sharpie

7/11/2011: Rejected via email. Though it's a terrific school, they run a very strict screen, and I don't think it has to do with numbers. If you're out-of-region (not from WWAMI) and haven't already demonstrated some very clear ties to the Seattle area / Pacific Northwest, don't expect to get too far.

10/13/2011: Rejected via snail mail. Tough love, but saves me a trip. :)

10/13/2011: Invited to interview, but withdrew due to time and financial constraints.

12/62011: Invited to interview, but withdrew due to time and financial constraints. Nah...Just kidding - withdrew due to accepted and lazy.

03/06/2012: "I'm sorry, I can't, but I'm going to keep on trying." - Paul Farmer

11/21/2011: An 11-hour interview day marathon later, I'm done. Yes, 11. I had my first interview at 9 and my second at 5 pm, so I was there from before 8 to almost 7. That's the worst-case scenario; one person out of 10+ had both interviews in the morning and was done by 1:30ish. Most people were done around 3:30 or 4. The day is extremely unstructured. Aside from your 2 interviews, an intro session, and a lunch/tour, you are completely on your own to explore (or take a nap, like me). They weren't kidding around when they said we would have down time. A lot of students we met, including our tour guide, seemed inclined to apologize for Harvard's lack of effort during the interview day, but after 13 interviews, I didn't mind not hearing hours of propaganda. Not that Harvard needs it. This is a school with incredibly motivated students, hordes of medical leaders serving as faculty, and affiliated hospitals that dominate health care in New England. Global opportunities and public health/policy opportunities are unmatched, even by Hopkins; service opportunities are a little more scant, as admitted by my student interviewer, but they have really picked up steam in the last few years, and I do not doubt that this is a very socially aware / volunteer-spirited student body that is driving that change. The students, while not perfectly laid back, did not display the arrogance or competitive ego that can plague Harvard College ( -- unfortunately. Harvard friends' opinions, not mine). My student interviewer gave a very reassuring response when I asked about Harvard's reputation, and how that might negatively impact the young physicians that the school produces. Suffice it to say that the students here really bond over their common goals and diverse backgrounds. We got a tour of the educational facilities, Vanderbilt Hall, and several hospitals (everyone had nothing to do early in the afternoon, including our tour guide, so the tour may vary substantially by guide). Vandy is a pretty popular housing choice for the students: dorm-styled, but feels much cozier (much more like a hotel) than Reed (JHU) or Olin (WashU) because it has hard-wood and carpet instead of tile. It is more expensive (e.g. $700-800 vs. $500 for Olin), but comparably cheap when we're talking about Boston real estate ($1500+). Also has a kitchen in every entryway, a nice gym, lounges, music practice rooms (pianos!). Still communal bathrooms, though. The Longwood area is world-class in medical facilities, but a little subpar in eats and groceries; luckily Boston is easily accessible by subway, bus, or med shuttles. We did not meet any 3rd or 4th year students, and I'm not sure how I feel about the lottery-for-a-single-site system for clinical rotations. With so many stunning hospitals nearby, I'd want to spend some time in all of them, though I can see why it'd be easier to get familiarized with only 1 site. My faculty interview, first thing in the morning, did not go particularly well. It was open-file, but the doc had not read my application prior to my sitting down in front of him, so I doubt he can present an accurate portrait of me to admissions.. But that's how the cookie crumbles, sometimes. Fortunately, I long ago achieved a sort of Zen mind-frame regarding interviews, and my 2nd interview was one of my favorite all season. What a whirlwind to wrap things up.
Edit: Never mind, not wrapped yet. Welcome to the party, Penn!

3/14/2012: Nothing to see here. Move along now.

1/13/2012: I'm done I'm done I'm done! 2 interviews (1 faculty 1 student), both open file and about half an hour long. Philly is a terrific mid-size major city, and University City felt like an interesting hybrid of New Haven and Cambridge. With the entire Penn campus in one place, West Philly is very livable. Love Penn's curriculum, student body, and terrific commitment to the local community. Interview day was pretty interactive (got to simulate a code on a dummy and sit in on a pathology lab).

11/28/2011: "C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER" - Girlfriend

9/20/2011: 1 Faculty and 1 Student interview, both an hour long. I felt like I got very little out of this day, because my faculty interview conflicted with the short tour of the medical education building (for MS1 and MS2), and it was on-campus, so I didn't get to visit the medical center in Orange (Be aware that you may be taking a free shuttle there for your faculty interview). Also, I've heard of a friend having to (personally) drive an hour to Long Beach Veterans Hospital for her faculty interview. Not sure if that might happen to anyone this year (didn't happen today), but just noting it for posterity's sake because organizationally, that's rough. Anyways, everyone was as friendly as can be, and the day as a whole was fine, but I simply didn't feel like I got a terrific sense of the school, and not much stood out in particular to me the way it did in Davis. It could just be that this is technically my "home" school, and I'm already fairly familiar with the campus and surroundings because of a high school internship. Also meant that I didn't stay with a student host, and we did not meet and talk to any MS3 or 4 since they're not in Irvine. There were 40 interviewees on the same day, mostly in the same room for the entire (half-)day, so that basically sums it up. Notable pluses include the nice SoCal weather, the adjoining, huge undergraduate campus, nice (but expensive) housing and recreational facilities, and the emphasis on technology in teaching (iPads for students). Opportunities for community outreach work or early clinical exposure (as in Davis' free clinics) existed but seemed a bit scant in comparison. In any case, I would love to come here and be close to my entire family and all those old friends in the Orange County area, but at the time of this writing, I can't help but feel emotionally neutral about it, which is a bummer.

3/13/2012: Cool beans.

10/25/2011: Another beautiful example of a school that soared up my rankings after a visit. World-class medical center that is peerless for literally states in every direction, resulting in a terrific patient population. Tons of outreach and service opportunities on every level (including many involved faculty). 2nd year is not P/F, but I suppose that's not important at all in the long run. Very friendly faculty members, and students in general seemed pretty well-rounded and nice. Terrific interview, open-file, lasted about an hour. EVERY single building in this giant medical complex is connected. Which means stay in Olin if you interview; the admissions office is literally downstairs, past a couple cafes and hallways. Beautiful library and study spaces for students, and the facilities are new, gorgeous, and continuing to expand. Living in Olin (and St. Louis in general) is dirt-cheap, and the Central West End has great eats (and beautiful Forest Park just to the west). Students also get a free Metropass so they can basically go anywhere in the city (subway stops right next to the med school). Price tag is hefty but financial aid is pretty good (50/50 scholarship/loan split for need, and full-tuition merit for 12-15 students a year).

3/8/2012: Waitlisted via mail on March 1st. Took some time to get to California.

9/28/2011: Columbia was fantastic. This review will be long because I learned a lot today. Only 1 faculty interview that was budgeted to last (and lasted exactly) 30 minutes; extremely, extremely casual, conversational, and open-file. Most take place right in the admissions office (I had to walk 1 block to my doctor’s suite). I did it right away in the morning and the rest of the day was as laid back as it gets. I came in knowing that I would be impressed by what Columbia offers, but not really knowing if I could be persuaded to live in the City instead of moving back toward home (CA). Well, Columbia made a terrific case for it. Clinical opportunities are astounding; living in New York City means that you're surrounded by an incredibly diverse patient population and hordes of world-class facilities and doctors, some of the best being those at NY Presby and CUMC. Washington Heights has reversed its reputation and, by my Southern Californian reckoning, is not scary or sketchy at all (relative to any other urban location). Though there are some great Dominican eats, food offerings in the immediate area are admittedly not incredible; many students participate in a flexible, 3-nights-a-week meal plan for approximately $5 a meal, and I saw most doing some major Tupperwaring to get multiple meals out of one, which I guess is kind of disheartening (the food itself was fine, comparable to dining halls at Yale - thus better than stereotypical cafeteria food, I guess). Cooking also doesn’t seem easy (nearby groceries are only decent, and only 1-2 shared kitchens in the main dorm). Then again, the subway brings you midtown/downtown within 20-30 minutes, and a free shuttle runs to Columbia’s undergraduate campus in the Upper West Side, so you are by no means isolated and can choose to go/eat out if budget allows. Unlike the food/cooking/eating out situation, housing is subsidized, <5 minutes walking from the hospital, and an apparent bargain. Most MS1 live in Bard Hall, which has dorm-style singles with shared bathrooms (which some people hate and I don’t mind at all), and most upperclassmen live in the adjacent Bard Towers, which has spacious apartments with amazing views of the Hudson River. Couples housing available for MS1 in Bard Towers. The biggest selling point of the whole school was the incredible emphasis on extracurriculars. With true pass/fail preclinical 1.5 years and a tremendous, mutually supportive atmosphere among students, Columbia really encourages its students to maintain hobbies and passions and to become very well-rounded clinicians. This includes offering courses in medical Spanish, narrative medicine, fine arts, photography in medicine, community health, etc. The people we talked to today included dancers, jugglers, theatre geeks, musicians (Rachmaninoff’s personal piano is in a Bard Hall practice room!) -- so this is the first medical school (of 4 interviews) where I’ve found very adequate music practice facilities. Speaking of couples, I heard encouraging comments from other students about how involved and included current students’ spouses/SOs are in their activities and social life. As a writer, photographer, musician, historian, and taken man, this school is a much better fit than I imagined. Minus the sub-optimal food situation and the continuing-to-live-really-far-from-home situation, Columbia made a big jump in my mental rankings, and I would be extremely excited to come here. We’ll see…

12/21/2011: Merry Christmas to you too, UCSF!!!

9/22/2011: Flat-out amazing. Gorgeous area. Tons to do. Amazing, cheap food. Jamba Juice. Gorgeous new anatomy lab on the way with Golden Gate view from the 14th floor of the hospital. Hyper-friendly students, admissions, and faculty. Everyone extremely down-to-earth. Incredible range of community and clinical opportunities. Strong emphasis on primary care but an extremely well-rounded institution. The only negatives may be the lack of a larger "campus" feel, the slightly older condition of the main hospital and classrooms, and the inherent drawbacks that come with being a public school. 1 Faculty and 1 student interview, closed-file and both about 45 minutes long. You may have to take a shuttle to another hospital for the faculty interview but clear directions are given, and the UCSF shuttle system is a nice way to get around the city. Seems to be a very family-friendly school. I met several married and soon-to-be-married couples, and they seemed very happy with life here. My interviews were very laid back and went fine. I did feel that I handicapped myself a bit because I wasn't used to the closed-file interview, and I wasn't extremely sure that I answered all the questions on my interviewers' minds. That aside, I heard similar comments from other students/applicants, so it's all out of my hands now. San Francisco is the perfect city for both professional and personal goals. At the time of this writing, if I were lucky enough to have the choice to make, UCSF would be comfortably my top choice.

11/29/2011: Accepted via email despite what I thought were pretty sub-par interviews on my part. Should I come home??

10/28/2011: 1 faculty and 1 student interview, closed-file and anywhere between 30-60 min. Training at LA County Hospital is a terrific opportunity, it's counterbalanced by pretty good research and academic offerings, and students and faculty both seemed to have a genuine spirit for community service and outreach (their free clinic is very new, but students do a lot of mentoring and outreach to at-risk youth in local schools). Medical Spanish and Chinese opportunities available. Price tag is stiff, but Keck and USC undergrad have abundant merit-based scholarships. Lunch was nice - try the spicy ketchup!

11/1/2011: Accepted via phone call from Dean Neumeyer! Wow, quite happy to have a nice option in Boston!

10/13/2011: Pretty good school. This was the birthplace of the community health movement, and the students do community service activities throughout Boston. I appreciated the dean's willingness to talk about Chinatown during our interview. Enjoyed my interviews a lot, both open-file and 30-min. BUT THE PRICE...

12/15/2011: Called my home phone this afternoon. New York! Bellevue! East Side!

10/19/2011: Terrific school linked to a powerhouse block of world-class hospitals. High-end university hospital in Tisch just two blocks from one of the most historic and well-run public hospitals in the United States, Bellevue. On-campus housing, including couples housing, is pretty nice and affordable, and right across the street. Price tag is high, though they are offering 2, merit-based full-tuition scholarships (one can dream, right?). Courses offered in medical Spanish, Mandarin, and Cantonese (!). Good range of clinical, community service, and extracurricular opportunities that are comparable to other top schools. 1 faculty interview, 30 minutes long, and quite a bit of down-time between the interview and tours.

5/9/2012: Full-tuition merit scholarship for all 4 years.. wow..

3/9/2012: Accepted with partial merit scholarship. Hm..

11/1/2011: Looks like I'm approximately book-ending my interview trail with MMI. It was not too different from Davis, but slightly more stressful (as per confidentiality, I can't reveal content, but I felt that Davis' setup allowed them to accurately look at interactions between you and the raters/other applicants, whereas UCLA raters were stone-faced and completely silent on purpose. If the purpose of using MMI is to test our interpersonal skills, compassion, and critical, real-life thinking, the UCLA setup did not always do that well, in my humble little applicant's opinion). The school is terrific, and attached to the awesome (but huge and overwhelming) UCLA campus. Graduate (and couple) housing available for 1st two years at least, not far from campus. Ronald Reagan is a gorgeous hospital, and everything you'd expect of a high-end university facility. UCLA is also associated with Harbor/Drew, the VA, Children's Hospital, Kaiser, and other facilities, so the clinical exposure should be varied. Pro-section, not dissection, in anatomy lab (don't think it matters at all, but I'm not fond of cutting). Loved the students and faculty we met (not many, to be fair), the proximity to home (but the downtown traffic, ugh), and the strong range of teaching/service/community outreach activities that students are involved in. Seems like a very solid, suitable place for me.

3/13/2012: I love you Yale. You always so damn good to me.

10/3/2011: Home court. Personally love the Yale System, the optional and tuition-free 5th year, the pervasiveness of humanities and history in the medical scene here, and the overall student/faculty/environment. 2 interviews (1 faculty, 1 student), about 30-40 minutes long, open-file. There are plenty of teaching/mentoring/service/global/policy opportunities, and I do not doubt that the school would be a good fit for my interests. Another solid, impressive, and affordable school where the only likely con would be the distance from family/SO.

10/18/2011: Accepted via phone call from Dean Henderson. Davis will definitely be among my final choices because of the vet school, the location/price, and the great fit with my fundamental philosophy and professional goals.

8/26/2011: Amazingly organized, fun interview day. Got tours, plenty of chances to meet students of every year, faculty members were funny and kind, and everything was relaxed. MMI format was minimal stress and a lot of fun, actually. I was really impressed with the beautiful, new facilities and with UCD's strong community-based vision (extremely involving student-run clinics, more so than other schools) and clinical training, especially in primary care. Student hosts were hilarious and really helpful (one is a high school friend, we went out to eat). My travel plans back to school got wrecked by 3+ days because of Hurricane Irene on the East Coast, but my hosts offered to let me stay, so I basically lived like a Davis MS1 student for half a week. The area is largely suburban, which I personally like. Sacramento is a smaller, quieter city with lots of outlying rural areas; the students don't go out and party every night, but they do plan trips to Tahoe, Yosemite, San Fran, and other great NorCal locations. Some students from urban areas were dissatisfied by the lack of nightlife, but on the flip side, noted that it kept them focused on studies. Sounds great to me. Overall, student life seems very flexible and well-balanced, really motivated but not competitive (pre-clinical pass/fail). 1st interview of the season, so will have to compare later, but this was an incredibly strong show for a school that I only really started learning about as I applied to it.

3/28/2012: Accepted via phone call. Awarded the $15000, 4-yr merit scholarship (Dean's Scholarship).

10/12/2011: Long day with a slightly larger interview group, but superbly well organized. 1 Faculty interview, ~60 min, which impressed me a lot because my doc had really gone through my file and was prepared to ask me very insightful questions about myself. There is a tremendous focus on service-learning in local community health centers and free clinics, and one of the most diverse (safety net hospital right next to a premier tertiary care hospital) medical centers in all of New England. Great clinical learning environment, and students and faculty alike seemed very friendly. Living situation will be great thanks to a new, subsidized on-campus dorm in 2012. But the tuition price tag - yikes. The financial aid director did not seem to have any comforting words (and even fewer merit scholarships) to assuage that. I hope I have the luxury to worry about this later, I guess.

11/1/2011: Accepted via email at 9 am PST on the Tuesday after interview. Ridicu-fast turnaround, as promised by the director. Really excited to have a solid SoCal option!

10/27/2011: UCSD is beautiful, La Jolla is really comfortable and convenient, and San Diego is a great city. It’s like a more aesthetically pleasing, less crowded and polluted version of Los Angeles. This school is really upscale, and the new telemedicine and education building is very impressive. There was a strong emphasis on community service and outreach among both the student population (official representatives and not), which I’m finding is a special and good sign at medical schools. Their free clinic program looks very well-run, comprehensive, and involving, one of those rare ones that’s at least on par with Davis. Lots of service opportunity involving immigrant populations, especially since they’re so close to the southern border. 2 interviews, both open file and about 35-45 minutes long. You may have to take a shuttle to one or both interviews at the various medical centers associated with UCSD (which are also diverse and offer a large range of clinical opportunities). Clear directions for taking the shuttles are given, but be aware that they may run a few minutes late, and the interview schedule may be packed quite tightly (I was a minute or two late to my 2nd interview, but it wasn’t a big deal). Grad housing and off-campus housing are both available and accessible (though not necessarily cheap). Overall, got a great vibe from the students, environment, and educational offerings. Only a quick 1.5-2 hour car/train ride from home. I got an acceptance call from Johns Hopkins, had an awesome set of interviews, watched the sun set over the Pacific on the Surfliner, and was home by dinner. What a decent day.

Matriculating to the Class of 2016 at JHUSOM

3/30/2012: Got my financial aid package today. A full-tuition scholarship (need-based), and I still have a $15,000 external scholarship that I've yet to cash in. So essentially I'm looking at a 1st year with no payments to JHU, plus heavily subsidized food, rent, and transportation. Other schools would literally have to pay me in fistfuls of cash to turn this down. So my mind is made up. Ultimately, the renowned clinical training and breadth of opportunities at Hopkins are pretty close to unmatchable. I had many days of doubt where I wanted to go back west to UCSF or stay with my beloved Yale, but I decided that I need to push forward and see what's out there, and I believe Johns Hopkins is as good as any place to do that. It'll be a long road, a lot of hard work, and a couple more application cycles before everything is figured out, but I'm glad to have such great support from my family, friends, fiancee, and medical school.

10/27/2011: Got the phone call today while in San Diego. I'm so very, very fortunate to have this opportunity and, now, some big decisions to make.

9/30/2011: The best hospital in the United States, and it shows. The educational facilities and medical center simply cannot be beat. Everything is state-of-the-art, and even newer expansions are coming up over the next year. I really clicked with my faculty (30 min) and student (30 min) interviewers (both open-file). We also chatted with MS4s who were on the admissions committee as we waited for our interviewers to take us away (between 2 pm and whenever you’re done). It was very relaxed for us, but I can see how in a different interview group (mine was ~12 people, by the way) it could become stressful (if you have a crazy gunner in your group for instance. Though I guess the MS4s would frown upon it if somebody were a dick) I think the brand of medicine that Hopkins preaches truly matches my vision of community, world, and society being the domain of the physician just as much as the patient is. Training and research are highly specialized here, but never stray far from the commitment to serving the local community and the U.S. as a whole. All of the students seemed very involved in local school mentorship programs (even non-medical!), and free clinics. So while I likely would not ultimately have a career in primary care by coming here, I would get the relevant primary care experiences while staying close to my philosophy. Speaking of the local community - yes, it is not that great. I've lived in New Haven, and I can say that I wouldn't be ecstatic about living in Baltimore. There are pros and cons of course; it’s for the best that the best hospital in the country is located in a community where there is poverty, inequality, and despair – that’s where it’s most needed. (I just mean the immediate area, mind you, not the entire city) As someone interested in community health and public policy, this may truly be the place where I can learn most. Yet, it may not be the place to begin or raise a family, which works against my current thoughts about the coming decade, considering that where I begin my professional career will strongly impact where I continue it (in residency and beyond). In terms of housing, they are building a new apartment complex (really beautiful and upscale) for students and eliminating on-campus housing, but that means that rent will be expensive, or you can choose, like many students, to live further from campus (1-2 miles) and commute. Not the most convenient living situation. Same goes for food. All in all, I was sincerely blown away by the quality of this school and the experiences it offers. But would I be able to suck it up for 4+ years in Baltimore and away from my family/SO…?