I HAVE RETURNED!

...although not to posts with substantive content. sorry about that. michigan was a nonstop whirl of beer, handshakes and schizophrenic weather. it was as fabulous as berkeley and deeply, interestingly different. which, damn it, means that the decisions don't look to be getting any easier by virtue of the recruitment weekends.

a non-exhaustive list of convenient dichotomies one might pair with 'berkeley -- michigan' if one were not too fond of complicated thinking:
no requirements -- lotsa requirements*
historical institutionalism -- scads of numbers
all over-ers -- midwesterners
bars with no roofs -- bars with televised sports
not so much with the electoral system design -- ever so much with the electoral system design**
hella expensive rent -- ann arbor, MI rent
berkeley bowl -- whole foods
swatties -- no swatties

* the real question is which end of this spectrum i might actually prefer. the berkeley kids are still very, very cohesive, but there's nothing like being forced through a first year stat sequence to bring grad students together.

** i prefer the methodological variety at berkeley to the methodological hierarchy at michigan. i think. but there are people at michigan specifically interested in electoral systems and voter choice, whereas berkeley faculty approach my (current) interests more tangentially. DAMN IT!

i'm also having a hard time with this because i had a lot more time and energy to get to know people at michigan than i did at berkeley (where i was sick/exhausted for the entire time). the truly scary part of all this, of course, is that i haven't even been to yale yet.