Prepping for the move

Now that we're nearly halfway through April, the reality of moving cross-country is beginning to set in. I've begun looking at craigslist to see what's out there and it's starting to stress me out. While City E (where School E is located) has a lower cost of living than my current locale, the renting market is just as tough and just as expensive.

I will have lived in my current house for six years and although it's not perfect, suffering through its imperfections is more appealing than contemplating a move. So I've stayed here despite the house being less than ideal. For example, the price can't be beat for its location, backyard, and layout. On the other hand, it's a glorified cardboard box: hot in the summers and cold in the winters. It has so little insulation that our candles flicker inside when there's wind outside, and during the annual cold snap we have half an inch of ice on the inside of our windows.

Our living room window a couple of years ago

Designs in the ice, on the inside of the window

So pretty, but so cold

Despite all these issues, I would love to find something similar to it in City E. I'm referring to its strengths: location, backyard, and layout. Insulation would be nice as well.

Long story short, there aren't that many places in City E within my current budget that also have all the things I want in a house. I've gotten to the point where I'd rather pay more and live comfortably (within reason) than continue living in a shithole. So the budget has increased to accommodate the things I can't be without.* Even so, listings are pretty sparse in City E.

This is why I'm stressed about finding a place. I'm only planning on being in City E for several days in June to sign a lease, so what are the chances of finding a semi-perfect house in that time? It's much easier to find something when I'm living in the city and can pounce on a craigslist posting as soon as a house becomes available.

I just really hope this all works out. The future roommate (a good friend who's moving to City E around the same time as I am) is not worried at all, as she's much more laid-back with regards to these things. Since I always have to have a Plan B, the other option is to move there with a month-to-month lease and continue looking for the first couple months of school for something better. I'd like to avoid that because I really hate moving (see evidence in photos above).

I'm so envious of the 22-24 year-old crowd that doesn't care where or with whom they live as long as they have a roof over their heads. I used to be there, but with age come standards and thus these kinds of dilemmas.

Moving cross-country and being old(er) suck!

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* My requirements for a house include the following:

• Relatively safe neighborhood (no need for bars in the windows)
• Patch of grass (front yard or backyard), doesn't need to be fenced
• 2+ bedrooms, average-sized
• Bathtub
• Decent-sized kitchen (two people can stand in it at one time)
• Dishwasher
• Ground floor, or higher but with an open and covered porch

Things that would be nice but not entirely necessary:

• Washer and dryer in the house, or at least W/D hookups
• Covered porch regardless of floor
• Walking distance to coffee shops and/or grocery stores
• Off-street parking

It's not over quite yet

I received an interview invitation recently, which was rather surprising since I thought my interview season was essentially over.

After getting accepted to School E last month, I had told myself that the only other interview invitations I would entertain would be ones from my local med school (former dream school) and maybe from schools located in a particular city.

As luck would have it, I got invited to interview at a school located in that city (City F). School F is not entirely in City F, but rather in a suburb located just outside of the city. For most people, this would be a drawback. But the past five years of living in a 'burb have taught me that I like the small town feel while having a big city close by. So this particular arrangement would work perfectly for me.

Other than that, School F isn't anything special. It's ranked at about the same level as School E and has a very similar curriculum. Additionally, the clinical and research opportunities between the two schools are comparable, meaning that the only thing differentiating it from School E is that it's located in an area I've wanted to live in for many years.

As you can tell, I'm not super duper excited about School F, but I can't bring myself to turn it down without seeing what it has to offer in person. I also really don't want to put on my interview face again. But, flights are cheap and if I were to get an interview at the local med school in the near future, this would serve as great practice to rock my (former) dream school interview, if I were to get one.

I guess I'm headed to the area that just recovered from the Polar Vortex. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I HATE winter. Hate.

Details of a non-traditional medical school application

I'm a non-traditional medical school applicant ("non-trad" in med speak) in that I have spent some time in the real world between graduating from college and applying to medical school. It's been nearly 7 years at this point and I have done a wide variety of things in that time, some of them medicine-related but most of them not at all.

A commenter asked me to elaborate on my activities and what I put on my AMCAS, so here it goes. I don't particularly like lists so instead you get an abridged version of my adult life story, even though it may not seem very abridged. Everything I mention below is in one way or another presented in my primary application. So you're getting essentially what the adcoms got when they received my application, with some flowery commentary thrown in for good measure.

Bright College Years:
My major was in the natural sciences, so a lot of the requirements for my B.S. overlapped with those required for medical school. At the time, it was great to knock out both sets of requirements but in retrospect, I wish I had stayed far away from any BCPM classes during undergrad. I would've had a much easier time getting into medical school that way. But alas, I don't have a time machine so the past remains unchanged as much as I wish otherwise.

As a natural extension of my academic interest in medicine, I began getting involved clinically my freshman year. I volunteered as an EMT at a 911-only ambulance service a couple of towns away from my undergrad campus. Since I was never cleared to drive the ambulance, all of my hours were spent providing direct patient care. Over the course of the three years I spent in EMS, I acquired something like 1,700 hours of clinical community service. It was awesome and is one of the major reasons I am pursuing medicine as a career. I listed it as a meaningful activity and elaborated further on the previous statement.

Other extracurriculars included rugby, which I also listed as a most meaningful activity on my AMCAS, sailing, and Habitat for Humanity, which I had been involved with in high school and continued to work with in college.

Gap Year(s):
I went abroad after graduation and spent the next year and a half sailing the high seas, working in a café, playing rugby, moving to another country whose language I didn't speak, working for food and wine, all before finally coming back stateside to work at a summer camp. Again, this all went into my AMCAS application.

For those ~18 months, I did nothing that went anywhere near medicine. I simply had fun. I learned a lot about myself during that time and a lot of those experiences led me to apply to medical school, all of which I discussed in my personal statement.

I came back to the U.S. because my money ran out (working for food and wine doesn't go far with regard to savings) and because I was tired of living out of a suitcase. I wanted my own sofa and I couldn't have that with my nomadic lifestyle. This part was not in my application, for obvious reasons. I don't think I actually told med schools why I moved back. Only one interviewer has ever asked and I gave her a more eloquent and mature answer, one which didn't involve a sofa.

The Real World:
Unbeknownst to me, the town I moved to after the summer camp experience was a Mecca for the career I had planned to pursue at the time. I hadn't come around to medicine quite yet and was instead focused on working in the industry of my undergrad major.

I got a job in research full-time at the local university and have been here ever since. While the experiences I have had as a member of this research group have been incredible (see the trip to Alaska and other deployments to equally exotic locations), I have ultimately realized that this career is not for me and that I needed to find something else to do.

As soon as I began thinking about medical school again, I started volunteering at the hospital where I've been lucky enough to have direct contact with both patients and physicians. I also enrolled in pre-med classes at the same university I work at since I had to take or retake nearly all of the med school pre-requisites.

I have continued to be heavily involved in rugby as well as with Habitat for Humanity.

Lastly, I went on a medical mission trip with the U.S. Navy to Southeast Asia for a month about a year ago. I have a well-documented interest in international outreach so this wasn't simply a box-checking activity. Instead, it was the perfect combination of the things I'm passionate about: international missions, boats, and medicine. It opened my eyes to how international medicine is really done and somewhat changed what I had envisioned as my future career in medicine.

How all of this is perceived by adcoms (people that matter):
Like I've mentioned before, my application is either loved or hated by the powers that be. I have yet to get a neutral reaction to my experiences and journey to med school. One interviewer has grilled me on why now, how I know I won't quit again, and the like, while a pre-med advisor (Ms. D) simply doesn't like me for reasons I can't explain.

For the most part, though, interviewers were curious and excited to discuss the reasons behind my adventures and wanted to know why I finally came back to medicine after so many years pursuing vastly different things.

I don't think there are any "required" extracurriculars or activities for non-trads. I've known people who got in with very little recent volunteering or practically no research. However, it seems like you need to have one or the other, or a very valid reason for being light in those areas such as family, job, or other pressures. I happened to have both research and volunteering, although I didn't have any publications even though I worked for ~5 years as a research assistant, which I know hurt me at some schools.

My advice to other non-traditional applicants is to first and foremost focus on your grades and MCAT. Those are the most important things in your application. Then, do clinical volunteering/work and shadowing, and maybe get some research in if that's your thing. Primarily, you need to show that you can handle the academic workload. Secondly, you need to be able to show that you know what you're getting yourself into and having those activities on your application will go far in convincing adcoms that you're making an educated decision to pursue medicine.

Generally, activities of non-trads are not more heavily scrutinized per se but rather the reasons behind those decisions are questioned more intensely. It's a lot harder to quit another career to pursue medicine than it is to apply to med school as a junior in college so adcoms want to know why, why, why. In your applications, but more importantly in your interviews, make sure you can convincingly communicate why you switched to medicine and have some evidence/stories to back that up.

Be prepared to discuss any deficiencies you may have in your application, even if the reason that your undergrad grades sucked was because you were young and stupid. Own up to your mistakes and let interviewers know that you've learned from them and that you're better for it.

I'm not an expert on medical school admissions for traditional or non-traditional students by any means. After-all, I've been placed on 5 waitlists and only accepted to one school after applying twice. So take everything I say with a grain of salt.

However, the above "advice" is based on a lot of research on the subject both from SDN (there really is some good stuff there if you wade through the bullshit) and from talking with a lot of people. I haven't always heeded my own advice but now I know better and hope that this helps you, dear commenter.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to write below and I'll try to elaborate further.

Success is the sweetest revenge

When I came to terms with having to reapply to med school last year, I went to my pre-med advisor to ask her about amending my school list from the previous year. This is not the nice advisor I like going to but the one who I'm convinced really dislikes me. Unfortunately, she's the one who knows which medical schools prefer which kind of applicant (or so she says), so I had no choice.

The words, "You should not apply this cycle," "You are at a high risk of dropping out of medical school," and, "If I were an admissions committee member, I would not offer you an interview," all came out of her mouth during the course of our 30-minute meeting. She strongly suggested I take the year off to strengthen my application and apply during the next cycle instead. To say I was surprised would be a huge understatement.

She somewhat had a point. I hadn't done much of anything to improve my application in the year since I submitted the original one. The only real change I made was that I applied early instead of super late, which could be a game-changer in and of itself. But as Ms. D (for Debby Downer) pointed out, my lack of interviews last cycle could definitely be due to a weak application and not because of the tardiness of my submission.

I walked out of that meeting unsure of myself. I hadn't had my world rocked that hard in a very long time, thinking I was doing well when in fact I was told I suck. Part of me thinks she was unnecessarily harsh and didn't need to crush my dreams so much. But there was also some truth to her comments, meaning there was a chance I wasn't going to get accepted the second time around either, which at the time was rather disconcerting.

Now that I have been accepted to medical school, though, I am so glad I didn't let her words discourage me from applying this year. Additionally, I'm glad I didn't listen to her suggestions for my school list, because School E and two other schools I interviewed at this cycle would not have received my application.

In short, Ms. D can suck it. I'm going to medical school!

Old posts popping up

Pardon the old posts that have been published recently. They have been sitting in my drafts folder for a while, waiting for that last perfect sentence to make them whole. Kidding. I just started writing and got distracted before finishing them.

Instead of further adding to those posts, I'm publishing them as they are, on the date that they were originally written. That means they are backdated and don't necessarily go with the flow of what's currently going on in my life.

Enjoy them regardless. They are not any less than the ones that have been published already.

This is really happening!

I'm having wrist surgery soon (I hurt myself again) and as the surgeon and I were discussing my MRI at my pre-op appointment it hit me that in 10 years, I will be in my doctor's shoes: diagnosing patients and then operating on them.* In fact, in 5-6 years I'll be doing some sort of operating with supervision. That's absolutely terrifying.

Ten years is a long time and a lot can happen between now and then. But it's still scary to have a definitive time frame for when I'll be doing doctory things on my own. This is actually happening and it's no longer just a pipe dream. It's crazy.

Also, the highlight of this operation is that I'm just getting a nerve block** instead of general anesthesia so I'll be awake for the whole thing.

I kind of want to ask my surgeon if I can watch. It'll be like shadowing in the OR but better.

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*I'm not set on any particular specialty yet because I'm well aware that it can (and most likely will) change over the next several years. However, based on how I like to do things and the way I think, I'm pretty sure I'll end up in some sort of surgical specialty, or at the very least something heavily procedural.

** More specifically, I'm getting a Bier block, which in and of itself is pretty cool. They take all the blood out of your arm through the use of elastic bandages and gravity, and keep it out with pneumatic tourniquets. Then anesthetic is injected through an IV near the wrist and sets into the tissues for about 20 minutes, at which point the tourniquets are deflated and bloodflow returns to the arm. Or, if the procedure is short enough, then they leave the tourniquets on and operate in a bloodless field. So cool!

I've never been exsanguinated before. This might be my new "Two Thruths and a Lie" truth.

These are a few of my favorite specialties

I know it's way too early to lock myself into a specialty, but since I've been mentioning orthopedics on here a lot, I figured I'd talk about specialty choices more thoroughly.

I have no idea what I'll end up doing about four years from now, but I'm pretty sure I'll either be operating or doing lots of procedures. I'm a fixer and I like being able to see the products of my work.

I've taken a few "How to choose a specialty?" quizzes over the years and the following are nearly always in the top ten (in no particular order):

• Orthopedics
• ENT
• Pulmomary Medicine
• Surgery - General
• Radiology - Diagnostic
• Thoracic Surgery

I'm really curious to see where I'll end up in 4+ years!

I'm in!

I've been accepted to medical school!

As I opened my email to respond to yet another position on a waitlist (from the brain fart school, who didn't see that one coming?), I saw a new message in my inbox. I skipped the subject line and instead read the body of the text first. In all the mumbo jumbo of the first paragraph, it dawned on me that I'd been accepted to medical school.

I had a good feeling about this school since I had a fantastic interview and the post-interview acceptance statistics were in my favor (they take ~75% of the people they interview). But I was cautiously optimistic since I've been burned in the past, and I didn't expect to hear back so soon. So the email caught me off guard.

I was at my volunteer gig at the hospital at the time and I turned to the nurse sitting next to me and cautiously said, "I think I've just been accepted to medical school." I'm sure the confused look on my face wasn't convincing because she asked me to repeat myself. After-all, we had just been talking about the third waitlist I'd received the day before. I was still processing this acceptance so I think the nurses were more excited about this whole thing than I was.

I was simply relieved. I had always believed that I would get into medical school but so far no one that mattered (admissions committee members) had thought the same. So with the acceptance came relief: Relief that someone wanted me at their medical school and even more relief that this terrible process was finally over. As Gwyneth Paltrow said at the Oscars many years ago, "You like me. You really like me!"

Anywhos, I'm super stoked! Not only am I actually going to medical school, but this is also my top choice school (let's call it School E). The former dream school (local med school) has fallen from grace in recent months and was nearly definitively replaced by School E after my interview. Even brain fart school, which had been my top choice this cycle, was knocked down a couple of pegs after that interview. I was simply blown away by School E's program, its students, the city, the culture, everything.

So yeah, life is pretty epic right now.

Planning for the future...again

I'm a planner. I plan what I'm going to do each day and I definitely plan what my future will look like. This obsession with planning makes medical school admissions that much more infuriating since everything is so much out of my control.

Since this cycle is not turning out very well for me, I've begun thinking of the worst case scenario so I can plan my life accordingly. That scenario would be not getting into medical school this year.

I've come up with a plan on how to deal with that and here it is:

Take a couple of years off and reapply. Again.

It's not a very unique plan but one that I'm slowly coming to terms with. I like where I live and I like that my brother lives nearby. I have friends whom I have known for a long time and a life that is very comfortable.

So although I would much rather be in medical school a year from now, the alternative is not too awful and something I am starting to accept.

Another day, another waitlist

The title says it all.

I'm 4 for 4 in terms of interviews leading to waitlist positions, if you include my last cycle. This makes me think that I suck at interviewing (which I sometimes do), but in at least two of those cases I had very little chance of getting in post-interview.

My most recent waitlist decision came from the second school at which I interviewed this cycle. The dean of admissions told us during the interview day that we really only had a 10% chance of getting accepted after interviewing. They just bring in a bunch of people to interview for very few spots in the class.

So yeah, I didn't hold out much hope with this school. It still stings, though, and I'm not any closer to starting medical school in the fall. In fact, I'm down to three schools which can offer me admission, but really only two since I killed my chances of an acceptance at one of them due to a brain fart during the interview.

Let's hope my last interview goes really well because I really don't want to apply yet again.