Return Of The Applications

Hello dear readers! I know I've been quiet lately, but what with hurting my ribs and grad school applications, I've been swamped. Couple that with a job hunt and school starting, and I do hope you can forgive me my silence.

BUT! I'm coming back with a vengeance, after I rant slightly about the application process.

So this is my own damned fault, frankly, but I forgot about deadlines for a program that I REALLY want to get into. It's close to home, I already know a ton of the faculty, and I'm already attending school there, albeit informally. So I scrambled and scrambled, and I'm getting everything together.

Here is what I hate about applications: they make you list your classes and grades ad nauseum for each program that you apply to. I don't think I realized how lucky I was with the AMCAS, because I had one application, one set of credentials to list, and one essay to write. Instead I have to write a statement that conforms to each programs' specifications, fill out two applications per program, and list my classes and grades according to each program's idiosyncratic application criteria. Exceptionally time consuming.

It was pointed out to me that they make students spend the time so that people who process applications don't have to; otherwise app fees would be astronomical and it would take forever to reach a decision because they'd have to pay people to do all of the busy work that I'm currently doing. It made me a little less bitchy, but only just. ;)

So grad school. I'm applying for master's programs or alternatively a series of classes that will hopefully make my med school applications look more competitive. I only have 4 of 16 med school applications still outstanding; the rest have declined to interview me. It is looking a bit grim, so I need backup plans. I have been told that I shouldn't take it personally, and I don't. I realize it is part of the process and that while I have lots of qualifications and experiences, my grades could be better and my MCAT scores stronger. Because of the economy, cutbacks in faculty hours and facilities, a lot of med schools are tightening their criteria. Makes a process that is really tough that much more difficult to get through successfully.

Plus my cellular neurophysiology class last semester was taught by two post docs, and both actively do research. One is a neurochemist who studies neurotransmitters, and the other looks into how the brain changes with drug dependency and did her thesis on how alcohol addiction changes the brain. Her model organism? Rats. Yes, she got rats drunk and looked to see how their brains changed over time. It's pretty frickin' awesome.

And they really got me excited and enthused about doing some research. I've been doing my research internship at SFGH, and I really have been enjoying that. I have read anecdotes about a couple of students who were accepted to medical school and decided not to because research was much more appealing to them. I realized that I don't know much about research, and that given where I am in my life, perhaps I should give it a fair try. Who knows, I may end up as a PhD and studying plasticity in drunk rats. It sounds like a great career to me.

So I'm applying to two MS programs and an MA program. I also applied to two programs that are not degree programs but would give me a stronger med school application next time around. I'm not sure how much I want to actually spend two years and not get a degree of some sort, but we'll see how this goes. One program is in New York, which is slightly scary. I don't know if I want to leave my husband for a year while I go do this program and then possibly go to another state that is not home to get my medical degree.

Perhaps you are getting a sense of what I'm up against. There are a number of variables in my life. Nothing is certain and everything seems convoluted. It is a bit scary because I don't know where my life is going, but it is also exciting. I have a number of opportunities available to me.

So I have all of my letters of recommendation lined up (easy! my advisors are the best and are so nice, even though I didn't give them as much time as I wanted to) the transcripts and exam scores are all ordered and sent, and my goal these next two days are to finish ALL of the applications and statements.

I also have a tentative offer to join a neurodevelopment lab at one school. I'm holding out for my first choice, but nothing will be decided or agreed upon until after applications are in anyway. Thankfully MS applications are NOT on a rolling basis like med school apps, so no movement is done on processing until after the deadline is passed. This is more of a benefit than it seems, because it gives me time to sort out things like which lab I can work in and thoughts about a project.

I am taking a pharmacology class and a systemic neurophysiology class this semester, so I will have lots of fun material to talk about. I really wanted to post a bit about action potentials and graded potentials, because they are the basis for everything that our brains do.

Till then, ciao!

Peeking In

I haven't forgotten about you, and I will be back as soon as my finals are over. I wanted to talk about new residency rules, the kerfuffle over the health care bill and my internship at San Francisco General Hospital's Emergency Department.

But in the meantime, I got this from Friendly Atheist. Enjoy.

Sneaking

Real life snuck up on me something fierce, what with homework, applications, orientations, and dear friends having their baby. It has been an interesting week, let me tell you.

I am about 5 days away from launching into more midterms. Physiology and physics. I'm pulling a reasonable grade in both but I could do better. There is a fair bit of pressure on me here to perform well because I'm basically between grades at this point.

I was accepted into a clinical research internship at San Francisco General Hospital, sponsored by UCSF. I am really excited about this. Basically my job consists of approaching patients in the emergency department that fit specific profiles and asking them to consent to participate in various studies. The two that hold my interest the most involve blunt trauma and HIV testing.

Because of the confidentiality agreements that I made, I'm not permitted to talk about specific patients. What I can do, however, is discuss my experiences working around an ER (obviously I'm not a doctor, so I am not trained to assist in an emergency or anything like that) and what I see on a daily basis. I can't wait to get started. I spent quite a bit of time in a veterinary ER, and I have a feeling that I will adjust rather well.

I also have been doing rather well at chipping away at my applications. I got three done, and am working on the last two. I was thrilled when I got a secondary application invitation from Stanford, which is my first choice.

Applications are an odd duck. Sometimes they give you an enormous amount of room to finish what really can be summed up in a sentence or two. Sometimes the questions are so unlike everything that I have answered before that I am just taken aback and really need to consider my response. The more I do the easier it gets, but I doubt it will ever really be easy.

On a slightly different note, I am gathering my materials and letters and preparing for application to grad school. 3 local universities have my interest: Stanford, UCSF and SFSU. I was considering USF but they are really expensive. I have to investigate their biology programs, because I still really want to apply for grad studies in neuroendocrine physiology. The deadline for SFSU is the earliest one, being in February, and unlike med school they aren't rolling admissions. This means that in February they begin to sift through applications. I am pretty confident that I will get in to SFSU, since I have made so many contacts in the department.

Well, I'm off to school. Hopefully I will be able to finish complement and have a physiology post by Friday.

Yeah, It's Kind Of Like That

Application Process

Much like the difficult school curriculum, the grueling MCATs, and the competition, the application process involved in getting into medical school is probably designed to weed out those that don't REALLY want to do it. There is, I think, a certain level of dedication that is required to deal with a primary application, secondary applications, interviews, and then the nail-biting tension of waiting to see if you got in.

In the spirit of weeding out the wafflers (because if it meant being closer to their dream of going to med school no one would really mind, right?) the application designers want everything just so. This meant tedious hours of entering in each and every course taken over one's entire post-secondary academic career, logging and tagging them and filing them just so. Many were the times I sighed as I was about to begin a new entry and wonder why they couldn't just read the transcripts.

The tagging process, I know, is useful to them as they determine the science, non-science and total GPA. It saves them work, and probably me money, as otherwise I would have to pay for the average time it took to calculate all of that.

The essays were interesting studies in composing. I wrote and edited and re-wrote and edited some more, in search of the elusive goal known as the perfect essay. Because I am me, I went with a science-centered approach. Compassion for my patients is not even a question (I worked veterinary for quite a while. If that doesn't develop compassion in a person nothing will) so I chose to talk about my dedication to and my understanding of the role of science in medicine.

Once my application was submitted I had to wrangle my professors and advisors to write me letters. Herding cats, I tell you. The last of my letters was submitted today, if that is any indication. It can be tough as deadlines approach to keep the calm, polite tone one really should use when addressing professors that are doing you a favor instead of screaming hysterically because if they are a day late you will have an aneurism.

But I'm better now.

Ahh, supplementary applications. Delightful. They are rather similar to the original, except that each school has a specific format and set of questions for you to answer. I am trying to put my very best foot forward (partially because I'm certain that good reviewers can smell bullshit a mile away) and answer the best I possibly can.

I was invited to submit 4 supplemental applications. I'm waiting to hear back from the schools that are in processing, so this isn't half bad.

Grad school is a whole other ball of wax. The more I study the more interested I am in research. I did not apply to MD PhD programs this year, mainly because I don't have a lot of experience in the research field. There is a part of me that wonders if maybe I shouldn't go to grad school even if I do get into an MD program. It might be foolish of me to do so, but I am really excited at the potential for learning.

If I don't get into med school, I will probably get into grad school at State, because besides my grades and my letters, I have contacts in the biology department with professors that I think will be interested in sponsoring me.

And so in the meantime I am finishing up everything that I can do with my supplemental applications and keeping a close eye on my application status. There's that whole school thing, too, but that's a given, I think.