Medical school culture

I have an interview coming up in the next few weeks and I'm slowly starting to prepare for it by looking into the school, its curriculum, and things like that. A lot of my friends from high school and college went to medical school all over the country so it's also good to have insider information on some of these schools.

I contacted a friend about the school for this upcoming interview, specifically asking her about the culture within the medical school class. Here is her response:

"Just a warning: med school in general is kinda malignant because everyone is competing against each other and I can't predict what your class will be like. My class was pretty gunner but the class below me was more friendly."

Yikes! This is the complete opposite of the universal "Everyone is awesome!" feeling I got from my first interview as well as the dream school.

Hopefully the reality isn't as bad as her experience.

Interview invitations galore

I may've exaggerated with the title but I do have two more interviews lined up in the coming months. TWO!!! Did you get that?! I'm up to three total at this point. Wowsers!

One came in during my first interview day (it was a nice pick-me-up when I received the email at lunchtime) and the other came in within the last couple of days.

And here I thought it was screwed because my early application submissions hadn't turned into many interview invites. Stupid pre-med neuroses rearing their ugly heads...

Overall, I'm doing a lot better than I was last cycle. Here's to hoping one of these turns into an acceptance!

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Note:
While three interviews may not be that many to most people, I'm pretty excited to be getting any invitations. In fact, at this point last year I had barely submitted my secondary applications and had yet to receive any interview invitations from the schools to which I had applied relatively early in the cycle. So this is rather exciting for me.

Time to start freaking out

My dream school recently started sending out interview invitations. I clearly haven't gotten one yet, otherwise you would've heard about it. Naturally, I'm anxious.

Mostly, I just realized that this particular application is nearly identical to the one that got me waitlisted last cycle. The school's secondary didn't give the opportunity to explain what has changed since my last application and what I will be doing this year during the cycle, like most other schools have. So really, there's not that much new information.

If they didn't want me last year, why should they give me a chance this time around? Ay ay ay! I need to get away from this way of thinking otherwise I will drive myself crazy.

I should stick with my motto (Whatever will be, will be.) and make the best of whatever life throws at me, because I'm truly excited about the possibility of going to the medical school at which I've already interviewed.

Quick note about last week's interview

My interview last week went really well. I had a great time, learned a lot about the school and the area, and can totally see myself spending four years there. I'll post a longer recap later this week or next.

However, during my interview day, I felt totally out of my league. Granted, this is a relatively highly ranked med school, but some of the kids were insane. Comments such as, "This is my fifth interview. I've already been to Yale, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins," as well as, "I'm trying to only schedule one interview each week, and I'm already booked through October," actually occurred throughout the day.

Meanwhile, I quietly ate my lunch, totally psyched to have been invited to interview in the first place, and not mentioning that this was my first and only interview of the season. Or that I'm a reapplicant.

All of this isn't to say that the kids were weird, elitist, or arrogant. The opposite was true. They were all really cool and I had a great time spending the day with them. But it was somewhat weird to be so different from them, not only in age but also in the caliber of my application.

Being hosted by a student for an interview

I'm heading to my interview next week and it's been suggested that I utilize the student host option while I'm there. Honestly, I would prefer to stay in a hotel both nights that I'm visiting, but the hotels in the area aren't cheap. At the same time, I'm too old to sleep on a couch/futon for such an important event, even though I often do that at home.

In the end, I resisted the urge to be antisocial and comfortable, and compromised: I'll spend the night directly before my interview in a hotel on campus, and the following night with a student host on their couch.

It'll be nice to get a perspective on the school and the town from someone who's gone and lived there for a while. That was the motivating factor for finally contacting student hosts so I hope it works out.

The last application cycle in a nutshell

Here is a summary of the last application cycle, by the numbers:

• 32 - Schools to which I applied
• 27 - Schools from which I received a secondary
• 20 - Secondaries I submitted
• 2/2 - Interviews offered/interviews attended
• 2 - Waitlists
• 0 - Acceptances
• 2 - Rejections (both waitlists turned into rejections)
• 7/2 - AMCAS submitted
• 8/7 - AMCAS verified
• 8/17 - Earliest date my application was complete at a school
• 11/12 - Last date my application was complete at a school

All in all, I am very disappointed with how this process ended up for me.

That's the super condensed version. The drawn-out and analyzed version can be found here.

Done with writing

I just submitted the last of my secondary applications. Technically it's the second-to-last one because the dream school hasn't released theirs yet. But as of now, I have nothing looming over my head with regards to writing. And it feels fantastic!

In a nutshell, I applied to 27 schools, received 26 secondaries, and submitted 21 of them*. The five secondaries I didn't submit were mostly too long when compared to my chances of being accepted to those schools. So I put them aside and eventually decided not to fill them out at all.

Now that I'm done, I'm somewhat considering adding more schools since at this point I've written a response to nearly every prompt that could be asked. I currently only have one interview invite, which makes me nervous, so I feel the need to cast my net even wider than I already have.

But I have to remind myself that 21 schools is plenty enough and I should focus on other things such as preparing for my interview and looking for another job. So that's what I'll do after I relax a bit this weekend.

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*This includes the dream school that I haven't received or submitted yet. But they don't screen and I'm filling it out, so it goes in the stats.

Moving on

Both schools at which I'm waitlisted have begun their orientations at this point, so it's safe to say that I've been rejected and won't be starting school this fall.

Luckily, I have an interview I need to be preparing for that keeps my mind off this depressing subject.

I'm striking out with regards to new volunteer and employment opportunities. My medical scribe gig is not getting approved as quickly as anticipated so I don't know when that's going to start. Also, I'm not getting any interviews for the clinical research jobs I've applied for. I think I'm going to start randomly emailing professors looking for a job. It worked last time so maybe it'll be successful with medical research as well.

On the other hand, the tail end of this summer has been rather fun so I'm not in a huge hurry to get either of those things set up. It'd be nice to get them started sooner rather than later, though.

I got an interview invitation!!!

Yup, I'm that excited. I've been getting a little worried about the lack of responses from schools while other people have already been hearing back. But I don't need to worry anymore.

A really good school with really high matriculant statistics has just invited me to interview. This is awesome!

The funny thing is that this is the school that a resident railed on during my dream school Pre-Med Day talk a couple of years ago. Clearly he hated his time there. I'm actually pretty excited to visit.

Polar opposite of what I'm looking for

Since I applied to so many schools this cycle I've been getting a bit burned out with the essay-writing. As I do more extensive research on each school to tailor my responses accordingly, I'm realizing that a few of these places are not going to be good fits for me. So I put those applications on the back burner and get to them whenever I feel like writing more.

One school in particular is causing me lots of anguish with regards to making a decision on whether to finish the application or not.

It's the opposite of my ideal location* in nearly every way: region, weather, topography, and culture. And its secondary application is a beast.

On the other hand, I have a fairly decent chance of being accepted there because my stats are actually competitive. So I can't bring myself to rule it out entirely. Instead, I've been talking myself into finishing all the essays that are required simply for that reason. Beggars can't be choosers.

In order to stay positive about this school, I've been daydreaming (through rose-colored glasses, of course) about what it would really be like to live there. I like to compare it to a new kind of adventure, kind of like living abroad. I mean, I did say I was tiring of my current region so this could be the perfect solution.

So back to writing I go. By the way, I'm currently seven pages into a Word document (single spaced) for this particular secondary. And I still have two more essays to finish for it. A beast, I tell you. A beast.

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*After looking at a school's statistics to see if I even have a chance in hell of having my application not dumped directly into the trash, I've been considering other factors to decide whether to apply there or not. Location is a big one.

Although the school that I mention in this post is on the opposite side of perfect, there is no deal-breaker like the one that made me hate the second school at which I interviewed last cycle. So I'm giving it a chance when schools similar to the other one have been crossed off the list.