I was very sad when I was rejected by Pomona College (because a single faculty member from a country that starts with Co and ends with ombia took a profound and undeserved dislike to me.) I hated the idea of moving to California but this was the only place that offered a sabbatical before tenure, and who wouldn’t like that?
But now I’m happy that they didn’t want me because I have something even better than their sabbatical: a semi-sabbatical. A semi-sabbatical is a term that I invented to refer to a situation where you have to teach so little that it doesn’t even count as teaching. Until next September, I will only have to show up on campus once a week at most. This is better than a sabbatical (for a non-tenured academic, at least) because you can’t get too relaxed. There is still teaching, and the semester still goes on. So you stay organized and have the best of both worlds, the world of a sabbatical and the world of a teaching semester.
I am overwhelmed by my exceeding good fortune. I remember being heart-broken every time I would get rejected on the job market (and that was the total of 176 times, by the way). I wish I had only known then that these were great rejections because they let me stay free to get the best job ever. There is a profound lesson somewhere in here but I’m still sick and feverish, so I’ll let you formulate it on your own.
Clarissa's Blog 
At Pomona and similar places, you are a servant of the rich. You have a better job than that now, you really do.
LikeLike
I know absolutely nothing about Pomona, so this is good to hear! No more rich kids for me.
LikeLike
If you did not like Yale or Cornell, you will certainly not like them in miniature.
LikeLike
Pomona college has a large endowment and is very generous with financial aid. It does not have a ton of rich kids going and does have good diversity, including economic diversity. (But not so much intelligence diversity– they can afford to pick the smart and hard-working.) Perhaps you are getting it mixed up with USC. Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps have at times had a reputation for admitting based on income (Scripps, in fact, used to be a finishing school), but not Pomona. None of the Claremonts fit that description in this day and age, except maybe Pitzer which has been financially struggling for years.
LikeLike
I was also interviewed by Claremont McKenna but I don’t even remember how that went because there were too many interviews. The Pomona interview sticks out in my mind because the interview itself was really great and just one person there hated me passionately from the start. I still have no idea what was going on there.
LikeLike
I agree with 95% of what you say but your personality just blows chunks. You have an ego problem chickie, and until you deal with it you are going to be seeing alot of this. I wouldn’t have abrasive people like you on my team either.
Just sayin’.
LikeLike
I doubt very much that Clarissa’s expressions in the real word are the ones presented in her blog, particularly her sometimes too aggressive responses. Blogging is one thing, living the day with your real name is quite a different story. There is a say in Spanish: “perro ladrador poco mordedor”. I tend to believe that hers is a strategy to incite dialogue and participation. While I think the strategy is good and the goal better, implementing the strategy is not easy and many times could result in hurting people. Just saying: “Grow up” doesn’t help because it is not a question of growing, rather of different sensibilities.
LikeLike
“I agree with 95% of what you say but your personality just blows chunks. You have an ego problem chickie, and until you deal with it you are going to be seeing alot of this.”
– OK, this loser is banned from my blog for good. Go kill yourself against a wall, freak.
LikeLike
The only loser is you!
LikeLike
What is this, an idiot fest so early in the morning? Do you realize how idiotic this reaction to a person sharing good news is? Are you even normal?
Go try addressing anybody you know under you real name with this string of idiocies, freak, and then we’ll see how you like their non-aggressive responses.
LikeLike
Faculty where I work generally get one pre-tenure sabbatical.
LikeLike
Your university seems to be one of the very schools in the country that didn’t interview me. đŸ™‚ đŸ™‚ I would have loved to go there, though.
LikeLike
I like it, mostly. Of course when I was an assistant professor (prior to the invention of either the pyramid or the wheel) there were no sabbaticals for assistant professors.
LikeLike