on to be a boilermaker

Hi all, apologies for the long absence.

So Caleb applied to grad schools a few months ago. (This is my super smart husband that we're talking about.) He got accepted to Purdue University in Indiana, and MIT in Boston. (Don't feel bad if you don't know what MIT is.) For some reason a lot of people haven't heard of it, even though it's one of the best universities in the WORLD. (Mind you, Caleb had to score a PERFECT score on his GRE math test, and a near perfect score on the verbal portion. I'm so proud. :)

We thought for sure we would go to MIT, simply because of the prestige, and the fact that there is no better place to get a chemical engineering PhD. But after vising both schools, the decision got a little harder. He didn't really fit in with the MIT students/staff. Apparently it's such a good school because the people sacrifice everything else in their lives for the sake of academia. He wasn't sure he was willing to give up so many things just to have an illustrious school on his resume.

The Purdue trip went really well. Caleb met some great professors, and he got to spend time with his grandparents, who live 15 minutes away. We were also swayed toward Indiana because of financial reasons. Both schools give Caleb almost the same amount of money every year, but it goes A LOT further at Purdue. We would probably be able to buy a house there, while in Boston we would pay $1700/month for a dumpy one-bedroom apartment. Add on another $275 just to park your car there. I don't want to live like that for the next six years. Neither did Caleb. So after much prayer and deliberation, we decided on Purdue. It was a hard decision, especially because my good friend Heidi and her husband are moving to Boston in the fall. I'm also really liking my job here Salt Lake City, so it will be hard to leave. But this opportunity is too good to pass up. We will probably be moving out there in August sometime. I'm really excited.