After calling my Dad back, I happily shared the news with my
friends. My weekend had been spent on a retreat in
Northern California with friends from church and no inter-net
access. The day of our return happened to coincide with the
Texas Match results and the first thing I did when my cell
phone had service was call home to have someone find out where
I matched. It was official: UT Southwestern here I come!!!
Rewind a bit
Rewind a bit. After deciding to apply for medical
school, I enrolled in a MCAT prep course and after a grueling
summer with one proctored practice test each week, I took the
real exam in August of my junior year. Following that,
I went online to find a timeline for the application process
and browsed school websites to get an idea of where I wanted
to apply and to ensure I would be completing all required
courses prior to graduation. When my score report came
several months later, I had my roommate do the math- I was
too nervous to add up the section scores to see what my
overall score was. Turns out I met my goal score
exactly and won't be re-taking the exam in April. I
could now focus on the rest my classes and find potential
letter writers.
June arrived and I still remember staring at the blank Word
document and squeezing my brain to a pulp trying to get my
creative juices to give me a drop. When I first arrived
at Calthree years before, my "intended" major was biology and
I had no idea what I would do with that degree after
graduation. There was no pivotal moment in my past or a
significant mentor that led me to pursue medicine as a
career. The decision took form gradually; the
activities I took part in and the courses I took helped give
it shape. After several trusted people edited my
personal statement, I was ready to hit "Submit". Having
collected my letters of recommendation in May and started the
online application in June, I met my personal deadline of
July 4th. Within the Texas application
system, I applied to all seven schools offering MDs because I
was a native and hoped to return to the Lone Star
state. The schools I submitted my application to in the
national system were based mostly on location, partly on
cost, with a fleeting thought about prestige.
Preparing for Interviews
The summer passed with a trip to the Big Apple and
Vegas. Beginning in September, both the electronic mail
and snail mail came with offers for interviews or for
submitting a secondary application. I accepted all
interviews and my fall filled up with flights to various
schools. To cut costs, I stayed only as long as needed
and tried to clump several interviews into one weekend.
My three roommates helped me formulate responses to very
generic interview questions one night, but I did not spend
much time preparing for any interviews. I was more
comfortable walking in and letting my reactions be
unrehearsed. But I wouldn't recommend that to
everyone. After the first two interviews, you realize
that all the schools follow a similar schedule and you even
recognize some of the other applicants from prior
interviews. A guy I met at UT Southwestern had the same
interviewers as I did but in reverse order. In the
hallway I remember sharing what the meeting was like before
we each walked into the next interview. We ended up
classmates and good friends.
Four years have passed for my classmates and me.
After talking with some of my first year medical student
friends, I'm informed of all the changes that have occurred
since I went through the application process. However,
the core elements remain so that the generations of
physicians to come and the generations before will all share
similar experiences. I hope that future medical
students will reach the end of their education without
regrets as I have.
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