Thursday, June 4, 2009

Round Two... Here We Come!!!

Good news for the waitlists... Round Two is almost here!!!
The round one offers expire on June 5th and hopefully everyone has had a chance to make a decision they are happy with and submit the appropriate paperwork (and send your monies and transcripts).

For myself, I've sent my response and transcript request to ORPAS. Then I submitted the electronic response that McMaster requested, along with the deposit. Now I'm in the process of getting my health forms filled out (I've never had a TB test before), scheduling a first aid course, getting my CPIC (criminal record check for working with vulnerable populations), and trying to take a reasonable photo of myself to submit to McMaster for their ID cards (you have to send in the info 6 weeks before registration!!).

For the CPIC, McMaster sent links to the Hamilton Police Force website and they have a special deal with them so that it only costs $15. However, I don't live in Hamilton to pick it up when it's ready. So, I'm looking into what it will cost to have it done in Peterborough, which is where I currently live. In reviewing the acceptance packages I got (before I recycled them) I also noticed that Western recommends a central service for these things that provides you with the report and a wallet card indicating your clearance that are both good for the 2009-2010 academic year. I checked it out and it seems pretty good... plus I can do it from a distance and they will mail me the report. The catch? It costs $40.
I thought I'd post the link to the website for this service anyway... just in case there was anyone who might find it useful. The service is called the Ontario Education Services Corporation and the link is in the title. It looks like it's primarily set up for students in Teacher's Ed programs... but as I mentioned, Western recommends it.

Anyhoo... now for the ranting portion of my blog. I don't rant very often. I find it is usually unproductive and just puts bad ju-ju out into the world, but today I find I am compelled to rant a little. I just found out that the ex-girlfriend of one of my friends... a woman who came to my home once when she was sick with an unspecified illness for which she was taking antibiotics... actually had TB!!!!! So, I'm freaking out a little. And perhaps I'm overreacting, but I'm genuinely concerned that my TB skin test will be reactive... which just makes the health screening SO much more complicated than it need be. So my rant is... why do people who know they are sick with contagious illnesses feel compelled to attend social events where they will expose other people? Especially with something like TB :( *kicks sand* And who even gets TB anymore?!
Nothing to do now but get tested and hope for the best.

Best of luck to all the Round Two people and congratulations on your decision to all of the Round One people!!
Pretty soon we'll all be searching for room mates (I already got dibs on the best one!! ;) and hunting for apartments (already started this one too, lol... I'm such a nerd). The summer is going to fly by and this will be the last one we have before diving into our program! Enjoy it!!
SweetPea

2 comments:

  1. Heyas,

    Just in the worse case, I just wanted to mentioned that false positives in the TB test are not that uncommon.

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  2. I thought I would stalk your blog to see if there was any sort of mention of me...and there was!!! you're the best! i can't wait!! xo

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