The Summer is halfway over....

....at least by BYU's standards. We just finished the first of the two summertime terms at BYU. Of course Kayleen did really well in her classes again! I took a class and worked full-time and did research with professors, and once in a while we had time to relax! I'm kinda sad looking at others' blogs and seeing all the cool things they are doing for the summer while we are just in school and at work. At least we are trying to do some fun things close to home. We spent last weekend volunteering at New Student Orientation, which actually was tons of fun! We got a bunch of free stuff, met new friends, helped out the new freshmen, and got a surprise show from Jericho Road! We are planning on taking some trips to Enterprise in July which will be fun and hopefully we'll plan some fun stuff to do. We'll probably go down to Manti this weekend just for fun and to see the Manti Pageant. I want to do some hiking in Zions and some other places this summer or next. Our big trip will be the first weekend of August when we go out to Minnesota for Kayleen's brother Jake's wedding! (I guess when the two sides of the family live so far apart, the only vacation far from home is going to see family! Oh well, we love doing that more than going anywhere else anyway!)

So far our summer term is about the same as spring term, though Kayleen is taking it easy with no job and only 6 credits. That is very good news, as she needs and deserves a good break for a while! I'm still working full-time (30 hours at the MTC, 10 hours doing research) as well as doing research on the side with professors to boost up my resume for PhD school! Speaking of which, in the next six months I have to decide on 5 or 6 schools to apply to. Any advice? My teachers think I'm qualified for almost any program out there, it's just a matter of finding the right fit for us! I've been spending every spare moment looking into PhD programs and I have too much information to make a decision!

Of course we still would like to go to the University of Minnesota, since that's where Kayleen's family is from, and their Information Systems PhD program is one of the top two or three in the world. I also really would like to apply to MIT, which is of course the very top program in the world. That would be a dream come true. There are other "top 20" programs to consider at Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh, University of British Columbia, Washington State, Bentley, Purdue, U of Illinois, U of Connecticut, U of Maryland, and Case Western Reserve (these are not including the excellent programs in places that Kayleen refuses to live, such as U of Texas, Georgia State, New York University, U of Arizona, U of Pennsylvania, etc). Of course I will also apply to some back-up schools that are not as prestigious, but still good.

Sadly BYU does not offer a PhD in my field. The U of U is the only one in Utah that does - they have an okay program, but I really would like to get into the best program possible. And then our families can come visit us somewhere new and exciting. :)

Anyway, so that is my life right now - trying to figure out some possible places that we will end up for the next 4 years starting Fall 2010.