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)