One piece of unfortunate news

Confirmed from the CAS:

UCSF will not be in the match.

Brace yourselves, the Storm is Coming!

I got an offer from Loyola yesterday. Loyola is offering interviews Saturday, February 12, and Saturday, February 26, 2005. I also heard that UNC has sent out invitations for Feb 5th and March 12th. I didn't get an offer or a rejection from UNC at least via email so I am trying to figure out whether they went out by email or snail mail.

This is when the interviews start rolling in. I also got an email from Mayo requesting my USMLE step 3 scores, which I don't have. I hope they will overlook it. Anyway the next few weeks is going to be awesome. Get ready! Let the interviews come.

List of Programs with combined/integrated also

Here is a list of programs in the fellowship match that also have combined spots. Someone was asking me for this list so here it is.

UC-Davis
UC-Irvine
UCSF
UCLA
USC-LA
U of Chicago
Harvard
Lahey +-?
Cincinnati
Pitt
UTSW
Utah
UVA
MCW
UTMB


Here is the list of programs in the match that ONLY HAVE fellowship spots.

UAB
UC-San Diego
U Miami
CC-Florida
MCG
Emory
Rush
Loyola
UIC-Chicago
Indiana
Louisville
LSU
Tulane
U Mass
Wayne State
Providence
Minnesota
Mayo
Nebraska
Mississippi
Albert Einstein
Nassau
UNC
Duke
CC
Summa
Oklahoma
Oregon
Penn State
Temple
South Carolina
UT-Chat
UT-Memphis
Vanderbilt
UT-Houston
UT-San Antonio
Christus-Houston
NY-Pres
UMDNJ?

Nebraska Confirmed

I called Nebraska and got confirmed for the first interview date. I think it is the 2/22/05. I think the other date was March 4th. The February date is unfortunately on a Tuesday but I will just have to make it work. The March date was on a Friday. One thing about picking a Tuesday interview date is that there almost certainly won't be any conflicting interviews on that day.

In other news, the owner of plastics2002 has called for some donations. His goal is to be able to put up a more stable server. If he gets enough money he will be able to add other features as well. I have used the site so much and gotten so much enjoyment out of it that I decided to donate $10. I think it is a laudable goal to preserve plastics2002 as a resource for those who come after us. If nothing else the site is very entertaining. It gets better when match date gets closer. Everyone is at each other's throats over there and the posts just get hilarious. Anyway I would encourage everyone to check out plastics2002 if you haven't already. If you are a plastics2002 junky like me, I would encourage you to fork over a little coin to help keep it open. He has a paypal link set up and its really easy.

One more to add to the list

I was just offered an interview at University of Nebraska today. No word from other programs though.

Everyone is getting antsy!

I count myself among the vast number of people who are anxious for the interview season to truly get into swing. I have gotten 3 emails from friends in the match today wondering if I knew anything new etc. Our applications have been in for SO LONG. Sometimes you start to wonder why you applied so early if they were just going to sit on the applications. So far these are the only programs I know that have for sure offered interviews or sent out rejections:

U Chicago
MCG
U Mississippi
Tulane (rejected me)
Oregon (rejected me)

I know a lot of people who are going to be at the MCG interviews so hopefully they will have some news. Has anyone out there heard anything yet? Fire off an email to me. I would love to hear from you. I do have some rather disturbing news about the number of people in the match this year but I don't think I will post it just yet until I get confirmation from other sources.

Thin Envelope Day

I got a very light envelope from University of Oregon today. Oh well. It might have been nice to live by the mountains for a while but it was not to be. Right now I am batting 3 for 5. If I keep going at this rate I will have twice the number of interviews that I could even dream of going to. It can't keep going this way though. I would expect to get maybe 1 out of 4 places offering at best. That would give me still probably more interviews than I could go to but I would sure do my best. Good job to those who got interview offers and good luck!

MCG Interview Details

MCG was a little bit harder than U Miss to get set up. For one thing, MCG is in Augusta Georgia. There is no such thing as a direct flight into there unless you are Bill Gates. What most places do is fly you into Atlanta and your last leg is on board a Cessna or some other crazy small plane. Been there, done that, can't say I liked it. I flew into Augusta to interview for general surgery about 4 years ago, at about the same time of year. I couldn't get out of Augusta because the airport shut down. They don't fly in fog in Augusta. So I ended up having to stay overnight and I missed an interview at Michigan. Oh well, it was fate. But let me tell you it isn't going to happen again. The other thing about flying into Augusta is that it adds >$200 to the cost of your flight. What I decided to do was fly into Atlanta and rent a Yugo for $15. Its about a 2 hour drive from Atlanta to Augusta, so I just planned my flight times around a 3 hour drive allowing for a SNAFU. I also managed to get very cheap direct flights into Atlanta, so no messing around with layovers etc. Truly a choice travel plan and about $300 cheaper to boot.

We have a dinner at the Partridge Inn at 7:00PM on Friday January 15th. If it is in the main restaurant it will be extraordinary. The chef at the main restaurant was awarded the James Beard award. That is the American equivalent of the Cordon Bleu. The interviews will begin at 7:00AM and run until 1:00PM on Saturday.

U Mississippi Interview Details

I got all of the arrangements made to interview at the University of Mississippi on Thursday January 6th and Friday January 7th. On the 6th, the interviews start at 4:30 PM. They will resume the next morning at 8:00AM and conclude by around 11:00AM. I decided to stay at a different hotel than the one they recommended. The recommended one was about twice the price of the place I ended up booking, and they don't have shuttle service from the airport. So I would have to pay twice the price and rent a car. I still have to rent a car but the total cost (car + room) will end up being less than just renting a room at the recommended place. Yeah I know I am a penny pincher. Its tough on a resident's salary.

Plastics2002 came back up

Plastics 2002 is back online as of yesterday. I'm not sure how long it will be up but it is a great site for researching programs as long as you have an excellent BS detector.

University of Chicago Interview

I had a great time in Chicago. Everyone at U Chicago was very nice and the facilities were beautiful. I flew in the night before to O'hare and took the train down to Lincoln Park.



It was so easy that I decided to take a train down the next morning to U of Chicago.



I arrived a little early to campus so I could get some coffee, walk around and check things out. The campus is just gorgeous.





When I got to the interview conference room I met all the other applicants. Everyone was very nice and they were all extremely accomplished. I felt very out of place with that group and I am honored that the University of Chicago invited me. They offered a buffet of interview food. As usual, the only people who ate the interview food were the residents from the host program. I was just too nervous to have an appetite.



At the end of the interview we were scheduled to go to a swanky Chicago restaurant but it was not to be. Someone had an emergency case. Instead we went to the Au Bon Pain in the hospital. After lunch I headed back up to my cousin's apartment in Lincoln Park to change.



From there I went down to the Gold Coast and visited my old stomping grounds. In the basement of this building (Morton) I learned anatomy.



I swung by Northwestern Memorial Hospital which was where I did most of my clerkships.



Within a stone throw of NMH is a famous Chicago landmark, one of the only things that didn't burn in the fire.



I rode the 151 back up to Lincoln park but I stopped along Lake Shore Drive.



In this area is a famous surgery landmark - The International Museum and College of Surgery.



For dinner I took my cousin to one of my favorite Chicago restaurants - The Frontera Grill.



The chef here is Rick Bayless. You may have heard of him. The Frontera Grill and its sister, Topolabompo are considered by many to be the premier Mexican restaurants in the US. The great thing is that its not very expensive if compared to other great restaurants.


From there we headed over to Michigan Ave to check out the lights. If you have never seen it, the lights during the Holiday season are beautiful.




My last stop during the Chicago interview was a great bar at State and Division called PJ Clark's.



The atmosphere inside was just electric. The music was great and it was totally packed on a Thursday night.



When I was in Chicago for medical school people dressed a lot more uniformly. The blue shirt black pants black vest look was huge. I called it the Amish look. Everyone was dressing like that Harrison Ford movie Witness. Inside PJ Clark's I finally found one piece of the Chicago dress code. Every woman in the bar, and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE was wearing jeans and really pointy toed high heels.

Here is exhibit A your honor:



The next morning I got on the plane back home. It was a much more adventurous flight than the one to Chicago. Apparently someone sitting close to me in cattle class decided that it was prudent to eat several cans of refried beans the night before. After all, why not make it smell like a cattle car as well? I suppose the whole covering the nose thing worked out well though, because at least 6 people had SARS and were open mouth coughing all over the place.

The whole trip was awesome and no matter how everything turns out I am glad I went.

Another thick envelope.

I got the word from U Mississippi today. They are offering interviews on Jan 6th and 7th. There is only 1 problem with this date - my wife is due to deliver on Jan 9th. That would be cutting it very very close. I am giving them a call today to try to figure something out. Maybe I could get a refundable plane ticket or something. Its scary to say the least.

Chicago details finalized

I got an email from Uchicago today with final details about the interview next Thursday. There were 5 other people that the email was sent to. I know one of them but I don't recognize any of the other applicants. I can't wait to meet everyone.

I haven't heard anything from any other programs since MCG. I am hoping things will pick up a bit here in the next few weeks and in January. It will be interesting to see where the other applicants have gotten offers from.