Next?

TOEFL’s done, or at least close enough. Due to some weird logistical mishaps (likely sloppy paperwork), only sixteen students were allowed to take the TOEFL at once, as opposed to nearly 30 last year. As a result, I had to register my students for three different test dates, with only the first one (January 12) guaranteed to return the results on time. The second date (March 7), will probably be on time, while the third date (May 10), certainly will be too late to be of any use this year. Unfortunately I have no way of knowing what the maximum limit is until I see how many people show up on test day. I simply know that the site is full for any given date. Originally I thought that the test just became insanely popular this year. Much to my dismay I showed up Saturday morning to discover only 16 people waiting for a room with 30 desks in it to open. I was pissed.

The students seemed to agree that the test was easier than our practice ones, which is good of course. 15 of the test takers were my students. Next time I think 8 will be, and then 2 in May. Regardless, I’m done preparing students for the TOEFL, meaning I have a lot more time on my hand. I like that.

Also, earlier this week I submitted all 5 Gates Millennium Scholarship applications. I think about 30 students were eligible to apply based on GPA. All of them showed up to the first informational meeting. As we met more often, the number dwindled until only 5 remained. I met with those guys once a week for about two months, including three times during Christmas break. Each time they had to submit 2 essays and revise the ones I returned to them. There were 8 essays total. It was a very intensive process, certainly more intensive than anything else they’ve done before. What was incredibly fun was submitting all those applications online. The only connection I have is dial-up. There must have been at least 150 questions for each application. A lot of them were the “choose a response and then wait for something else to load based upon that response” variety. I spent a lot of time in my office waiting for pages to load.

And of course the application webpage decided to break while I was in the middle of submitting my applications. The webpage said to contact them via phone if something happens to the webpage. That’s easier said than done here. I resorted to asking friends via gmail chat to call for me. You know the saying that it takes a village to raise a child? I think it also takes a village to submit scholarship applications in the Marshall Islands.

I’ll be interested to see what happens to those applications. They’re not exactly conventional. In fact, so much of what my students wrote in their essays is impossible to understand for lay audiences that I even submitted a small description of the Marshall Islands to the Gates foundation. In the end the foundation received applications that were polished but clearly reflected candidates from severely disadvantaged backgrounds. Those guys have a tough decision to make.

National elections are finally over. There was an incredible debacle with the vote counting. Two separate recounts were ordered. During the first, new votes miraculously started to appear. During the second, votes that weren’t counted the first time were counted the second time. Someone in this country said that had this occurred in other countries, riots would have ensued. I think there’s some truth to that. However, the most that occurred here were a few grumblings over morning cups of coffee. There’s something to be said for the laid back Pacific attitude.