I was expecting my mailbox to be busting with good news last week. After all, the previous week I had gotten my first and second invitations to interview on two consecutive days. Certainly that was a harbinger of things to come.
Except that it wasn't. Instead, it was a dreary week with my anticipatory joy going, going, gone, until opening email felt like a sure-fire way to take a plunge into the sea of disappointment. Yep. I've become a victim of the insanity I so smugly watched my friend go through last fall.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Visiting Marian University
Marian University is reviewing its first group of applicants for the College of Osteopathic Medicine's inaugural class. A few weeks, I headed to Indianapolis on a business trip, and the friendly folks at Marian COM agreed to meet with me face to face.
Marian is on the edge of a part of town that, um, needs a little lovin'. Too many boarded up houses for me to keep count. Needless to say, there is ample opportunity for students to participate in community out-reach.
The campus is small, and the under-construction health science center promises to be a solid cornerstone, sitting prominently at a busy intersection. With 200 enrollees at the medical school, Marian University's total enrollment will go up by about 10%. I hope the school will be able to withstand the inevitable growing pains.
I'm a bit trepidatious about attending a new medical school, but Marian looks very promising. They have pulled together a faculty experienced in start-ups and I love the energy of new ventures. Their collaboration with well-established health systems is solid and reassuring. There are too many osteopathic hospitals in the US (could not find a reliable number), and Marian University has the good fortune of partnering with a well-established osteopathic facility. Kinda cool.
I submitted a primary app to MU-COM, but haven't yet decided if I'm going to submit a secondary. I'm narrowing down my DO secondaries to the cities I truly want to live in. I don't know if Indy is for me. I like what I've seen and heard from MU-COM, but moving, at this stage in life, means considering employment opportunities for my husband and college options for my kids.
Marian is on the edge of a part of town that, um, needs a little lovin'. Too many boarded up houses for me to keep count. Needless to say, there is ample opportunity for students to participate in community out-reach.
The campus is small, and the under-construction health science center promises to be a solid cornerstone, sitting prominently at a busy intersection. With 200 enrollees at the medical school, Marian University's total enrollment will go up by about 10%. I hope the school will be able to withstand the inevitable growing pains.
I'm a bit trepidatious about attending a new medical school, but Marian looks very promising. They have pulled together a faculty experienced in start-ups and I love the energy of new ventures. Their collaboration with well-established health systems is solid and reassuring. There are too many osteopathic hospitals in the US (could not find a reliable number), and Marian University has the good fortune of partnering with a well-established osteopathic facility. Kinda cool.
I submitted a primary app to MU-COM, but haven't yet decided if I'm going to submit a secondary. I'm narrowing down my DO secondaries to the cities I truly want to live in. I don't know if Indy is for me. I like what I've seen and heard from MU-COM, but moving, at this stage in life, means considering employment opportunities for my husband and college options for my kids.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Kicking off Interview Season
I got my first interview invitation on Friday. I was elated! I'll be interviewing for a seat in a DO program. Though I submitted primary applications to a total of 8 osteopathic schools, I only did secondaries for 3. It's good to hear back from one of those just two weeks after my second MCAT scores were released.
After doing my happy-dance and calling my husband ("Guess what?!"), I decided that maybe I should check my "spam" box again. I've been pretty good about going through it once a day. Lo and behold! There was another interview invitation that had been sent on Thursday afternoon! This one is for an MD program in Texas. Texas schools are manadated to have no more than 10% of their students from out-of-state. I'm just so excited. This school only interviews about 1/10 of out-of-staters, so I'm feeling pretty good about making it past "first-cuts."
Now, I just need to figure out how to schedule these interviews (and travel) with my work, my kids, and my genetics class.
After doing my happy-dance and calling my husband ("Guess what?!"), I decided that maybe I should check my "spam" box again. I've been pretty good about going through it once a day. Lo and behold! There was another interview invitation that had been sent on Thursday afternoon! This one is for an MD program in Texas. Texas schools are manadated to have no more than 10% of their students from out-of-state. I'm just so excited. This school only interviews about 1/10 of out-of-staters, so I'm feeling pretty good about making it past "first-cuts."
Now, I just need to figure out how to schedule these interviews (and travel) with my work, my kids, and my genetics class.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
MCAT (take 2) Scores Released!
Verbal Reasoning went down by one point to 11--big whoop, still sizzlin'.
Physical Sciences went up by one point to 8--that's good enough for me.
Biological Science--bam!--jumped up FOUR points to an 11.
Sweet, sweet, sweet satisfaction. 26o to 30p.
Physical Sciences went up by one point to 8--that's good enough for me.
Biological Science--bam!--jumped up FOUR points to an 11.
Sweet, sweet, sweet satisfaction. 26o to 30p.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Mini-Me
Mini-Me is 17 and a senior in high school. Needless to say, she resembles her mother. Though she is convinced that I have no idea what she is going through, I'd say that we are both in the same boat. Or at least, we rented our canoes from the same place.
Mini is feeling a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of applying to college. It doesn't help that I keep telling her she needs to get her applications in right away. How nice it must be to decide if you want to apply to three places or stretch yourself and apply to five! (Jealously point #1.) So far, I think she has decided to exclude schools that have an essay section on their applications. (Jealousy point #2.)
She took her first ACT exam this spring. With a score of 29, Mini believed that she could have done better if she had actually gone through the prep book I bought her. Frankly, I think a 29 is a great score, but I'm always delighted to hear my kids say they want to best themselves. So, Mini registered to take the ACT a week after I was scheduled to retake the MCAT.
M's scores arrived at our house yesterday, two weeks earlier than expected. She opened the envelope with a big smile on her face, but it quickly faded. She scored a 30 on the second go-round. "That's awesome!" I said. She just glared at me.
The day of her retake, Mini came home happy. "I know that I did so much better," she told her dad and me. "I finished all of the questions, not leaving a single one blank this time. I think I'm going to get a 33." She's a smart girl, and math is her forte, but her dad and I were quick to remind her that scoring in the 94th percentile (jealousy point #3) didn't give her much room for growth. Her score of 29 meant that she'd definitely get scholarships at the state schools (JP #4). That said, her optimism was inspiring. I had taken my test a week earlier and loved the idea of having my score increase by 4 points. I, too, felt like I had done so much better on the second test.
Mothering has got to be the best way to find yourself face-to-face with your own issues. On one hand, I'm reassuring my daughter, trying to get her to be OK with her score and see it as a victory. On the other hand, my fear of not doing better on the MCAT suddenly jumped out of the closet. Really, truly, honestly, I thought I was fine with it. I thought I was in a comfortable, wait-and-see sort of place. Mini's disappointment has given me a new dread for Tuesday.
Mini is feeling a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of applying to college. It doesn't help that I keep telling her she needs to get her applications in right away. How nice it must be to decide if you want to apply to three places or stretch yourself and apply to five! (Jealously point #1.) So far, I think she has decided to exclude schools that have an essay section on their applications. (Jealousy point #2.)
She took her first ACT exam this spring. With a score of 29, Mini believed that she could have done better if she had actually gone through the prep book I bought her. Frankly, I think a 29 is a great score, but I'm always delighted to hear my kids say they want to best themselves. So, Mini registered to take the ACT a week after I was scheduled to retake the MCAT.
M's scores arrived at our house yesterday, two weeks earlier than expected. She opened the envelope with a big smile on her face, but it quickly faded. She scored a 30 on the second go-round. "That's awesome!" I said. She just glared at me.
The day of her retake, Mini came home happy. "I know that I did so much better," she told her dad and me. "I finished all of the questions, not leaving a single one blank this time. I think I'm going to get a 33." She's a smart girl, and math is her forte, but her dad and I were quick to remind her that scoring in the 94th percentile (jealousy point #3) didn't give her much room for growth. Her score of 29 meant that she'd definitely get scholarships at the state schools (JP #4). That said, her optimism was inspiring. I had taken my test a week earlier and loved the idea of having my score increase by 4 points. I, too, felt like I had done so much better on the second test.
Mothering has got to be the best way to find yourself face-to-face with your own issues. On one hand, I'm reassuring my daughter, trying to get her to be OK with her score and see it as a victory. On the other hand, my fear of not doing better on the MCAT suddenly jumped out of the closet. Really, truly, honestly, I thought I was fine with it. I thought I was in a comfortable, wait-and-see sort of place. Mini's disappointment has given me a new dread for Tuesday.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Top Entertainment Pick
A friend of mine assumes that I am a Grey's Anatomy junky. "Doesn't watching that make you scared to go to med school?" I just laughed. She was surprised that I had never seen it. To humor her, I finally pulled up the pilot on Netflix. Nope. Grey's Anatomy does not scare me. (That is, unless you are talking about the original Gray's Anatomy. That puppy is pretty daunting.)
So what's a good thing to watch if you'd really liked to get scared? I humbly recommend the NOVA documentary Doctors' Diaries. I caught the program when it originally aired on PBS in 2009, and stumbled across it this past week on Netflix. The program follows seven students enrolling in Harvard Medical School in 1987 over the course of 21 years. In an era when reality TV abounds, it is refreshing to see this candid look at these students who were simply being themselves. (No, I really don't believe the average reality TV star today has much genuine personality.)
You just can't help but feel for these people. Their reaction to being in the anatomy lab for the first time, their realization that there are no promised outcomes--these are things that network television tries to capture, but can't.
You watch them smile as they try to deal with the humbling and somewhat humiliating reality that the "brightest kids in the class" no longer have all the answers. Frankly, one of the guys sounds like a total idiot while taking a medical history. At first you might think, "Wow! Any body can get into Harvard," but it doesn't take much to realize that sleep deprivation is the primary cause of his unintelligent speech, and this guy isn't operating far from his breaking point.
The documentary also chronicles the impact high-intensity training followed by a high-intensity career has on intimate relationships. There is no pretense, just the reality that it is hard to strike a balance in life. The guise of being successful as a physician is pulled aside as you catch them reflect upon what type of success matters most in life. I'll admit it; it left me a little spooked.
So what's a good thing to watch if you'd really liked to get scared? I humbly recommend the NOVA documentary Doctors' Diaries. I caught the program when it originally aired on PBS in 2009, and stumbled across it this past week on Netflix. The program follows seven students enrolling in Harvard Medical School in 1987 over the course of 21 years. In an era when reality TV abounds, it is refreshing to see this candid look at these students who were simply being themselves. (No, I really don't believe the average reality TV star today has much genuine personality.)
You just can't help but feel for these people. Their reaction to being in the anatomy lab for the first time, their realization that there are no promised outcomes--these are things that network television tries to capture, but can't.
You watch them smile as they try to deal with the humbling and somewhat humiliating reality that the "brightest kids in the class" no longer have all the answers. Frankly, one of the guys sounds like a total idiot while taking a medical history. At first you might think, "Wow! Any body can get into Harvard," but it doesn't take much to realize that sleep deprivation is the primary cause of his unintelligent speech, and this guy isn't operating far from his breaking point.
The documentary also chronicles the impact high-intensity training followed by a high-intensity career has on intimate relationships. There is no pretense, just the reality that it is hard to strike a balance in life. The guise of being successful as a physician is pulled aside as you catch them reflect upon what type of success matters most in life. I'll admit it; it left me a little spooked.
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