Secondary Hell Is Over

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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 →

RoidMonster

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I’m a morning workout person. I like the early hours of the day; it’s quiet, there’s no traffic, and no one wants to talk to me. I go to the gym before work because it’s almost empty. More importantly, the gym is running a promotion with my company where everyone gets a free 8-week membership. So going after work would be like visiting a meat locker of coworkers. Not my favorite idea. Continue reading →

Holding All The Cards

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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 →

A Whirlwind Week… and a Surprise

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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 →

Bangkok, The Scramble For Koh Phi Phi, and the Cambodian Mystery Death Infection

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My titles are nothing if not dramatic.

When we left off, Ellen and I were taking a minibus ride to Bangkok. It was a frustrating trip because we stopped at a gas station nearly every hour, which meant I bought a lot of unpronounceable Thai snacks. Some were tasty; some tasted like burnt wood.

Now, because I am clearly a charming little tourist (and humble) I made friends with the couple sitting next to me. Ellen was not sitting to me; she had done what she always does on motorized transportation and passed out in the back. It’s a pretty amazing skill, actually. Anyway, the pair next to me were Dutch travelers who spoke excellent English. I mention this interaction because it scored us a dinner date once we arrived in Bangkok. After wading our way through a veritable army of pushy taxi drivers, we walked about twenty minutes toward the backpacker district of Khao San before stopping for dinner. Continue reading →

Tuk-Tuk? NO. Now now, not later, not EVER. Go away. (Phnom Penh to Siem Reap to Bangkok)

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Long title, I know. Sorry, not sorry.

When we left off, Ellen and I had just reached Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. We disembarked from the boat and were immediately met with a swarm of drivers. In Cambodia, the predominant form of tourist transport is a tuk-tuk, which roughly translates to “extremely annoying driver of a box attached to a motorbike. Tuk Tuk drivers are, to put it mildly, everywhere and insanely irritating. No matter where you are or where you go, there’s sure to be a gang of tuk tuk drivers hanging out outside, just waiting to pounce on you as you exit. (“Tuk tuk? You need tuk tuk ride?” NO I HAVE TWO LEGS, LEAVE ME ALONE.) One of the highlights of this trip has been the relative non-pushiness of the people in the tourism business here; tuk tuk drivers were the notable exception.

(“Tuk-tuk?” I JUST GOT OUT OF ONE YOU MORON.) Continue reading →

The Magic Note: Can Tho to Phnom Penh

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This story begins with a man named Mr. Triet, a travel agent who met Ellen and I upon our arrival to a hostel in the Mekong Delta town of Can Tho. We had bussed to the area because of its famous floating markets; every morning, a gaggle of boats congregate at places along the Mekong River to basically trade wares.

We took motorbikes from the bus station to the hostel – a somewhat harrowing and exhilarating experience when you also have a backpack to carry – and were checked in by Mr. Triet, who we thought managed the hotel (he didn’t. Oops). After waving off the usual hard sell of a tour of the floating markets the following morning, we set out to explore Can Tho and promptly got tremendously lost, making a wrong turn literally out of the driveway of our hostel. Continue reading →

WAS to EWR to NRT to HKG to.. ah, I lost track

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After a whirlwind many hours, my traveling companion Ellen and I are in Saigon. And, as luck would have it, leaving tomorrow after two nights here. We made it to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC – same thing as Saigon; Ho Chi Minh is kind of a big deal here) with only two hitches.

1. Our relatively insane flight schedule took us from Washington to Newark to Tokyo to Hong Kong to HCMC. The final three flights – Newark to Ho Chi Minh – were nominally the same flight number on the same airline, though we had to disembark at each stop. Because we booked our tickets late by international travel standards, our seats were originally apart, and after some wrangling we got seated together (Ellen slept for the vast majority of the trip, so this turned out to be a nonfactor anyway). The unintended consequence of this was we only got 1 boarding pass for the double leg of Tokyo to Hong Kong to Saigon. Upon re-boarding our flight in Tokyo, they tore our ticket stub. Continue reading →

Off to Southeast Asia

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After a couple of weeks of MCAT destressing and apartment hunting, I am off to Southeast Asia! I’m going to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. I hope to post a little bit here about our travels; Ellen might have a blog of her own you can check out. If so, I’ll post the link here.

We have very little idea of where we’re going or how to get there, but that’s the best way to go, right?

Right?!

The Long Haul Begins

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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 →