Adventures in spontaneous lying

I officially retract the request for sainthood in my previous blog post. I just told a bald faced lie to the Dean of Admissions at OutofTownStateSchool.

A couple of weeks ago, they sent out a semi-threatening e-mail, asking people to re-confirm their intent to attend based on data they had from LSAC saying that a large percentage of their incoming class had put seat deposits down for other schools. At the time, this didn't technically apply to me, since I hadn't put my seat deposit down for ITSS, and they didn't require a response till June 9, so I thought I had plenty of time to put down my seat deposit, kind of sit on the decision for a while and make sure I was doing the right thing, and then reply to OTSS, telling them I regretted to inform them I would not be attending by the date they'd requested.

My well-laid plans were completely ruined when I received a personal phone call today from the Dean of Admissions of OTSS. To begin with, I shouldn't have answered the phone in the first place. I normally don’t answer phone numbers I don’t recognize, but with job hunting and law school admissions I've become accustomed to having to do so. So when she asked me point blank if I was coming, as a knee jerk response I said yes. Translation: No, but after all this work and the money I paid for my seat deposit, I'm not ready to give up my right to change my mind. Then she asked if I had seat deposits at any other schools or was on any other wait-lists, and I also said yes. I told her that I'd been admitted to another school at a very late date, and that put me in a difficult position of having to make some quick decisions (that part is true). And then she went on about how the Assistant Dean was out of town for the rest of the week, and she had access to all the e-mail correspondence. I did my best to get out of the call by saying that I would touch base with her early next week when she got back.

I feel terrible. Particularly because part of the reason that I couldn't bear to tell her I'm probably not going to OTSS on the phone is that I like her so much. She reminds me of my mom. With an office. I planned to just e-mail the form back to the Assistant Dean, who I don't even really know, and let her put my name on a list of ungrateful admits not accepting their generous offer of admission. And then I would never hear from them again. When I sent in the form telling BsHomeTownStateSchool that I wouldn't be attending, the avalanche of correspondence came to an abrupt and final end. They didn't ask me for reasons or make me feel bad. It was the cleanest of clean breakups. I was irrationally afraid that if I told her on the phone, she would ask me why. Did I not like the students I met? Enjoy the classes I went to? Get a good enough tour?

So now I need to just rip the band-aid off and e-mail the assistant dean. And then stop answering calls from mysterious out of town area codes.