What Could Happen...

Any of you who are involved in applying to medical schools, have spoken with me about it, or... well, I may have written about it, too, know what will happen on May 15th (or 16th).  People applying for medical school admission for the fall can only hold one acceptance.  So for those who have been accepted at multiple schools, a semi-final decision has to be made.  The reason I say semi-final is that it is still possible to hold as many positions on waiting lists as one has been offered.  So a student who has, let's say, been accepted at UCSF, Harvard, and NYU, who is on the waiting lists at Columbia, U Washington, and UCLA has to make one decision: which, among UCSF, Harvard, and NYU, that person prefers.  Let's say said individual, who I'll call Bob, really desperately wants to go to Columbia.  But Bob would rather go to Harvard than UCSF or NYU.  Bob will turn down UCSF and NYU, who then have to turn to their waiting lists and start accepting students to fill the gap that Bob leaves.  But then, let's say, U Washington accepts Bob off of their waiting list.  Bob would then have to choose between Harvard and U Washington.  Whichever he doesn't choose then has to go to their waiting list.  And the process continues.  Endlessly.  At least, endlessly until Bob actually matriculates at a school.  If that was hard to follow, just think of the waitlists as long lines of dominoes that can be knocked over from any direction, at any time.  Bob is just one of the people who will set them in motion.

So what that could mean for me: plenty, or nothing.  It's possible that I'll get called from a waiting list at a school.  It's possible that I'll want to go there more than U Colorado.  It's possible that I'll get called from a waiting list and decide that I'd prefer U Colorado.  It's possible that I won't get called from any waiting lists.  I don't think there's anyone who can predict what will happen, and I certainly have no idea.

What I DO know, is that it's going to be very hard to write about much of anything until that happens!  Unless, of course, someone would like to suggest something for me to write about, and then I can take it from there.  Otherwise, you all get to wait, too =o)

The Really Good Hiatus Explanation

To many of you, my delaying for so long will have seemed unnecessary.  To those of you also applying to med school, it may still sound reasonable, but I may just look like a paranoid idiot.  But I'll explain anyway.

Several weeks ago (okay, maybe it's been months ago, now), I was accepted to a medical school.  But I didn't want to mention what school.  And I didn't want to mention where I'd been waitlisted.  I'm probably still not going to give you waitlist details, because positioning on those could be a bit perilous.  The reason behind not blurting out the good news about being accepted is that until schools have made some kind of decision about me (acceptance, rejection, waitlist, whatever), they don't know what any other school has done.  And while I don't think that schools are reading this blog, I still didn't want to risk showing my hand too early!

So here's the big news.  I got accepted to the University of Colorado in Denver.  It's a fantastic school.  Ranked really highly in primary care.  Which isn't to say that rankings are all that important to me, but it does say something about what the school chooses to emphasize, and primary care IS important to me.  While I'm not thrilled about the weather prospects in Denver, the city itself is growing, vibrant, and knows how to make winters bearable.  And it's a relatively sunny city, too.  But there are certain things about certain schools at which I've been waitlisted that make them quite appealing, too.  So in the order that I received my waitlist notifications (approximately), here are the schools:

• U Michigan
• UC San Diego
• USC
• UC Davis
• UCLA

 I can very honestly say that I have absolutely no idea what to expect in terms of waitlists.  And I can honestly say that I would choose U Colorado over some of those schools.  Probably.

But more to the point.  I got accepted to a great school!  The nervous waiting is over!  Well, the ridiculously-scared waiting is over, anyway.

So, in keeping with my past posts, here is the status of things as they stand, with school names filled in.

Win, place, or show...
Primary applications: 17
Instant rejections: 1 (UNLV -- they only take Nevada residents)
Secondary applications: 16
Post-secondary rejections (i.e. without an interview) to date: 9 (Jefferson, UC Irvine, Boston U, Oregon Health and Science U, Northwestern, UCSF, U Iowa, NYU, Columbia)
Interview invitations to date: 6 (U Colorado, UC Davis, UCLA, U Michigan, UC San Diego, USC)
Interviews completed to date: 6 (same as above)
Post-interview rejections to date: 0
Waitlisted to date: 5 (UC Davis, UCLA, U Michigan, UC San Diego, USC)
Acceptances to date: 1 (U Colorado!)