March 15 has come and gone. After almost a full calendar year of applying to med school, the 2013 application cycle is finally over.
Finally.
To recap how much the past year has sucked, please see the list below of Things Applicants Had To Do This Year While You Were Out Having Fun. It begins in April of 2012. It’s long. Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago, the program director for my postbac program sent me an email asking if I’d participate in a panel discussion for this year’s current inmates (the kids going through the wringer like I did last year) about the interview process. It dawned on me that my cohort is exactly a year removed from when we began the application process last year.
If you’ll remember from my timeline post, The Long Haul Begins, the primary med school application doesn’t even open until June. On the advice of this same program director, we were told to start our personal statements over winter break – for me, just over a year ago. Continue reading
After nearly three months, seven round-trip flights, two experiences on Amtrak, and an exhausting number of hours in airports and security lines, my interview cycle is over. I can triumphantly report that, regardless of where or to how few schools I gain admission, I have no idea where I want to be, what I want to study, or how I want to learn.
Oh, if you stop by my desk at work, I’ve arrayed my little collection of name tags (yes, I saved every one, because that’s what narcissists with OCD do) into groupings that ostensibly represent my preferences and rankings, but I change it every day. So I really do have no idea. Continue reading
For as much general vitriol I spew forth on this blog, I like to think I’m a pretty nice guy. I like people. I am friendly to gate agents when my flight is delayed. I used to send a “daily dose” of internet humor around to co-workers every morning.
At an interview, you’re supposed to be yourself, and I generally am. But I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon: the night of and day after an interview, particularly one for which I’ve had to travel, I am not nice. For lack of a better word, I am an asshole. Continue reading
I was walking from the middle of campus to the medical education building (okay, I was wandering, because I was lost) to start my interview day when I spotted a gangly-looking Asian kid in a clearly new suit walking in the same direction. He was, like me, lugging around a suitcase. I lasered in on what had to be a fellow applicant.
I introduced myself, shook the kid’s hand, and made a little small talk.
“I’m from Charlotte,” he said. I put on my best wry smile, which looks kind of like a grimace; it throws people off. I knew what was coming. Where did he go to school? Carolina. Oh, really? Me, too! That’s so funny that we’re both here and yadda yadda… Continue reading
As a high school senior, I applied to six colleges. Had I chosen my own application path, I would have applied to two, maybe three schools, but my parents insisted.
Those two schools were similar in almost every way. Both were located in the South. Both were large state schools at the top of the academic totem pole. Both had strong sports programs and both had beautiful campuses.
(In case you haven’t figured it out, the two schools were the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina.)
I made my final decision, two days before the deadline, on three factors:
This week marked a somewhat momentous occasion in my medical school application process: I finished my last secondary application (for a recap of the process, see “The Long Haul Begins“). Well, technically there’s one more lurking out there but I already decided that a) since they haven’t sent it out yet and b) I don’t actually know in what state the medical school is located, I probably shouldn’t waste my time applying.
While I will never single a school out here, some of the secondary applications schools sent out were patently absurd. A standard secondary usually asked for a 250-500 word essay or two; the high out of my list of schools was five. On the other hand, some schools simply asked you to resubmit your contact information and check whether you have siblings, then requested their $120 supplemental fee in a blatant money grab. That pissed me off, but at least they were honest about their intent – they didn’t care about any essays at all. Continue reading
Oh, I’m not talking about me. In the medical school world, the institution holds all the cards. When you apply to schools and complete the secondary application, the rest of the process is entirely at the discretion of the school – that is, until they decide to make you an offer of admission.
Here’s what happens: When a school receives your completed application, they will review it when they get a chance. Or they won’t, and will wait to review applications until a predetermined date in the future. Continue reading
The last two weeks have been a crazy whirlwind of stress, triumph, starting a new job, and a huge amount of writing. When I got back to the States, I had about a week to wait for my MCAT scores and convalesce from whatever bizarre mystery infection I picked up in Cambodia. And it took that full week.
You probably don’t care or want to hear about me moving, so I’ll skip that part. I also started a new job on Monday; I’ll skip talking about that, too, mostly because blogging about your job is a traumatically bad idea.
What I WILL tell you: the first date for “data transmission” to medical schools was June 29. If you remember The Long Haul Begins, you’ll recall that this was Step 3 – when your completed application goes out to the medical schools you’ve listed, sans any scores or grades you haven’t gotten yet. For me, this was before my MCAT score came in – so my twenty or so schools got everything but. Continue reading
With the MCAT in the rearview mirror (GOODBYE YOU HATEFUL ANIMAL MAY I NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN), the focus for premeds now turns to the medical school application process, administered by a faceless, acronymous agency known as AMCAS.
AMCAS stands for American Medicine Cannot Accept, Sorry (actually, American Medical College Application Service), and will be the most-visited website on my little computer over the next two months. Well, besides Youtube. I have my priorities. Continue reading
crashing resident 