Sweet spot

I think I've found the way to set myself up for success. We'll see if it actually works when I get the results from this Friday's test, but so far I'm very optimistic. I have two full study days left before the exam and I'm not stressed out about it, in a good way this time.

I've seen all the material and understood all the concepts. I have gone over each lecture carefully enough that I was at one point able to talk it out and teach it to (an imaginary) someone. Now I just have to commit it all to memory.

Two very long days await me, but I am ready and willing to spend them in the library. This is in stark contrast to the last couple of block exams when I just shut down in the days leading up to the exam. I had so much hanging over my head that finishing it all didn't seem possible. So I gave up.

That is not going to happen this time. I'm not scrambling, because I've seen and understood everything at least once. There is nothing I have to learn from scratch, which puts my mind at ease. I am totally capable of learning this material well with the work I've put in leading up to this week. I'm very curious to see how it all turns out.

Mostly, I wanted to share a happy post of hopeful success in case I didn't write anything else before the holidays.

Learning how to learn

Medical school has been an adjustment for me. The problem is not so much the volume of work, but rather the seemingly absent product at the end.

In my previous job, I did stuff. I put in the hours at the office and most of the time I had something to show for my time at the end of the day, week, or project. This is not the case with school and it's starting to get to me.

We're on a true pass/fail system in that my grade is registered as a Pass no matter how high above 70% I score. There are no honors, no percentage, nothing to indicate how I did in the course. All that matters is that I get above the 70% that is required to pass the class.

This system is awesome because it creates a low-stress environment and a very collaborative atmosphere within our class. People help each other out all the time and I know that if everything went to shit, I would still pass medical school.

On the other hand, I find it very hard to find the motivation to do as well on exams as I would like, because, well, who cares. It's all the same in the end. A Pass is a Pass.

But it's not. I am capable of being in the top 25% of my class.* I was up there in anatomy and I should continue to be there throughout the rest of the year. I need to learn this stuff well now so I don't have to relearn it next year when it really matters. I just cannot find the motivation to study that much, though, when all I get at the end is a percentage on a screen.

I have no problem putting in the work throughout the week to be prepared for lecture. I've turned school into an extended 9 to 5 where I go to class in the morning and prepare for the next day's lecture in the afternoons, coming home around dinner-time. I have a goal of finishing a chapter or a subject and at the end of the day, it's done.

When it comes to learning stuff for the exam, though, I completely shut down. There is no end to what I can know or the depths of my understanding. I can always do more and the goals of being done are not as clearly defined. Instead of chipping away at the work, I stop studying altogether. I think I've watched a whole season of "Survivor"** in the past three days instead of memorizing random genetic diseases.

Maybe it'd be easier if I was coming straight from undergrad or my break from school wasn't over 5 years long. Maybe I would have accepted my fate of living with my nose in a book a bit better. I really don't think that's the case and instead the problem is that my personality does not naturally fit with this way of life. I like seeing the product of my labors and I'm not good with delayed gratification, neither of which are conducive to pre-clinical studying.

Alas, my personality won't change and neither will the next year and a half of school. In fact, it's only going to get harder. So instead of accepting my lackluster grades (I was below the median in all four subjects tested last block), I'm taking a more proactive approach and learning how to do better with each exam. Mostly, I'm strengthening my motivation muscles and gaining a bit more pre-exam work ethic with each test.

Thus far, this has been successful. My downfall with the first block exam was not covering some subjects until a couple of days before the exam. That stressed me out incredibly and I just gave up on Histology. This block, I made sure to cover each lecture/subject during the week and my levels of stress were significantly lowered these last few days before the exam. The material is still really shaky, though, because I've only seen it once or twice, again adding to that dreadful feeling of being overwhelmed. To help with that, next block I plan on reviewing the material on the weekend so I don't go weeks between seeing it the first and second time.

Moral of the story is that I have to re-learn how to study so that I don't get so overwhelmed right before the test that I completely shut down. It seems pretty basic but it's been a pretty big struggle for me. Luckily, I'm getting better and I can only go up from here.

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*While we are true pass/fail, we're kinda sorta ranked. Our class is divided into quartiles based on scores and that distinction goes into our dean's letter for residency application in some sort of coded way ("Student was exceptional/satisfactory/etc.") depending on where we fall. However, this ranking is heavily skewed towards clinical grades so an exam here or there in the first or second year doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. This also contributes to my lack of motivation right now.

**Reality TV is my guilty pleasure. I recently discovered that I actually like "Survivor" and I have plenty of seasons to catch up on. Bad idea.

Reflections on anatomy

Our anatomy final is tomorrow and it's so surreal to think that gross anatomy is finally over. It felt like such an impossible task when we first started 11 weeks ago.

I remember stressing out about the three muscles we learned in the first week. "I have to know the arterial supply as well? How am I ever going to remember the transverse cervical artery?!" That actually happened.

Towards the end of our first block, we learned the entire leg in 4 days. That seemed ridiculous and impossible.

But now, the seasoned medical students that we are, we did the entire head and neck in under two weeks. No one batted an eye at that. It just seemed normal.

I wish I had learned some things better. The pelvis and perineum still confuse me. The details of the poop cycle are also lost on me. All in all, though, I have a pretty good grasp on how our bodies are put together and I'm okay with that.

It's not surprising that I glossed over those areas because I've never found them interesting. Similarly, it makes sense that I enjoyed learning the anatomy of certain parts of the body (muscles, lungs, and eyes) because I've been interested in that stuff for a while.

Some things surprised me, though, like really nerding out on the autonomic nervous system and cranial nerves. I don't think I'll end up in neurology, but the logic-puzzle nature of the disease processes has been really fun to work through.

I'd like to say that I'm taking it easy tonight and taking the evening off because I need to do very, very poorly on the final exam to fail the course. But like a proper over-achieving medical student, I'm not satisfied with the pass. Instead, I'll be doing more review questions until my brain tells me to stop.

More "old" posts

I know I've been absent for a while. Part of that is due to medical school taking over my life (kind of true). But mostly it's because I just haven't wanted to write.

I'm publishing a couple of super old and somewhat old posts for now, and am writing new ones as well. I should be back to somewhat regular blogging soon.

Trial by fire

At School E, we get assigned a preceptor whose office we will work at throughout the year practicing taking patient histories and conducting a physical exam.

I was hoping to get someone in a surgical subspecialty such as orthopedics, ENT, or plastics. We don't do 3rd year rotations in those fields and I'd like to get some exposure to them to see if they're something I'd enjoy doing. Having a preceptor in any of those fields would kill two birds with one stone: practicing patient care and seeing what their clinics are like.

Be careful what you wish for because I did get a preceptor in a surgical subspecialty: urology.

My first experience interviewing patients will be asking them about their private part problems. This shouldn't be awkward at all.

Medical school has changed me

"We have three days before the exam. That's plenty of time to learn it all."

Words I never thought I'd say until I saw how much I can absorb in such a short amount of time.


Also, my reasons for being excited about the weekend have changed dramatically.

Before medical school:
"Let's go camping. Or take a brew tour. Or just relax in the yard."

In medical school:
"Phew. We have two full days without any new information being thrown at us. I may actually be able to catch up this weekend. Sweet!"

Mortui vivos docent - The dead teach the living

Earlier this week we started anatomy lab. I hate it.

Part of the reason is the ridiculous inefficiency of it. We have no idea what we're doing so everything takes us so freaking long.

The other, more disturbing reason is that I can't bring myself to cut into our cadaver, Ms. Judy. Her fingernails are painted bright red. She has that wonderful short, curly hair that's popular among elderly women. Her muscles are tiny and she has mild scoliosis. Today we took a chisel and hammer to her back and knocked out her spine. How is that normal?

I understand it was her intent to donate her body in death for me to learn and help the living. But I cannot get over the feeling that I'm disrespecting her and mutilating her body. I cannot separate her being from the body that is lying in front of me. Did this frail, old woman know that this was what she was signing up for?

My dislike of dissection is not necessarily a fear of death. I've seen people die. I've worked on people who are dying. The newly dead aren't a problem for me, and the same goes for patients in surgery. The work of a surgeon is helping his patient in one way or another. Ms. Judy, on the other hand, is being taken apart piece by piece in a rather crude manner. It sucks.

My lab mates, on the other hand, have been incredible. They've done all the work the last couple of days while I've stood in the background adjusting their masks, hair, and goggles. I've benefited from their work because although I have no desire to cut our cadaver, it's pretty awesome to see the structures demonstrated on a human body.

Every time I glance at Ms. Judy's beautifully manicured fingernails, I remind myself that this was her exact intent. She wanted us to take her apart so we could better understand how she is put together. She may have not known the details of what it would take for us to learn, but her end-goal was clear.

I cannot let her incredible gift go to waste, so I suck it up and do what Ms. Judy would've wanted: learn about the human body by putting my hands inside her newly exposed spine.

Responsibility

While it still hasn't hit me that I'm actually starting medical school, it's slowly starting to dawn on me that I am, sometime in the near future, going to be a doctor. That is a scary thought.

Amongst all the mingling, retreating, and picnicking, we've had a few serious talks at orientation and our White Coat ceremony about what it means to be a doctor.

Our keynote speaker described the first patient that he treated. Our dean spoke about the impact his patients' words of thanks have had on him. And our orientation included a history of the impact our medical school and its doctors have had on the surrounding community.

Every single one of these instances sent shivers down my spine. The quality of my work will no longer just affect my professional reputation or a potential bonus. A good day on the job could have tangible effects on another person's life and future, as could a bad day. I have never felt such a great sense of responsibility before and it's thrilling.

So although it still feels like I'm on vacation meeting new people in a new city and the "first day of medical school" seems very surreal, I am keenly aware of the responsibility that I will acquire once I get an MD after my name in four very short years.

I am incredibly excited, but at the same time very terrified. I'm in for a wild ride.

Road tripping

Since I'm unwilling to part with any of my furniture, I decided to schlep it halfway across the country in a moving truck. The drive to School E took three days, although we could've easily done it in two if we had hurried up.

My dad drove with me so we decided to take it easy and turn this journey into a road trip instead of a straight-shot to City E. I am so glad we did because driving a 16' moving truck while towing a car turned out to be rather fun. I didn't want it to end.

My rides.

We hit a beautiful thunderstorm the first evening just as the sun was setting. It was preceded by this rainbow, which the picture just doesn't do justice.

The lightning storm resembled a light show. There were strikes all around us every few seconds even before we hit any rain. So we cruised along at full speed, mesmerized by the awesome forces of nature.

Then it started pouring and the cab of the truck started leaking, which made the storm a little less enjoyable but incredible nonetheless. We still had a lot of driving ahead of us that night since we'd left so late in the afternoon so the storm was a great way to wake up a little and enjoy the long slog into Texas.

Once we crossed the state line, we knew we were in Texas. The waffle machine at the hotel the next morning made sure to remind us just how great this state really is.

In Texas, even the waffles have state pride.

We were smack in the middle of nowhere at midday of Day 2 when the "Check Engine" light turned on. We had another 10 miles to the closest "town" so we slowed down to the recommended speed limit for the truck+trailer combo and hoped the truck wouldn't stall on us.

Penske has a great road-side assistance system so we called them asking for help. They tried locating us by town name to send someone out but we were so isolated that they had to trace the GPS on my phone because BFE, TX wasn't showing up on their maps.

In the end, it turned out to be nothing. The truck ran fine so they said to continue on to the next real city where they would have someone take a look at it. Since this was already going to be a short day (~7 hours driving) and we had left relatively early (10 am), we had plenty of time and very little stress about the whole situation.

For lunch we did the proper Texas thing and stopped at an incredible BBQ restaurant. Not only was the food delicious, cafeteria-style, and filled with real Texan cowboys, it also had ample parking for our truck+trailer+car monstrosity. By that I mean, we didn't have to reverse to get out of there.

The Branding Iron in Wichita Falls, TX. Go there!

After a slight detour to the Penske service station where they confirmed what the people over the phone had said regarding the "Check Engine" light (no biggie, keep driving), we made it to our hotel by 7 pm.

Then we noticed there was a rodeo going on next door at the Rodeo Capital of Texas. How can you not go? So my dad and I put on our most rodeo-like clothes (jeans and a t-shirt) and had a fantastic time!

The whole thing began with a prayer. It wasn't just any prayer, though. It was introduced as, "They have taken prayer out of our businesses and out of our schools, but by God they are not taking the prayer out of our rodeo!" A little girl sang the national anthem (of course) and then the rodeo began.

When your hotel just happens to be next door to the Rodeo Capital of Texas.

I'd never been to a rodeo before, but I had watched the PBR on TV a few times. The live version was at times better and more entertaining. For example, one horse just refused to buck. He exited the chutes and kind of stood there. He had one half-assed attempt at bucking but that was about it. Longest 8 seconds of the whole night.

They also had a few kids, ~11-13 years old, riding mini bulls (whatever the proper term may be). None of them lasted the whole time but it was crazy to see such young boys on these animals. The little kids riding sheep (mutton busting) was also hilarious mostly because it's just so weird.

Google image, but that's how it looked at our rodeo

The rest of the road trip was uneventful. We drove through some beautiful landscapes, listened to tunes, and talked. It was great to spend so much time on the road with my dad. We took a lot of road trips with my family growing up, but I haven't taken one alone with my dad in ages and it was so much fun. He and my mom are already planning a trip out here for Thanksgiving to drive around State E some more since there's so much left to see.

After the road trip was done, my dad stayed around to help me move in and explore a bit of City E. Mostly, he reassured me that the house I chose is much better than my old one even if I don't seem to think so. In fact, I hated this place so much when I walked in the door that I considered not even unpacking my boxes and immediately looking elsewhere for a place to live.

Needless to say, I'm still here and I don't see myself moving in the next 4 years. That's not because I like this house (it hasn't grown on me that much). I just really hate moving.

2014 application cycle in a nutshell

Since it's pretty much decided where I'll be going to medical school, I figured it's time for the second edition of "My application cycle in a nutshell". The first edition can be found here.

2014 application cycle, by the numbers:

• 27 - Schools to which I applied
• 26 - Schools from which I received a secondary
• 22 - Secondaries I submitted
• 7/5 - Interviews offered/interviews attended
• 4 - Waitlists
• 1 - Acceptances
• 4 - Rejections (all waitlists turned into rejections)
• 6/11 - AMCAS submitted
• 7/2 - AMCAS verified
• 7/4 - Earliest date my application was complete at a school
• 9/6 - Last date my application was complete at a school

All in all, I am satisfied with how this process ended up for me. It would've been nice to have gotten accepted to more than one school and had some sort of a choice. After-all, I still have some pride left over after two very humbling application cycles. On the other hand, I suck at making decisions for myself, so maybe it's better this way.

Honestly, though, after looking into schools in more depth, there are only one or two schools I would have considered attending over School E. I was waitlisted at one that was a complete reach for me (School A), so I got close but no cigar. The others I viewed through rose-colored glasses so I don't actually know if I would've been happier elsewhere.

Regardless, I am incredibly grateful to have an acceptance, especially to a medical school that I am so excited to attend. I couldn't have done this without the help and support of family, friends, and even strangers I met online. It is so humbling to know that so many people rallied behind me and allowed me to achieve what seemed like a pipe dream at times.

Maybe I'll write up a more detailed post about what got me accepted this time, but if I don't then the short version is the following:

1. Earlier primary application and thus earlier secondary submissions
2. Tailoring my secondary essay answers to the mission of each school
3. Putting on my happy, joyful, enthusiastic face during interviews and selling myself shamelessly

House hunting

A couple of weeks ago I went down to City E to look at apartments/houses to sign a lease for the next year. Boy, was it stressful! My current roommate and best friend (F) who's moving down there with me accompanied me on this trip.

We flew in Thursday night and spent all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday looking at places. We ended up touring 23 apartments, duplexes, and houses, and they ranged from nice properties to slum houses. We found most of the places on craigslist, hence the huge range in quality, but we also worked with a realtor to look at some others.

Our outlook about this whole process changed hourly. We were hopeful and happy thinking of all the awesome places we planned to see, only for them to have something terribly wrong (awful neighborhood, weird landlord, cockroaches, etc.). Up until Sunday morning, we had found a few places we would be okay living in but were not thrilled about. It was very discouraging.

Sunday turned out really well, though, by that night we narrowed our list down to three places we could see ourselves living, à la House Hunters style (my second favorite show on HGTV, right behind House Hunters International).

House 1 - Beautiful house, questionable neighborhood

I fell in love with this place as soon as I walked in. Bright and big rooms, tall ceilings, very open and airy. Lots of history. It was also in the more happening part of town where a lot of other med and grad students live, in an area that is more reminiscent of the character of City E and what it's known for.

However, a couple of blocks away was a questionable part of town and the current tenant said that every once in a while you hear of people getting mugged. The unit was the right half of this house as you're looking at the picture, so the ground floor had bars in the windows. Umm...no. I'm moving from six years in a bubble. I wasn't sure if I wanted to worry about putting my nice TV in the front room because someone might see it and want to break in. The house was AWESOME, though. Not perfect by any means because it was over 100-years-old, but great in the old-house-charm sort of way.


House 2 - Good neighborhood, awful layout

I really wanted to love this place because it was huge, kind of in our budget, and located in the "safe" part of City E (that is, as close to a suburb feel as you can get there). It was a 2-bedroom 1500 sq. ft. apartment occupying the second floor of a nice house, with ginormous bedrooms and an extra study space off one of them.

BUT (and this is a big one), the kitchen was tiny. It was so small that I couldn't figure out where we would put the microwave on the counter. On the other hand, it had a fairly large formal dining room off to the side of it, so the space was there. It was the planning that was off. Also, only two of the windows in the entire house opened, the stairs to the backyard led to the front of the house so you had to walk all the way around the property, and stuff like that. It was just weird and didn't feel natural.


House 3 - Good neighborhood, meh house

This place was just around the corner from House 2, so same neighborhood and similar style. Like House 2, it was the second floor unit with 2 bedrooms, but only 1000 square feet. Unlike House 2, it had a very open layout where the living room opened into the dining room, followed by the kitchen and stairs to the backyard. There were lots of windows (that opened!) and natural light everywhere, which is what I really loved about House 1 as well.

My beef with this place was that it was a step down from our current apartment, and I really wanted to improve my housing. The bedrooms were smaller, as was the backyard. There were window units, like I mentioned, instead of central air.* The neighborhood didn't have anything happening in it with regards to nature and trees and people. The lots in front and to the side of the house were empty and the neighbor on the other side used his home as a vacation house, so it seemed rather dead. It had a very suburban feel, which I don't like too much.

Mostly, I felt very claustrophobic when I was inside and didn't know where I would put my desk because I really like studying at home. When we were actually in the house, it didn't feel too bad, but I think I remember it much smaller than it actually is.

Lastly, the landlady was around our age and really fun to talk to so we'd have an immediate friend when we moved there. She seemed on top of everything and really cared about fixing up the place, telling us she'd replace the stairs leading to the backyard before we moved in, as well as building a fence in the backyard so we'd have our own space and she hers. I would've much rather had her install central air to replace the window units she currently had or update the appliances in the kitchen, but it's not my house so I don't make those decisions.

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So what'd we go with? House? Location? Layout?

We chose neighborhood over house, and picked the more suitable of our options: House 3.

The neighborhood is actually perfect for me, even though I'm still in denial about that. Here's why:

• 3 miles from two yacht clubs (hurray sailing!)
• 1 mile from City E's equivalent of Central Park
• 3 blocks from lots of restaurants and bars, blocks I feel safe walking through

I keep thinking that I should live in the center of all the hustle and bustle of City E because it's so awesome and I should really experience it during my time there. But then I remind myself that I like visiting cities instead of living in them and I'm 10 minutes from the center of City E. That's not far at all.

Most importantly, I really won't have that much time to experience and enjoy my neighborhood because I'll have my nose stuck in a book. So feeling safe and comfortable with where I'm living is the most important thing to consider.

The main source of my disappointment is that, like I mentioned in a previous post, I was really excited to move up in the world of housing and not live in a shit-hole anymore. Unfortunately, I believe House 3 in City E is a step-down in certain ways, a step-up in others, so on average I'm moving laterally and not up. I'm comforted by the fact that the lease is only for one year so I can move next July (although I was really hoping I wouldn't have to) and our landlady lives below us, is our age, and is generally awesome to hang out with.

All in all, it won't be too bad. I just have to suck it up for one more year and maybe find a better place next summer. Or I could end up falling in love with our house and staying there all four years of medical school. You never know.

Below are some pictures of the interior of House 3. It's actually pretty nice.

Looking from the front porch through the living and dining room, to the kitchen.

The kitchen. Entrance on the left leads to the dining room.

One of the bedrooms. It looks smaller than it is.

Edited to add:
I just looked over a post I wrote before going to City E to sign a lease which lists out my requirements for a new place. House 3 has met all of the must-haves and would-like-to-haves. Geez, I really am being a brat about this new place.

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*While my current housing situation has neither central air nor window units, all the places in City E have one or the other. I would prefer to have central air because it's nicer and quieter, and thus a step up in my HVAC experience. Oh well. You can't have everything, especially when you only have five days to look for a place to live in a city you don't know at all.

Accepted medical student panel for pre-med students

I participated in a panel for pre-med students at the local university where the pre-meds could ask accepted students anything they wanted about the application process. I figured as a non-traditional reapplicant, I would have a unique viewpoint on the whole process.

Little did I know that my story is not that uncommon. Of the first 5 people who introduced themselves, 4 were non-traditional reapplicants, though none as old as me. The rest of the 15-20 panelists were either traditional students or kids (yes, they're young) who had taken a gap year to screw around. Not many of the pre-med attendees were non-traditionals so I didn't really help anyone out too much, but I like to believe that my more mature (ha!) attitude about the whole process calmed their nerves a bit.

Most of the questions were about the MCAT: How did you study? Did you get any sleep the night before? When is the best time to take it? There were also questions about choosing medical schools, the incredible debt we're about to incur, and terrible interview questions.

I was one of the few who had studied for the MCAT on my own and had also chosen my list of schools based on geography, among other things. Everyone else had cookie-cutter applications, which I guess is more in line with what the people attending the panel would look like on paper.

The "worst interview question" brought me back to that terrible experience back in November when I completely failed an ethical question. By the time I was able to get a word in (these panelists really liked to talk!) the answers had changed from anecdotes to general interview advice.

Instead of recounting the ethical scenario from hell, I talked about how my interviewer had pointed out every single bad grade I had ever gotten to start off the interview ("To say you did poorly in undergrad is an understatement. A C- in bio, a D+ in ochem, and a D- in anthropology, among other things..."). I then discussed how it made me feel really low even though I'm not ashamed of those grades. It's a part of my past that I freely discuss with others. But the way he put it was very accusatory and I had not experienced being attacked for my GPA before so it caught me off-guard.

The moral of that story was to tell the applicants to do a mock interview with someone they don't know who will grill them on any part of the application that is even a tiny bit weak, or something they are insecure about. The chances of getting such an asshole for an interviewer are very small, but it does happen and you want to be prepared for it.

Some panelists were saying that studying for the MCAT was an all-encompassing ordeal where you have to think and study for the test all the time. I completely disagree with that and made sure to say that although you definitely need to make time for school, you also need an outlet as well as a motivator. The road to becoming a physician is long and overwhelming, so having a reminder of why you're doing this is incredibly important, as is having some sort of work-life balance.

For me, the outlet was rugby. Every Saturday morning was my rugby time and school was not even on my mind for those few hours. Volunteering in the hospital, on the other hand, was the thing that reminded me of my ultimate goal in all this, and kept my eye on the prize when having my nose in a book for months at a time seemed so depressing and pointless. This definitely hit home with at least one person who was completely defeated about the process of getting into medical school, so I'm glad I interjected.

The rest of the panel was rather uneventful. Answers dragged on way too long and were repetitive because everyone wanted to get a word in. I wish we could've led the discussion in that we could focus attention on the most important and stressful aspects of the application cycle, like writing bunches of secondary essays in a months' time, dealing with waiting and the unknown, and how to tailor interview answers to the schools' mission statements.

Instead, the pre-med students asked questions about things that to them seemed like a big deal (as they did to me when I was in their shoes) but in fact were less significant for people who had gone through the whole application process. On the other hand, I'm sure there are presentations during other times of the year for those things and pre-med students rarely get to ask their peers any question they want in an informal setting. So this panel appears to have served its purpose.

As for the panelists, of course there was the kid who showed up in scrubs, wouldn't stop giving terrible advice, and didn't hesitate to announce that he graduated 1.5 years early. Congrats, buddy! You think you know everything, but you haven't lived.

The non-trads in the corner (because of course we showed up last) had a peanut gallery going every time he spoke and towards the end of the panel we'd just talk over him to negate whatever bad answer he had given without even waiting for him to finish. I love how all of us older folk can see through the bullshit and have no qualms about offering an unpopular perspective on things. We're just trying to be real.

It was really weird to be on the other side of the whole medical school application process. It's taken me so long to get accepted, with the two-year post-bacc and two application cycles, that it still doesn't seem real that I'll be starting school in less than three months. Things like this, though, hammer it home. I'm so incredibly excited!

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.