Choices, Choices

I've been back in Oxford this entire week, and my biggest accomplishment has been reading the rest of Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! while catching up with friends after my travels. I'm hoping to get more dissertation work done before I head out again, and be more productive, but before then I have decisions to make.

In the past few days, I've learned that I got into all three of the Oxford academic programs I applied to for next year: the one-year M.St. in U.S. History, the one-year M.Sc. in Education, and the D.Phil in English. Exciting stuff, but it does mean I need to step back, reconsider what I want to get out of my time here (and how long I want to stay), and decide which option to shoot for. The two one-year masters' programs would give me a broader foundation in some topics that relate to my personal and academic interests, after which I'd potentially consider doing a Ph.D. program in the U.S., which could possibly be a better fit than the D.Phil. Or I'll dive right into Ph.D. level-work with the Oxford D.Phil, which would take me another three or so years here in the UK. I won't disclose which way I'm leaning at this point, nor make any further analysis here (since I've already been leading myself into "paralysis by analysis"), but the decision deadline for U.S. History is on Monday. Which means I'm going to try to make my final call by then, shake off my hands, and move on with a plan for next year (or for the next few years). This is a very good problem to have!

And, in other news, I give you this photo of some very important activity around Oxford:

More British Masterpiece Theater period dramas, excellent. Now on to the day's reading and writing!