Verbal diarrhea

During the student panel at my second interview, I asked if there were a lot of non-traditional students in the class. The 23-year-old second year started talking about all the kids that were her age and that even though three out of the four panelists were older, there were plenty of people in the class that were straight out of undergrad.

I waited until it was polite to interrupt and clarified my question by saying I was in my late 20s*. I then continued on (because I like to babble when I'm nervous) and pointed to the 27-year-olds, telling them I wanted to be their friends. Just like that. While awkward, it was better than what had begun coming out of my mouth, which was that I don't really want to hang out with 22-year-olds all day.

I guess I was stunned that she thought I was straight out of college, which is what prompted the nearly uncontrolled babbling. But I'm really glad I have a filter when it counts.

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*I gave them an actual age, but in a thinly veiled attempt at blog anonymity, I won't be specific about that here.

Pushing through

Monday starts a marathon of interviews, with three in the next ten days or so, and I can't wait for it all to be over.

I'm not very good at selling myself, which probably explains why I've been waitlisted at three out of the four interviews I've attended in the last year (I haven't heard from the fourth, so I could very well be four for four in waitlists). Also, I honestly don't learn any more about the schools while I'm there than what I could get from their website. Visiting these medical schools seems like a colossal waste of money.

I realize that there's a "vibe" I can get and the mythical "fit" that I should look for. But how much can I really get out of spending 24 hours in a city, most of it in transit or at a hotel? And the impression I get of the school is nearly wholly dependent on the attitudes of the individual students that show up to the admissions office on the day of my visit.

All in all, I really hate interviewing. But I need to get rid of this attitude because my future depends entirely on how I present myself to random strangers.

This is the final push*. I just have to make it through the next couple of weeks and I'll be free.

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*While it's very possible that I will get more interview invitations, I'm not really counting on it. I submitted my application fairly early so if I haven't heard back by now from schools, then I've probably been looked over. Hence this being the final push.

Déjà vu

I received a decision from the first school at which I interviewed and...it's a hold.

It seems like it's the equivalent of what happened with the local med school last year in that I haven't been accepted but I'm also not rejected quite yet. From the language of the email, it appears like my application will be reviewed throughout the cycle and if I still haven't been accepted by April/May then I'll either be placed on the waitlist or rejected then.

While I appreciate this school having a bit more transparency than the local med school (it actually told me what's happening with my application instead of staying silent for five months), the results are the same. I'm left waiting without a clear decision one way or the other while this application season drags on.

Woopty doo.

Not nearly as stressed as last cycle

If you couldn't tell from the few pictures I've posted on here, I'm female. Usually, this isn't worth mentioning because we're all the same, with slight differences in anatomy. But when it comes to rugby, women aren't exactly treated as equals. It's very much an old boys club, especially in the referee circles, and women are just now breaking into it. Unfortunately this means that we get shafted based solely on our gender and nothing else.

I've been fighting with the guy who assigns matches in my referee society for many months to get better games so I can improve and advance through the ranks. I haven't gotten anywhere with him and it's reached the point where I really want to quit until I move for medical school and join a different, less dysfunctional referee society.

But I suck at quitting things. So instead, I've been stressing about how the next nine months will shape out, especially since referee elections are coming up soon and therefore, there's a possibility of a change in leadership. When I stress, I dream about my stress, which really doesn't help matters at all.

I asked my roommate what I should do about this because I can't be thinking, dreaming, and obsessing over refereeing all the time. It's draining. Her suggestion: "What about medical school?"

What about it? For some reason, I am so relaxed about this cycle. I have not been stressed more than 5 minutes since I submitted my application in June. There have definitely been times when I've been worried about how this year will shape up, but they haven't lasted long. I have a good feeling about this cycle and the five interview invitations I've received thus far have definitely helped in that respect.

So instead of freaking out about medical school admissions like last year, most of my stress has been channeled to this stupid rugby referee society and its old boys club.

This could all change if none of my interviews turn into acceptances, but for now life is swell at least, with regards to medical school admissions. I hope it stays that way.

Surprise surprise!

Remember that school whose secondary application I almost didn't fill out because its location was so completely wrong for me and there were way too many essays to write?

Reason won out and I ended up submitting it nearly three weeks after receiving the prompts. Good thing I did because....I got invited to interview there!!!

I'm seriously shocked because in applying to this school, I completely overlooked the fact that they invite very few out-of-state applicants to interview. After realizing that fact, I didn't hold much hope for getting any love from them. But I did get love. And it's awesome.

I can't wait to visit and learn more about their program!

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.