Interviews Schedule

The headache is (almost) gone, likely because my interviews are (almost) completely set. The uncertainty was the most not-fun part. You submit all your information into many different parts of a single website, and you just hope that it all comes together correctly. You hope that the administrative team at your medical school uploaded your picture without drawing a mustache on your face (can't blame them if they did), and you hope that your letter-writers didn't discuss the time you called them "ma'am" instead of "sir" (repeatedly). If the interviews start rolling in, then at least one of these things didn't happen. Then, you are baked til golden.

The interviews are the fun part. Most interviews consist of an evening gathering the night before with the residents, followed by a full day of interviews starting the next morning. Based on most of the schedules, it looks like there is usually a Grand Rounds, a tour, some presentations, and some interviews. Though some places have a reputation for being intense (asking medical/ethical questions until you are thoroughly embarrassed by your lack of knowledge), most of my friends have had relatively chill interviews. Just people trying to get to know other people. The interview goes both ways too -- you are trying to show your stuff, but at the same time, they are trying to sell you on their program. Both parties are looking for the right fit.

While I am still waiting on a couple more to roll in, my interview schedule is fairly set. Organizing my flights and planning when and where I must be was more harrowing than I thought. Some places that I would have loved to interview just wouldn't fit in my schedule. I would've had to cancel two (or sometimes three) of my other interviews just to get there. Geographically, I applied all over the map, so logistics were a little bit of a bear. But anywho, this is likely the final line-up, listed in chronological order. My first stop will be Atlanta in mid-November, ending up in Philadelphia in mid-January! Ten interviews over two months. I am excited for all of them.

• Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia)
• Oregon Health & Science University (Portland, Oregon)
• University of California - San Francisco (San Francisco, California)
• Stanford University (Palo Alto, California)
• Washington University - St. Louis (St. Louis, Missouri)
• Northwestern University (Chicago, Illinois)
• University of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
• Vanderbilt University (Nasheville, Tennessee)
• University of California - Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California)
• University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Next comes the interview prep. Gotta be ready for the standard questions (Why surgery? Why here? What's that in your teeth?), and you have to have questions ready of your own. Each program has a website full of information about their clinical experience, research, and philosophy, and some have mailed/emailed additional information to peruse. Lots of prep, lots of prep.

But this is indeed the fun part. After January 18th, it's two months of the not-fun part again...

The Waiting.

The Headache Relieved

So I told you that I've had a headache. It's from the stress. On days that I'm busy, the headache goes away. But most days I'm on my computer... for hours and hours and hours. In class. Doing research. Always on the computer. I watch that little Gmail tab, waiting... And waiting. And waiting.

Yesterday, though, my headache was relieved. For good. In the same way that I felt about three inches taller when I got my first acceptance to medical school, everything was right with the world. I got one of the "big ones." Not necessarily my number one (because there really isn't a "#1" until you've interviewed at all the schools ), but it could be. I received an invitation to interview at a program that makes me feel like everything is going to be okay. One these programs where I say, "Hey, if they'll interview me, anyone will." So now my headache is gone. And then a few more rolled in. They have generally been trickling in at about a rate of one every other day.

Usually, the more I stare at my computer, the less likely one of these "noreply" emails is likely to show up. But right in the middle of my Writing class, I clicked on the "Inbox (1) - rswendim..." tab in Google Chrome, and there she was. Beautiful. Wondrous. Headache-relieving. In my head I did a little dance (a solid C-walk, or the "Not My Baby" dance), and I may or may not have swore out loud (though not loud enough for the professor to hear, fortunately). I worded the acceptance email so so so carefully, making sure the spelling was just perfect.

I have to be care, because in my excitement, I've already make a couple mistakes on the salutations. As embarrassing as it is to say, I've incorrectly addressed one program coordinator as "Mr." instead of "Ms.", and for an invite I received recently, I put "Dr." because I could not figure out who I was replying to (it was at night, I only had my cheap Windows phone, and the Google search function was being ornery). No bueno.

As you can see, I'm barely keeping it together. Each day is an emotional roller coaster.

Over the next few weeks I will finalize my list. Each specialty has the golden match statistics - ideal number of programs to apply to and interview with to match (on average - obviously it is different per person). For General Surgery, the target number is somewhere around 22 programs and 11 interviews. I applied to 26 residencies, and I think I want to interview at about 10 places total. My programs are very spread out across the country, so there will be a lot of flying. Ten's a good number; I like ten. I like ten. And I've started repeating things (repeating things).

Okay, no more stress posts. Next stop, the interview trail!

The Headache Builds

Being in back in class this semester is both a blessing and a curse. My classes are wonderful. I am taking one called Public Narrative: Story of Self, Us, and Now which teaches a leadership framework for drawing others to a cause. It's basically a class on how to tell a good story. The second is a writing course, where I am (re)learning the basics of writing, revising, and editing. In addition, I have the chance to pursue my own freelance writing, and start finishing up some research projects early (though the chance that these will finish before the spring is slim to none).

The downside is that I am on my computer 24/7.

I first started getting headaches only towards at the end of the day. Originally I thought it was due to staring at a large white screen for so much of the day. But the dull pain has started earlier and earlier. Today I realized that it is more likely due to the stress of interviews, i.e. the stress of not getting more interviews, though I'm sure being on the computer for eight hours a day only compounds the problem.

I figured that after October 1st, I would start hearing from program after program, either with invitations or rejections. However, all I hear from my inbox is crickets these days. Those first few invites have ruined me. Such a tease. Being in class and on my computer all day, the minutes now tick by so slowly. Each time I see a new email come to my inbox, the tab says...

"Inbox (1) - rswendiman@gma..."

I immediately rush to check to see if it's from a residency program, but it never is. It's just another Priceline.com email again. I get about 100 emails a day at this point, and each of them is a huge letdown.

One of my classmates told me that some interviews won't go out until beginning of November. I think my head is going to explode.

SO WHAT IF I'M CRAZY!?!? SO ARE YOU!

I'm also leaving my phone on at night so I wake up to new emails. Generally, I'm so tired by the end of the day that I wouldn't pop up to a fire alarm, but some nights I do wake up to that damn ding-a-ling sound. Lately, I've been waking up at 2:33am. That's when the Kennedy School sends out their daily announcement email for the day. Thanks, HKS.

The weird thing is, I won't be like this for the actual interviews. I enjoy them. It's the part that I can't control that I hate.

This will all be better in a month.

Or maybe not.

AHHHHH!!

Clicking "Submit"

So it's actually been two weeks since I first clicked "submit" on my ERAS application, and it is such a wonderful feeling. Fortunately, the initial application process wasn't too harrowing. I finished my personal statement early, had no trouble getting all four letters of recommendation in on-time (corralling attendings can be like herding cats), and applied to 26 programs without breaking the bank. It was actually cheaper than applying to medical school. So overall the application process has not been too stressful.

Yet.

In these first two weeks, I have heard back from five General Surgery programs (halfway to my golden number of 10 interviews!). I am told that most programs wait until after the Dean's Letter is sent out on October 1st before making any decisions. So starting next week, I will be on my computer constantly. I have heard horror stories of classmates who were away from their phones/computers for just a couple of hours, and they 1) didn't get the interview day they wanted, or 2) didn't get an interview scheduled at all. Some programs apparently send out more invitations than they actually have spots, and if you snooze, you lose. One internal medicine program sent out invites at three in the morning. When my friend woke up at 7am, she was too late.

I can feel the headache building.

Being ready to reply to these "invitations" is a process in itself. Per suggestions from former applicants, I have multiple copies of "acceptance" emails in my Gmail Drafts box. When an invite comes in, I copy and paste in the following:

____________, 

Thank you very much for the invitation. I was hoping to interview on ____________ if that date is still available. If not, my second choice would be ____________. My specific areas of interest are Pediatric, General, and Rural Surgery. Please let me know if you need any further information from me. 

Thank you again for the invitation, and I very much look forward to interviewing at ____________! 

Best,
Robert Swendiman

I insert the name of the residency coordinator, first and second choices for dates, and school name. Goal time from invitation to acceptance? Five minutes. And this is only half of the craziness.

The other half comes from the MASTER LIST. This is a list of the 26 programs I've applied to, complete with their prospective interview dates. Most schools have posted these online, so I have created an ideal, virtual schedule that would allow me to visit all of my top choices. But there are some mystery programs, and for them I just have to bite my nails. (By the way, I am not the only one who is the this nuts; this is fairly par for the course among the people I know). So if an invitation comes in, I must consult the MASTER LIST first, and then try to get my number one choice of dates. So far I'm 5/5, though one program didn't give me any choices...

What a mess. October 1 is next week and I'm already a nervous wreck. Let the craziness continue...

Welcome to ERAS

So if you can't read the fine print here to the left, you should at least be able to appreciate that applying to residency programs is a little bit of a hot mess. The "match" itself is completely unnerving. Over the next few months I will apply to dozens of programs, hope to interview at about 10 to 12, and then "rank" these programs in order of my preference. Students all across the country will do the same, and then on March 21st, a computer will spit out where each of us will end up. I could match at my number one choice, my fifth, my last, or not at all.

Cray, right?

Alright, so here's how it all breaks down. The application itself is all through a single website (thank goodness), affectionately known as "ERAS." This is where you upload your CV, personal statement, and letters of recommendation. In addition, the medical schools will submit transcripts and their "Dean's Letter," which summarizes your schooling and explains the grading system. It also recommends the student as "outstanding," "excellent," "very good," "good," or some other modifier (there is no "bad" med student; that would hurt our feelings too much). Students are supposed to have everything ready by September 15th, and on that morning, we can click (and pay lots of money for) all the programs to which we want to apply. Residency programs can then begin downloading applications and sending out interviews.

On October 1st, our Dean's Letter is released to the schools. Apparently (and I'm not sure if I'm right about this), a lot of programs wait until October to send out invitations, once they've skimmed the Dean's Letter. Invitations go out, and students schedule interviews as fast as possible. This can be a bit of a cluster, because sometimes programs offer more invitations than actual spots (one of my close friends last year got an email from a program at 3am; she responded at 7am when she woke up, and all the spots were filled...). November, December, and January will be a great opportunity to accrue Delta SkyMiles.

Interviews are scheduled, and then we hit the "trail." Quickly, we start seeing a lot of familiar faces, as the same people keep popping up at all the same interviews. Other recruits are a great source of information, and many students bond on the trail (some even find true love, I hear, which is a little scary). After the trail, programs will have a "second-look" day for students who are interested. Before we know it, it's mid-February, and it's time to rank programs.

Skip to the Monday before the match. All applicants get an email letting them know if they have matched or not. If they've matched, it does not tell them where. This allows students who haven't matched to "scramble" into programs with empty spots. I don't know how this works, and I pray I don't have to find out. So that is all I will say about that.

On March 21st, we find out where we'll learn to become a real doctor. And it could be anywhere.

Everyone who's been through the process says, "Have fun! Enjoy it! It's just as much about you interviewing them as them interviewing you." Fiddlesticks. Actually, the interviewing could be fun; it's the scheduling that will drive me nuts. I don't want to be up at 3am every day to make sure I don't miss an opportunity at one of my top choices. And I don't want to spend all the money I'm going to have to spend. I just keep telling myself it will all be worth it...

I will update y'all on the process as it moves forward!