M4 year: interviews (part 1)

Besides graduation, here are many experiences that are shared by all fourth year medical students: completing a sub-internship, scrambling to write a personal statement and deciding who the perfect letter writers will be, sitting for Step 2 CK, showing fake empathy for fake patients in CS testing, interviewing all over the country, organizing and re-organizing rank lists, and opening the special envelope on Match Day. After taking CK and having my last interview in the same week (Wednesday and Friday respectively), I feel like I am finally in the home stretch to finishing medical school. Man, does it feel good! And best of all, what I have left this year are the fun and exciting things. 

(side note: this is the last picture of the year of Michael with a clean-shaven face!)

What could be more fun and exciting than finishing 4 grueling years of school? 6 weeks in Ecuador, nearly as long in Tanzania, finding out where I will be for the next 3 years of my life, and a sailing vacation in the British Virgin Islands. Not to mention the normal amount of weddings and social gatherings that sprinkle spring and early summer. In order to make my scattered-brain life more coherent, I'm going to attempt to make regular dumps of information in a place where it can  be referenced by friends and family (and myself!). 

My first dump of information will also help with the organizing and re-organizing of rank lists. Let's start with a list of the residency programs that I have interviewed with, in chronological order. 

Via Christi in Wichita, Kansas (Oct 5)
Broadlawns in Des Moines, IA (Oct. 22)
University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA (Nov. 2)
University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI (Nov 12)
John Peter Smith (JPS) in Fort Worth, TX (Nov 15)
University of Minnesota, St. Joseph's in St. Paul, MN (Nov 19)
University of Minnesota, Duluth in Duluth, MN (Nov 20)
Community Health Network in Indianapolis, IN (Nov 26)
St. Vincent in Indianapolis, IN (Nov 27)
Exempla St. Joseph in Denver, CO (Dec 6)
Family Medicine Residency of Idaho in Boise, ID (Dec 15)

Now, lets hear about which ones are NOT our favorite. Michael didn't interview in the Twin Cities, so U of M St. Joe's is out. Indianapolis doesn't have enough draw to take us out of Iowa, so those two are out. I'm not excited about doing all of my training in an academic hospital, so the University of Iowa has dropped pretty low. Michael did not like Madison's IM, so we won't be going to Wisconsin. The remaining list:

Via Christi
Broadlawns
JPS
Duluth
Denver
FMRI in Boise
 
Michael is leaning towards doing internal medicine, so Broadlawns and Denver shake out to the top, as Michael likes the IM programs in Denver and Des Moines. If he were to decide to do family medicine, it comes down to Via Christi, Boise, and JPS, as Duluth's medicine didn't impress us very much when we interviewed there. 

And that's the summary of where we stand.  Last of all, I'd like to mention the places we visited and people we saw that were not part of a residency program.

Wichita: I stayed with Sarah Moore and her great dane named Pete. I had never really hung out with a great dane before, and it was fun to play with a dog almost as big as I am! Also, Sarah and I stayed up late one night talking about relationships and about good devotionals. 

Michael and I ventured out on Saturday after the interview and went to the zoo, even though the temperature had taken a nose dive from the day before. 

 

Wisconsin: after the interview in Madison, Michael and I drove north to Steven's Point and visited Erin Ruff. I don't have any pictures,  but there is a video we helped them make by pushing play/record. (http://vimeo.com/53388780) If you don't want to watch the whole thing, I would recommend just catching the bit at 2:53 and watch the girl in the back.  The other big thing that happened in Wisconsin is that Michael finally caved and bought an iPhone. His iPod touch died, and he wanted something for point of care in the clinic. It turned out to be perfect timing, as we used the navigation system to keep us from getting lost during all our travels.


Texas: The residency put us up in a small bed and breakfast downtown called Etta's Place. It is located on Sundance Square. The person for who it is named was Etta Place, who was the Sundance Kid's girlfriend and hung out with Butch Cassidy and his Hole in the Wall Gang of train robbers. When we first got to the bed and breakfast, we had to ring a bell and wait for them to come downstairs and let us in. Each of the rooms is unique in its furnishings, and there is a cozy library, a patio, and balcony with drinks at the top of a spiral staircase. I enjoyed a relaxing bath with jets for my birthday!

   
After the interview, we stayed in Texas for two more days to hang out with Michael's brother, Thomas. Thomas had to work one of those days so Michael and I explored his little town on our own and found a Methodist sponsored soup lunch.  We learned that in Texas they don't make the chili with beans automatically, so when they ask if you want beans, they don't mean "do you want extra beans?" With Thomas we played Ticket to Ride, visited a winery, and threw a football around. 

wallaby!!

 

Duluth: While we were visiting Michelle (Liz's best friend from high school) and her boyfriend Ryan in Duluth we had beautiful weather and got to spend a lot of time outside, hiking through the parks and walking along the lake. I loved to imagine what it would be like to live in Duluth, all the great outdoor activities PLUS living down the street from Michelle again. :) 









 


And THAT is what happened BEFORE Thanksgiving. I'll start a second page for the second half of the interview trail story.