We're going to become Indianians!!

Well, it's official! Dave is going to be getting his Master's Degree at Purdue University!!

We can't believe that just a couple months ago we were wondering what was going to happen with Grad School and Dave was trying to find and internship.

This whole experience has been a whirlwind, and we feel so blessed that everything fell into place so easily!

So here's the story:

Dave had been looking in to applying at several schools after he took the GRE and got a very good score. He was looking at MIT, Purdue, and Virginia Tech (I told him I didn't want to live in Virginia, so he was a nice hubby and never really considered that one. Although he kept his options open to it). The only problem was that they all generally start in the fall.  Which means that we'd have to pass up starting in January at BYU if he got an offer there and hope that he got accepted to one of the big schools. Due to the fact that he's graduating in December (YAY!!) from his undergrad, he would have a full 9 months to fill in-between with, hopefully, something that would help his career. As you can tell, there were a LOT of ifs at this time in our lives. Every choice we needed to make depended on something else.

Dave had his heart set on going to MIT. He kept emailing professors and calling admissions there to find out what his chances were of getting accepted and funded. He never really got an answer. Either no one would get back to him, or they would skirt around the question. It was very frustrating.

He had also emailed a professor at Purdue, but he didn't hear anything back from them either. So after not hearing anything from either MIT or Purdue, he went in to talk to a professor he has at BYU. This professor has a lot of connections at the big schools, and he told Dave that the professor he had emailed at Purdue was now retired, and he gave him the name of Dr. Key there.

To make a long story short, Dave emailed Dr. Key, and within a week he had a verbal offer to go out to Purdue, start in January on a special project with Rolls Royce, and the best part was: it's funded WITH a stipend. We considered this option for a few days. Dave still really liked the idea of going to MIT, but with no guarantee that he'd get accepted or funded, we decided that the offer from Purdue was the best choice. It IS a top ten school for engineering, after all!

So, just last week, we flew out to Indiana to see our new home. I can't say that I was thrilled with the town and first. It's older and more crowded than I'm used to. The town is pretty small, but crowded for me is buildings that are all scrunched together with no-where to park. I guess I've been spoiled out here in wide-open Utah. I think that I will end up falling in love with the town, though. It's not completely flat, and I think that will help with the transition from mountain-y Utah.

We are going to be living at a place right next to campus! We are very excited to be living at a great place, that is big enough for our needs and has the right price tag. It was hard to find somewhere that wasn't geared completely to single students (I guess they don't get married out there? haha, jk). But we found one! You all better come visit to see the place!

So, you ask, where exactly is Purdue? This is a question we get all the time. Purdue is located in West Lafayette, Indiana. It's a little over an hour NW of Indianapolis. We'll also be about 1.5 hours from Chicago and Lake Michigan, so if you come visit us during the summer, we promise take a drive up to the beach and visit Chicago!!

Can you tell I'm going to miss all my friends and family? :)


So, on January 1st, Dave gets to make this long drive:

I may go out with him, I haven't decided yet. I do have to stay for at least another month, and get my replacement at work trained and finish year-end closing. People say I'm too nice, but my boss has been too good to me to just leave him hanging now. World's best boss. Seriously.

So that's the story of how our lives literally got flipped upside down. I won't lie and say that I'm not terrified, I am. I'm going to miss family, friends, knowing where i'm going, the mountains, my job, certain restaurants *cafe rio* etc etc etc. But what a great adventure we are about to embark on! Everyone we have talked to has said that they absolutely love this area and the school. They say it was the best choice they could have made. I'm sure we are going to feel the same. :D