My last MD/PhD Interview...

Thursday:

It has been one heck of a travel day… I left Madison this morning at 7:30AM after getting up early to do my hair and fly in business casual clothing for the interview recruitment meeting.  I saw the same guy I always do at Quizno’s when my flight landed in Detroit.  It was awesome to land at gate A9 because I was located in a perfect spot to pick up a chicken cesar salad and still have time to catch the Airport Train because I had to get all the way over to the C-terminal.  The flight to Columbus was uneventful, except for the fact that they asked 10 people be removed from the plane so they could land safely on the snow covered runways in Ohio. 

We landed and I let my ride now that I was there for pick up, except I was warned that the traffic was pretty bad and he would be late.  No joke.  I stayed in the airport for up to 3 hours waiting for him due to traffic jams because of the 3 inches of snow.  Coming from Wisconsin, I was completely shocked by how much this rocked the city.  I missed the welcome meeting, but I was able to meet up with the gang for dinner.  It was a good time talking to current students.  I learned that the curriculum was very unique, in that you do your medical school portion completely on an independent study basis and that there were no shortcuts and overlap between med school and graduate school course material.  I am personally bias that this may not be and efficient use of time, and there isn't a reason to take similar courses again and again just because they are a requirement.  Doing additional course work doesn't mean that you are taught to think any better or solve more problems.  It basically means that you have become a sufficiently good basic science test taker and are repeating things, content, and a lot of the material I learned in undergrad with a biochemistry background.  Anyway, this curriculum issue frustrates me, ask Paul, he took a lot of venting that night.

Friday:

Today I was able to interview with faculty and had a great discussion about a faculty member's CMV project and his antiviral treatments.  I suggested he try a proteomics approach using one cell isolate that has been treated with his drug and another cell isolate that is a control, and basically look to quantify the phosporylation changes within those two samples.  He could run them concurrently with isometric tags to get a real good comparison.  Hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch whether I go there or not. I hope he tries this approach, unfortunately I will most likely be lost in the credit lines lol...

I also had the chance to talk with the students a lot and meet additional faculty.  One person is working on sphingolipids and how that relates to primary brain cancer, pretty interesting stuff.  Thanks to Dave Nelson, I knew with spingolipids were, and the guy was pretty impressed.  My meeting with the directors was pretty low-key, they basically asked me why OSU and why MD/PhD, two questions I had already anticipated.  One applicant in the bunch however stood out for me.  He was from Puerto Rico and married with a daughter.  His wife was in vet school.  He only applied to OSU, so I really hope it works out for him.

We went to dinner at the director's house and it was absolutely amazing.  The dinner was catered and I had a really great salad with a spinach bake, seasoned sweet potatoes and green beans.  It was so good I couldn't even move.  It enjoyed chatting with everyone and didn't intact much with the other applicants.  I kind of felt that I didn't click with the others that were applying in this round besides the man from Puerto Rico, perhaps it was he was at a different stage in life and a different maturity level.  I am really excited to pursue this track of training, but sometimes I get concerned that I am very different from others applying.  I consider myself a very outgoing and social person who enjoys good humor.  Perhaps I'm not as nerdy as some applicants and didn't get a 45 MCAT, but I may have a different drive and motivation for pursuing this program.  It's been interesting meeting everyone, and I am sure there are a few people applying solely because they have the numbers and publications to do so...   I have been fortunate to get acceptances and continue down the path I've dreamed of pursuing, but it has been exhausting and a lot of feeling isolated as an applicant within the pool of students.  I am excited to continue through summer rotations and into the medical school portion, because I feel that I will have much more in common with first year medical students, rather than the classic MD/PhD applicant... Time will tell.  Luckily I have Paul to keep my sanity, and my roomies to encourage my social antics.

Anyway, after dinner I opted to head back to the hotel and skip bowling.  I had enough of the forced social scene.  I wanted to get back and talk to Paul about our respective days.  It's nice to have the comfort of down time and be able to rant to Paul about the day.  He's such a sport about listening to my interview experiences.  They haven't all been pretty, but I think he understands what I am going through as a social person in a not-so-social atmosphere.  I've also had great experiences and clicked with a few applicants; hopefully they will be my classmates.

Tomorrow I am going to get up and run before grabbing breakfast at the OSU Union.  We get breakfast together, have a quick tour of the city before we're dropped off at the airport. I fly out around 1PM which will leave time to read my Nicholas Sparks novel, yes!  I hope I get to leave out of the terminal that has a Starbucks!  It's too bad they don't have Pumpkin Spice Lattes!  Haha, Paul loves my infatuation with Pumpkin!  I am going back through O'Hare and flying United.  Becca will be in the International Terminal tomorrow during my layover in ORD, but I think they are completely separate, so I won't be able to connect with her before she flies off to her European adventure!  I'm so proud that she's doing that, what a great experience!  If the weather and flights cooperate, I should be at MKE around 5PM, and then I am driving quickly back home to babysit for the evening.  I really need the cash to help save up for our Europe trip, so I thought it would be best to babysit instead of blowing money over a night out on the town.  Additionally, I will be fresh to finish up some of my weekly running schedule.  I was able crank out 4 miles last night in the hotel, and I am going to wake up early to crank out another 3-5 tomorrow morning before breakfast.  The workout facility is outstanding, so I have to take advantage.   Sunday I will hopefully run more with Paul and do Yoga before the big NFC Championship starts, featuring the beloved Packers!

Speaking of the Packers, I think this would be a fitting picture for this blog post...  GO PACK!

Lyssa and I at the Packer Game, hamming it up!

I am going to take some pictures at the Packer party that Tone and Teen are throwing, hopefully it be a hoot!  I am excited to get back to Madison, and to say that I am completely DONE with my MD/PhD interviews!  Yahoo!  Now... the Match!