Seniors play the waiting game

While most seniors rediscover free time and relaxation, Nelson Reveley '05 and Pablo Kapusta '05 remain in limbo between the past and future. With post-graduation plans still uncertain, these two seniors are scrambling for jobs, fellowships and grad school openings while running the gauntlet of senior-year milestones.

April 18 should have been a day of celebration for Reveley. His thesis was due at noon, the religion department was holding a post-thesis party and his acceptance letter from Teach for America was scheduled to arrive. But it didn't work out as he had planned.

Reveley realized he needed to rework the last chapter of his thesis at 4 a.m. Monday morning. The change would cost him a few extra days of work and the penalty of 1/3 letter grade.

Reveley attended his department's party despite his unfinished thesis. Every time he received congratulations for finishing his paper, he replied with a quiet, "Oh, I'm not done yet."

At 5 p.m., Reveley opened his mailbox to find "a nice small rejection letter staring me in the face," he said. Though he had tempered his expectations by calculating a 50-50 chance of getting the job, the news came as a shock.

Competition for Teach for America was intense this year, with roughly 17,000 applicants vying for 2,000 positions, according to Todd McGovern, the program's director of communications. He said eight percent of Princeton's senior class applied, an increase from six percent in 2004.

The rejection letter marked the second hitch in Reveley's ideal career plans. Two months earlier, he received notice from the U.S. Golf Association that the 2-year fellowship position he sought had gone to another applicant.

"I really don't know what I'm going to do now," Reveley said. "But I've realized that most of the world doesn't work on the school-year calendar. It's not that big of a deal that it's May, and I don't have a job."

Reveley said he will resume his job search after completing Dean's Date work. He will stay in contact with University Career Services, which continues to post job openings throughout the summer.

Reveley briefly revisited the idea of attending seminary in his hometown of Richmond, Va., following the footsteps of his grandfather and older brother, but then decided he needs a break from academics.

"I've gone from trying to find the perfect job to something that will pay bills ... At the same time, I'm not going to take any job," Reveley said. He still hopes to live in Washington, D.C. or Richmond next year.

Kapusta waits for news

Uncertainty has recently defined Kapusta's life as well.

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Though he has been accepted to law school at Georgetown and the University of Texas, he is on the wait lists at Harvard and Columbia. Schools typically do not contact wait-listed students until June or July, so students usually need to make decisions about other schools before then, pre-law adviser Lyon Zabsky said.

"It's the unknown that weighs on your mind," she said. "[Pablo] certainly has excellent schools to attend, and there's no doubt that he will do fabulously."

Kapusta's position on the waitlists of his top-choice schools has led him to second-guess the decision to apply to law school this year.

"I feel like if I got waitlisted, then ... I meet the minimum requirements to get into the school, and there's something that I don't have. Basically, I feel like it's a lot of luck," he said.

A friend who attends Columbia Law School found herself in the same situation last year, and she advised him to stay in contact with the admissions office and continue updating his application.

He has written letters to each school, reaffirming his interest in attending and explaining that writing his senior thesis has deepened his desire to pursue a legal career.

Kapusta also plans to visit Columbia.

He is now weighing whether to take a year off to improve his odds. Law schools tend to prefer older students who have had more employment experience, he said.

"Probably twice as many [Princeton] alumni apply to law school as current seniors, so it follows suit that more alumni are accepted," Zabsky said.

If he doesn't make it in to one of his top choices, Kapusta is also considering applying to fellowships. One is with U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based NGO that acts as a watchdog for the U.N. through advocacy work, though he estimates his chance of landing the job at only "one in 1,000."

No matter what, Kapusta said he will travel to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and China with friends this summer.

"We figured that it's more exotic than going to Europe," he said. "I might even find out about law school while I'm in China."