The Eventual Doc

Sorry it’s been so long. I’ve been preoccupied, and time flew away faster than I would have liked.

So it is now December. I understand that there are still plenty of interviews to be distributed, but I must admit I am hard-pressed to feel that I will be the recipient of one of them. To wit, University of Michigan has passed on interviewing me yet (there exists, I suppose, the potential for a late-cycle interview to be granted to me as application review continues in the coming months, but with only 100 interviews left (a majority of which are dedicated to Michiganders), I have my doubts), making Boston University one of the only school so far that seems to have even opened my application.

The other school is SUNY Stony Brook, where I have an interview in January. I’m not particularly thrilled about this school, but at this point, I’m not in a position to be particularly choosy, and I am very happy to have another interview. Were it not for this, I’d be feeling a bit more desperate, especially since Dr. Wonderful was careful to warn me that my acceptance to Boston University was by no means assured, and that, in the end, it would come down to what can be a largely political process. So having another interview in the can is at least moderately reassuring.

In the meantime, upon returning home from the BU interview, I discovered that Grandpa Eventual had died on the very same day of the interview. This was not a surprise, mind you, as his health had been steadily deteriorating once a stroke had left him bedridden four years ago. And I was also not particularly close with the Grandparents Eventual, as my family lives at least 8 or 9 hours away; visits were therefore fairly seldom, and we more or less grew apart. But upon hearing the news, I was suddenly struck by a myriad of memories and emotions.

In the intervening weeks between my last post and this one, I was also turned down by University of Rochester, which was a disappointment. I know that it’s a challenge to get into any medical school, so there are no sure bets, but still… I figured with my SMP grades, I’d at least get an interview there.

But today, I got rejected pre-interview from my top school, Brown. Surprisingly, it doesn’t hurt all that much. At least, not as much as I’d thought it would. I think I was pretty resigned to the fact that Brown was a long-shot to begin with, so it wasn’t as acute a disappointment as it would have been had it been a total surprise to me. Brown is notoriously selective, especially with a significant portion of the spots going to Brown students from other pathways.

So here’s the count:

1. Warren Alpert (Brown)
2. Tufts
3. Boston University [Hooray!!!]
4. Yale
5. University of Michigan
6. Washington University in St. Louis
7. Dartmouth
   
8. Medical University of South Carolina
9. University of North Carolina
10. Mayo
    
11. University of Vermont
    
12. University of Rochester
13. Georgetown
    
14. Baylor
15. SUNY Stony Brook [Interview!!]
16. Duke

The results of this experiment are, of course, a long way off, but I must confess that preliminary data are inauspicious.

On the positive side, I’ve decided to quit smoking once and for all. I’ve started taking Chantix recently, and hopefully I’ll be a nonsmoker as of next Monday! Wish me luck!

Will post more soon, I promise!!