This morning we received a phone call from Fletcher Allen Health Care - the teaching hospital for UVM College of Medicine. They had finished reviewing the files and interviews and wished to extend Ian the position in the ICU!!! In other words, I get to start my medical career in beautiful Burlington while Ian gets to start his nursing career in such a challenging, amazingly cool environment. All signs pointing to Vermont :)
This past weekend, to clear my head and de-stress from what was basically an accumulation of a year's worth of emotional rollercoaster through this crazy application process, Ian and I headed out to the Columbia River Gorge (stopping at Mt. Saint Helens first). We had a pretty amazing time hiking this incredible glacial-carved gorge on both the Washington and Oregon sides.
At the cute tea parlour we stopped at (you'll see it in the video), I even met another girl who was a college of medicine class of 2018 new admit. We congratulated each other, and talked about how crazy this whole process had been. She was accepted to Univ of Arizona, Tucson School of Medicine when I had not even received an interview invitation from either Tucson or Phoenix campuses. She wasn't even interviewed by Univ of Vermont while I had the opportunity. Likewise, her friend also had the experience of double interviewing at Univ of Washington like I did, only to receive a denial. "It's really just a crapshoot" she said - and I agree. At some point, unless you're an elite applicant, everyone is narrowed down to a small pool and everyone is amazingly qualified.
Anyhow, here's the fun video of our gorgeous trip these past few days. A much needed break.
Spent the last couple days hiking around Mt. Saint Helens and the beautiful Columbia River Gorge (both the Washington and Oregon sides). Check it out! Click the expansion arrows for full screen. Click the expansion arrows to make it full-screen :)
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Saturday, May 17, 2014
And it all comes to a close!
As I'm sitting here listening to the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F which we will be playing tonight with the amazing Sara Davis Buechner (I've never played with such a high-profile musician before), I can't help but feel mixed emotions.
You can judge by the extended time between my last post and this one that a lot has happened recently. After interviewing, a couple weeks later I was notified that I was placed onto the "waitlist of qualified/alternate applicants" at the Univ of Vermont College of Medicine. However, I didn't know where I was on that waitlist (it's unranked), and how many other people were on that list relative to seats opening up. Add to that the fact that waitlist season technically continues up until orientation in August, although the application cycle for the next app season opens up in June/July. Do I gear up to do this all over again? Will I hear before then? How long till I hear news? What are the chances really? Or should I just give up on it and plan to be a reapplicant? If so, what do I need to do to improve my application? What if Ian is offered a great job elsewhere? Can we both work here? Too many questions and too many variables. I am usually okay with "going with the flow" but in this case I just wanted SOME kind of direction - whatever direction that was. We were tired, frustrated, happy, confused, but mainly just exhausted by all this.
I woke up early from my sleep because my phone had ping'ed from a new email. Ignored it and went back to sleep. Then Ian's phone buzzed from a text message. Twice. He got up groggy-eyed. Then checked my phone and started jumping up and down. Half asleep, I smiled and asked UVM?! I looked at my phone ... there it was ... an offer of acceptance! Was I still sleeping? No ... let me check the online applicant center just to make sure it wasn't an accident I got that email .... OMG.
Of course I was so unbelievably happy. But I think more than happy, I was just relieved. Just plain relieved. Relieved that I wouldn't have to think about doing this whole year-long, exhausting, emotionally-draining rollercoaster of an application cycle all over again. More than anything, I think I was just so glad. It only takes one seat and I'm so happy UVM didn't give up on me even when I was about to give up on myself.
I'm taking a break from it all before delving into the details of financing the huge student debt that I will take on, as well as all the paperwork involved with immunizations, figuring out where to live in Burlington, how we plan to move from Seattle, etc. Tonight will be my last performance with the PSSO and I'm glad it will be with such an amazing musician as our guest soloist. Then, Ian and I will head down to the Columbia River Gorge for some camping and hiking to clear our heads before returning, refreshed, to tackle this next amazing chapter in our lives.
It's going to be a busy summer ... but I can finally f'ing say it: I'm going to be a doctor. I can't believe it.
You can judge by the extended time between my last post and this one that a lot has happened recently. After interviewing, a couple weeks later I was notified that I was placed onto the "waitlist of qualified/alternate applicants" at the Univ of Vermont College of Medicine. However, I didn't know where I was on that waitlist (it's unranked), and how many other people were on that list relative to seats opening up. Add to that the fact that waitlist season technically continues up until orientation in August, although the application cycle for the next app season opens up in June/July. Do I gear up to do this all over again? Will I hear before then? How long till I hear news? What are the chances really? Or should I just give up on it and plan to be a reapplicant? If so, what do I need to do to improve my application? What if Ian is offered a great job elsewhere? Can we both work here? Too many questions and too many variables. I am usually okay with "going with the flow" but in this case I just wanted SOME kind of direction - whatever direction that was. We were tired, frustrated, happy, confused, but mainly just exhausted by all this.
I woke up early from my sleep because my phone had ping'ed from a new email. Ignored it and went back to sleep. Then Ian's phone buzzed from a text message. Twice. He got up groggy-eyed. Then checked my phone and started jumping up and down. Half asleep, I smiled and asked UVM?! I looked at my phone ... there it was ... an offer of acceptance! Was I still sleeping? No ... let me check the online applicant center just to make sure it wasn't an accident I got that email .... OMG.
Of course I was so unbelievably happy. But I think more than happy, I was just relieved. Just plain relieved. Relieved that I wouldn't have to think about doing this whole year-long, exhausting, emotionally-draining rollercoaster of an application cycle all over again. More than anything, I think I was just so glad. It only takes one seat and I'm so happy UVM didn't give up on me even when I was about to give up on myself.
I'm taking a break from it all before delving into the details of financing the huge student debt that I will take on, as well as all the paperwork involved with immunizations, figuring out where to live in Burlington, how we plan to move from Seattle, etc. Tonight will be my last performance with the PSSO and I'm glad it will be with such an amazing musician as our guest soloist. Then, Ian and I will head down to the Columbia River Gorge for some camping and hiking to clear our heads before returning, refreshed, to tackle this next amazing chapter in our lives.
It's going to be a busy summer ... but I can finally f'ing say it: I'm going to be a doctor. I can't believe it.
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