WVU and GW

Currently, I am in the Sunshine State. With Christmas now only 3 days (and 45 minutes) away, I made the annual trek to South Florida, where they are experiencing a "cold snap". I can't help but laugh at these people who are complaining that it is cold when it is 68 degrees outside.

My venture to Florida commenced on Sunday afternoon when I left Richmond Virginia at around 2PM as I headed north on 95, north on 495, north on 270, west on 70 and finally west on 68 to Morgantown, WV. 300 miles and around 5 hours later I pulled into the Comfort Inn - Morgantown. I managed to find some time to venture out to Morgantown and finding the Health Sciences Center. I didn't see anyone with a mullet, so that was somewhat comforting. From what I could tell, Morgantown was a pretty cool place.

Lucky for me, the interview day did not start until 10:45. So I woke up around 8-8:30, experienced the complimentary continental breakfast, and was on my way by 9:30. I walked out to my car to find a 1/2 inch of snow on it. Yep, definitely in the mountains. It took like 15 minutes to get to the school the night before, so I thought there might be some traffic. As I was driving in, I realized that this was Morgantown, and that even if everyone that lived in the city was on the highway, there still wouldn't be a lot of traffic. So I hung out at Starbucks for like 30 minutes and made it to the interview room by 10:30. We were given the spiel about the whole process (in a nutshell: every application gets reviewed twice, and as we speak, I have already been reviewed once and the second review won't occur to mid-January). Our tour guide then picked us up (there were only 3 of us) and we made it to the cafeteria and at lunch. After getting a tour of the hospital and the medical school, we were dropped off in the interview room.

So there is a 2 person team that interviews all the applicants that are there in one day; thus they call in the first person to be interviewed and the others have to sit and wait for that one to be done. Then when the first one is done, that person is free to go. And then the second goes. I was really hoping to be first for a couple reasons. One so that I wouldn't have to sit there and think about it. Second because I was driving to DC and didn't want to get there at like 9 o'clock that night. One of the other guys gets called first right at 1 o'clock. He comes back at 1:20. I was thinking sweet, these are gonna be short, and I will be out at 230 at the absolute latest. The next guy gets called in at 1:35 and gets back to the room at like 2:20. While waiting towards the end, I started thinking:

"Crap. The first guy was 20 minutes, and this second guy is taking 30, 35, 40, 45 minutes. So obviously something was different. WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?!?!?! Ok, I am over analyzing. No, I am not. SOMETHING is different. I can't stop thinking about this. But is it good to be long? Or is it good to be short? Can I make mine go long? Should I make mine go long? The guy who's was short goes to Harvard. That means he's smart. So maybe short is good. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh." You get the idea.

I finally get called in around 2:30, and the conversation was easy. They asked me the typical "Why WVU" as well as "Explain your Calc II grade" "Tell us about that bike trip!" "What do you think is the biggest issue facing healthcare?" etc. After 40 minutes (me thinking again: good or bad????????) the interview is over, and I make my way to my car. I start on my way to DC trying to process how it went, and honestly I have no idea. Yeah, they were friendly, but I am sure they are friendly to everyone. Because of the non-threatening tone, it is hard to tell what they really thought of me. For the biggest issue facing healthcare, I brought up the lack of insurance and thus the affordability of healthcare. One of the interviewers was in total agreement with me, and said that if I could figure something out that I would be something truly special.

I ended up liking WVU a lot. It was cool seeing a comparison between GW and WVU. GW being in the big city and talking about all the opportunities in the political realm to affect healthcare both at home and abroad. WVU being in a small town and taking the approach of being out in the trenches of West Virginia as they really teach to treat rurally. It is amazing the differences between the two, yet the end goal is the same: health. I feel both approaches can work especially considering the work of Dr. Paul Farmer who was able to start small in Haiti and essentially eradicate TB and improve the overall health of those on the central plateau. And on the flip side, through the creation of Partners in Health, he was able allocate millions of dollars from groups like the World Bank to, pardon the expression, trickle down. Essentially I can see both approaches working to improve overall health, and it would be my hope that doctors from all spectrums, whether those trained to be more on the political end, or more in the trenches, can work in concert to improve health. The realm of possibility is seemingly endless and it would be my hope one day to put a small puncture in that realm, making the possible visible.

Coming back to my trip, I made it to DC and had Chipotle with Shina. We went into her lab and I met some of her "friends" (ie: malaria parasites). Those "friends" are dead now because she killed them yesterday morning. I learned more about what exactly she was doing which was also pretty cool. While with Shina I checked my email and I got an email from GW. The email asked me to submit a details of my healthcare experience. And that was all. I have NO idea what that means. I can't even begin to describe what is going through my head as to the reasoning behind this request. I can't determine if it is good or bad. So I am really nervous how to even start to phrase this, knowing full well that it will probably have a very heavy bearing on the decision rendered to me. Scared wouldn't be an effective word to describe how I feel. It is so weird. Hmmmm.

Tomorrow should be my first day on the beach because it is finally supposed to be sunny. I know I have no right to complain since about 99% of you are reading this from a colder place. In case this is the last post before Christmas, I want to wish all you readers a Merry Christmas. Pageantry aside, take a minute to think what the day is all about on Sunday. Even just one minute amidst the hustle and bustle that is food, family, friends, and fun. I can't believe it's Christmas really soon, but that is probably mostly d/t the fact that we put up our christmas tree tonight. Still no lights/decorations, but hey, at least it's up.

still waiting
-wait

George Washington University SOM

My interview at GW was on Thursday and I think it went ok. Here's a bit of a synopsis... to begin, I am not going to include names in here, just because.

So I got to the interview room at around 9:20 -- ten minutes before the day was supposed to start, and I was one of the last people to arrive. I guess I should have figured that seeing as how anal some premeds are. Nonetheless, you make stupid smalltalk with everyone in there; it's a weird dynamic in the room. Let me try to explain. You are one of 1000 people being interviewed for 150 spots in the medical school so there is some stiff competition there. However, you need also to be very friendly towards everyone because schools really like to see that you are personable and get along well with others. So there is a really fine line you need to walk there. Gets a little taxing at times.

9:30 roles around, and the Dean of Admissions (the woman I have been in contact with) comes into the room. She introduces herself and welcomes us to GW. She tells us all that she normally does not come in to say hi, but today she decided to come down. After a very brief introduction, she says "Well I hope you all enjoy the day, and Wait, can I speak to you for a couple minutes?" Reminding yourself of the dynamic in the room, to have an interviewee singled out by the Dean of Admissions is pretty much unheard of. I can only imagine what everyone else in the room was thinking. We walk to another room and she asks me a few questions, making sure that I was comfortable and not nervous (which I most decidely was). We talked for about 5 minutes and by that point I needed to be back in the room as the guy running the day had started his presentation.

After some brief introductions, the Dean of the Medical School came in and gave us a very elaborate review of the medical school, and talked about his vision for the future. I thought this was very cool because he talked about the desire to spread medicine to the wider community of the globe. Mentioning the fact that cancer is primarily a disease of the affluent, he talked much about trying to rid the world of diseases that have been long taken care of in the US. I believe this to be a very noble cause, and something I am feeling more and more convicted to be doing. This is not to say I don't think we should look for cures to cancer, heart disease, etc.; I do believe that we need to spread out our resources. I am not 100% sure where this thought process is going to take me as I hopefully enter the medical profession, but I do know that I want to help change the world for the better and that means I won't be a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, CA.

Following the dean's welcome, we were taken on a tour of the facilities of GW; that is to say we saw 2 classrooms and the 6th floor of the hospital which is 90% devoted to medical students as they undergo clinical training. It is a very cool teaching suite, with rooms mimicking a doctor's office (with the exception of 2 cameras and microphones). The facilities there are amazing and I haven't seen much like it at the other schools I have interviewed at. We arrived back in our room and more information was given to us about the school as well as financial aid information. (I think they said GW is the 4th most expensive school in the country... yikes). Then boxed lunches. Mmmm (right....) We were also able to talk with some first years, who although they have finals next week did not seem incredibly stressed (they did sit there and talk with us for over an hour). They really stressed how non-competitive the school was and this is something that I really really like. Last year gtown was super-competitive (even though the directors denied that fact from day 1). I really don't see myself thriving in such an environment as Gtown, but GW is a place where I would be really happy.

My first actual interview was with a 2nd year student. That went pretty smoothly. I basically talked about myself, my motivations to enter medicine, and what I am doing now that I am no longer in school. I didn't have any ridiculous questions like "If a 14 year old were to walk in to your doctor's office asking for an abortion, what would you do? Would you perform the abortion? Would you tell the parents?" It was a lot less stressful of an interview than that. My second interview was with a pediatric trained MD, but currently is pretty high up in the Microbio/Immuno department at GW. Although he made some comments about how maybe I could pursue a DO degree, at the end he left me feeling pretty good saying he thought my interview helped me, that he would say good things about me, that I was not pretentious like a lot of people that have come through and that he thought I would make a good doctor. So my thoughts are that if he is going to go to bat for me, AND the dean of admissions likes me, there is a pretty good shot. But I don't want to get all excited about it because I really don't want to have a let down. There's that saying don't count your chickens before they hatch or whatever, and I am really afraid that I am doing that.

We were told that we would hear a decision in 8 weeks, so that means around the first week of February I should be hearing one of three possibilities: Denial, Alternate or Acceptance. The denial and acceptance should be pretty obvious, and the alternate is just like a wait-list, but they don't actually call it a waitlist at GW. The alternate list moves some throughout the spring, but during the middle to end of May it really begins to shuffle as after May 15th, you can only hold on to one acceptance. So I could be in it for the long run again.

As for now, I am in Baltimore with Ian helping my aunt and uncle move into a bigger house with my grandmother. I have a week and a couple days before my interview at WVU, so I need to start prepping for that at some point as well (Wed-Sun). I need to figure out why I applied there besides the fact that my connection to the school would get me an interview.

still waiting,
-wait

Topeka's Finale and WVU

Yesterday was my last shift at Topeka's. There may be some more information to come out about the people there, but we will see as I have a couple busy weeks coming up.

Yesterday for lunch, Mike C. and Andrew stopped by for lunch, and Ian, Rachel, Saona and Kristen stopped by for dinner during my last day. That was really cool, as they finally got to see the place I work. Unfortunately for the dinner crew, their order was somehow lost, and it took over an hour to get their food. Fortunately for the dinner crew, they got 20% off their total bill. They were all a little bit upset that they did not get to see David Carter to see the guy they had heard so much about. Maybe that is good... that way he wouldn't try and pick them either. Mike and Andrew did get to meet him, however.

The dinner group was my last table at Topeka's, so at least it was nice to go out with a bang. They told me they were going bowling afterwards and that I needed to come. So after I said my goodbyes to the Topeka-folk, I ran home to quickly change so I could get to the bowling lanes (and start drinking). Now here comes the cool part (as if my last shift wasn't cool enough). I walked by the stack of mail and on top saw a letter addressed to me. It was one of the letters that is typical of the rejection letter size, so I quickly scanned to the return address to see where I had been rejected from. It was West Virginia University. Devastation set it, knowing that I had sent in my secondary application a mere 3-4 weeks ago, and they had a very quick turn around for this rejection.

I picked up the letter, and the first thing that crossed my mind was that the letter was taped shut since I felt the tape on the opposite side. Odd I thought. But then I felt the letter a little more, and realized that it was a bit heavier than a rejection letter should be. Somehow, I reasoned that maybe this is a 2 page rejection, or something like they needed more information. Opening the letter, I saw the back page first and read the words "From I-79" I quickly turned to the front page, and read that the committee on admissions is requesting my appearance for an interview. I was floored -- literally. I fell to the floor in absolute shock and amazement. I quickly read the letter and found out that I am interviewing on Dec 19th, only 2 weeks away. I called my parents, finally changed, and made my way to bowling.

Now you may be wondering why I am so surprised. This is because they interview about 2% of their out of state applicants -- they get about 1000 applications from out of staters. So I am in a select group of 20. That is pretty much why I am so surprised. I know need to figure out some crap... like where I am going to stay (maybe at the Clements), and what I am doing between 4PM the 19th (when the interview is over) and 8:30AM the 20th (when I leave for Florida from DC). There's the possibility that I need to drive from Morgantown to Richmond (6 hours) and then pack, and drive to DC (2 hours). This of course after having spent 6 hours in the car the previous day driving from Richmond to Morgantown. I need to start burning CD's now.

I am so excited right now... hopefully more excitement will be down the road where I receive another letter... the likes of which I don't even want to mention right now.

GW remains in the forefront right now as that interview is in 4 days. Speaking of 4, we are supposed to get 4-7 inches of snow tomorrow. That is really crazy for Richmond, VA... 4-7 inches of snow is crazy enough, but in December?!?! Crazy.

Alrighty... I'm off to some stuff around here to make the next couple weeks go a bit smoother.

-wait

Univ. of Maryland

As you can tell from the title, there is some news from the University of Maryland. And this is the kind of crap I really wanted to post here... to show how long and drawn out and annoying this process of applying to medical school is. The email pops up, and it is from "Admissions, SOM" and on the subject line, all I can read is "Update Status for your University of M" and I am thinking "oh god oh god oh god" as the email actually loads (Outlook is somewhat slow on my computer) so many thoughts are running through my head, including but not limited to "Last year the subject line had the date of my interview in it, and there is no date, does this mean I am rejected? Well maybe they changed their format this year and they don't want to put dates in the subject line"

So as these thoughts are racing through my head, I get to the actual email, and a quick glance over it reveals no bolded type or anything, meaning an interview is probably out of the question.

The first line is "The Committee on Admissions at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has made an initial review of your application but has not yet reached a final decisions as to whether or not to invite you to interview" And it goes on to talk about how I will be rereviewed periodically and I can send more information. Well woop-de-freaking-do. I just feel like it is a pretty big cop-out and real annoying because it is a letter to essentially say "Wait longer". Perhaps I should be happy that I was not rejected; however at this stage in the game I would like to know either way. I say I am really annoyed, but at the same time I have become pretty immune to this kind of crap as it is what I have heard over the last three years. I seem to just kind of bend over and take it. Which is cool and all, but I am sick of it.

In related news, I am starting to get pretty nervous about my GW interview next week. I have been reading a lot lately to try and get up on some of the more recent medical news, like the partial face transplant in Paris, as well as the discovery of a new outbreak that may occur related to the Clositridium difficile, which causes severe diarrhea and has a high mortality/morbity rates. (To be released in next weeks New England Journal of Medicine). Of course, all the while keeping up with the avian influenza cases of the deadly H5N1 strain. Luckily, however, I have not had any dreams recently of being accepted -- the ones where I wake up really excited that the process is over, only to realize within 10 seconds that it was just a dream.

That's about all I have right now. Oh, but I have been meaning to give a brief synopsis of the process... listing where I am with all the schools, to keep track.

Rejected: Wake, VCU, BU, Case Western, and EVMS

On Hold: Penn State and Maryland

Waiting: Albany, AECOM, Drexel, Georgetown, Jefferson, NYMC, SLU, Temple, Tufts, Tulane, Cinci, WVU

Interview: GW


So that's where I am. Needless to say, I am prepping hardcore for my interview next week, and will be so interested in the school showing my interest from the second I step on campus, until I leave.

Oh, and my last shift at Topeka's is Saturday.

Still waiting...
-wait