An Unexpected Postgrad Event

So checking my email this morning, I found an email from Aberdeen informing me that I had been selected for the highly competitive Overseas Research Student Award (which covers the difference in tuition between home and overseas tuition). It is indeed highly competitive considering that I was competing with applicants from all over the world (and students from the US are not exactly exciting for institutions to fund) for every dept at Aberdeen (which is a lot, and also considering that I had applied with a proposal on linguistic typology [read: boring] when others were likely doing more exciting/relevant/flashy topics).

That award equates to about $4030/yr, yet does not cover the full Aberdeen tuition. Obviously this is encouraging and validation for my research and PhD aspirations, but as most of you already know--I have already declined all offers for study. Even with this award/bursary, there is still not enough money for Cheryl and me to go overseas and study. This will have to wait for some other time in our lives (i.e. post-student loan repayment!). ...and until then I will continue to seek FT employment state side (please keep praying!).