it is at Yale. And when I say "well known in the blogger community" I mean, of course, that should a reader stumble by mistake upon one of these posts, she might say to herself, or perhaps to a close friend, you know, someone she confides in from time to time, "That Lexington! What a ruthless insistence on anonymity."

Nonetheless, here's a biographical scrap: I'm a senior staffer at a national non-profit group. And I mention this not because it's interesting, but to set the stage for offering (scant) justification for my absence over the last week: we were conducting our first-ever audit. All week, there was Lexington tirelessly at the helm, answering the auditor's endless questions, scrambling to provide randomly chosen invoices and grant contracts, having long discussions about internal financial controls. All in all, pretty interesting in a dry sort of way. But grueling.

On top of that, having been broken up with B for several months now and ready at last to move on, I went out on Friday night with somebody new. And the date ended up lasting until 10 AM on Sunday morning. Just over 36 hours. Not much else to say about that here, except that it was fantastic from start to finish and I don't recall the existence of this humble blog even entering my mind.

Nonetheless, let's catch up on all things Yale:

1) The summer prep materials, new because they support the new curriculum, are available. Two cases studies, both published by HBS, ground us in accounting and quantitative analysis. I'll be working hard on those this month.

2) Northstar sent the documents accompanying my Stafford loans. I haven't signed the promissary note yet (I did, however, sign a promiscous note; see above. A joke! I'm exceedingly cautious in that arena). But for the first time I had the pleasure of perusing a section titled, "Current Title IV Indebtedness." When the PLUS comes through and shows up on that box, I'm really going to love this section. Also, Northstar warns in big black letters, "This is a loan that must be repaid." Wait, what's this now?

3) Housing is set, roommates are fantastic, price is right, place is huge. I found it through the Yale message boards and pursued no other arrangement. Which is crazy, given that thousands of students in New Haven are/were looking for a place to live (someday soon I'll summarize other strategies I developed vis a vis Yale that I wouldn't recommend, as well as those I would). But it worked out.

4) I cleared Kroll's background check. Kroll is the firm charged by Yale with verifying applicants' backgrounds to "protect the integrity of the Yale degree." Kroll says very little about its methods; I'm sure it would just make the job harder.

When I was applying to Yale, I never thought that much about actually attending. I knew I wanted to go, of course, but the road to get there is so long and narrow and full of twists and turns and steep climbs, that I was consumed by it. Getting in, of course, which is its own marathon. But then borrowing the money. Finding a place to live. Moving. Getting prepared. It's easy to lose sight of the final destination, but soon there will be nothing to worry with except actually going to school. I expect I'll wake up one day during orientation and think, "I'm actually doing this."