Absite done, MCW offer

Well the absite is over. I am hearing from a lot of people around the country that it was very hard. I am a little comforted by that because I thought it was hard too. Of course I haven't gotten much sleep lately on account of the baby. I looked through the absite killer once more on the night before the test. As usual, a HUGE chunk of the test was right there on the Absite killer so hopefully that will kick me up a few percentile points.

I got an offer from MCW. It came by email this morning. As many of you may or may not know, that is the place that Gillman from plastics2002.com trained at for a while. I have heard awesome and amazing things about the place. The date is March 7th.

That makes 14 interviews set up (not counting Chicago). I don't think I am going to break any of the ones that I have arranged now. It is a very nice mix and I like each of the programs I am going to. So if that is the case I doubt I will be able to schedule too many more.

Absite Killer For The Palm

The Absite killer is now available for your palm pilot. Head on over to Absitekiller.com and check it out. The test is in just a few days and this is the perfect last minute review. For the first three years I studied the Absite Killer and the Michigan State Review for the Absite. I read and did all of the things you are supposed to do, but very little of what you read will actually have payoff on the test. A huge chunk of the test is right there in the Absite Killer. It isn't very long and there are like 1 or 2 sentence high yield blurbs about topics that appear over and over again.

I can't stress to you enough how important your ABSITE scores will be if you wish to be a successful candidate. I haven't matched yet and I may not, but I am getting a lot of interviews. One of the first things they mention is that I did well on the ABSITE. I didn't get 99th percentile or anything freakish like that but I had respectable scores. It doesn't make me any better or smarter than anyone else but for some reason the program directors like decent ABSITE scores.

I don't know about the site absitekiller.com, but the authors of the palm pilot file have it for sale. It looks like you buy it through eBay. It looks like they email it to you with an unlock code. I think you have to have iSilo but I'm sure you either have it or know someone who does.

The guys who made the Palm Pilot file say that it has the full blessing of the original author. I would like to see the author's efforts rewarded, and I would like to see the people who took the time to make it available for the Palm be compensated, so I am not sending out any more of my Microsoft Word documents of the Absite Killer. I am going to put a link to the right of the page for people who wish to purchase it. $14.95 very well spent if you ask me.

Urology match botched.

My medical student is sitting next to me in a daze. He was in the urology match and they messed it up. I don't know the particulars but somehow they ran the match wrong and the have to run it again. This is after notifying everyone that they had matched at X institution. My medical student had already talked to the program and was making arrangements etc. His wife had already found a job and everything. Now they have to wait until friday to find out where they matched.

UT-Houston

Confirmed to interview at UT-Houston on 2/28/5.

Only 26 places left

I just got an offer from UT-San Antonio and its perfect because it is like the only day left in Feb that I haven't scheduled something. I am super pumped!

1 offer, 1 rejection

I got the expected rejection from UNC today. They sent out offers a long time ago so I was assuming they weren't interested. I got an offer from Summa today. Now I am starting to have a very hard time with conflicts. Every place wants to interview on March 12th. Its crazy. I am still waiting to hear from 27 programs. Most of them are big name places though so I suspect I will get at least 20 rejections out of the group remaining.

I've heard from 21 places and have 14 offers and 7 rejections. That is a little better ratio than I was expecting certainly.

2 more offers

I got offers from U Miami and UT-Memphis today.

Louisiana down, Virginia Up

The final Louisiana program rejected me yesterday - LSU. I got the thumbs up from UVA though and I scheduled to go 2/18/5.

3 rejections

Got rejections from Duke, Emory and UC-Irvine yesterday as expected.

Providence (southfield)

I got an offer from Providence in Southfield Michigan today. The interview date is 3/4/5 to 3/5/5. I am planning on going.

MCG Details

I had an excellent trip to MCG. I flew into Atlanta and rented a car to drive to Augusta. The drive was very pretty at least to me. I am used to seeing corn and wheat fields.



I am glad I decided to fly to Atlanta instead of to Augusta. It would have cost me a ton more money to fly into Augusta and I would have had to stay an extra day. A lot of the applicants ended up staying overnight.

I got a room at the Partridge Inn, which I very highly recommend. I stayed there 4 years ago when I was interviewing for General Surgery. I hadn't planned on staying overnight. I was scheduled to fly up to Michigan for an interview but there was a little fog and they won't fly in fog in Augusta. The airport put me up at the PI overnight. I went to the bar and grill and they had the best version of the BLT I have ever had. It had homemade pimento cheese spread, smoked bacon, lettuce and tomato on toasted bread. I got the sandwich, a coke and a piece of pecan pie for under 5 bucks.

As soon as I got checked in I went downstairs to the bar and grill to see if they still had the sandwich but they didn't. I found out that the pimento sandwich is a tradition at the Master's, much like the mint julep is at the Kentucky Derby.

My room was beautiful. It was on the 4th floor and I had my own balcony. I had a great view of the medical center and the rest of the city.



At 7 I went down to a conference room in the PI and met the other applicants, the fellows and the PA's from the program. Everyone was extremely nice and answered all of our questions. I talked to a lot of the other applicants and they all seemed like outstanding people. Oh boy is it going to be tough to match this year, at least for me.

The next morning we were taken to the hospital in the PI's A-Team van. We assembled in a conference room for breakfast and a presentation. Dr. Yu played the Louis Armstrong song 'What a Wonderful World' while we waited for everyone to get there.

I don't have any pictures of the actual facilities unfortunately. If you are interested in what the place looked like you can check out the photos on their web page.

I interviewed with 4 faculty and 2 residents. Everyone was very nice and answered all of my questions.

After the interview I drove around Augusta to check it out. The town is very pretty with tree lined streets and old houses.

Back from GA and more news

MCG was a neat place. I will have a more detailed post tomorrow. I got 3 offers in the mail today - Indiana, UIC and Albert Einstein. More details later.

Louisville

I got an offer from Louisville today. Interview dates are Feb 11th and March 4th if I remember right. In other news, my wife just had a 9 pound baby after an epic 18 hours of labor. All is well.

Mississippi Trip

I just got back from Jackson Mississippi! Everyone down there was amazingly hospitable and I had a great time.

My flight down there was a bit complicated. Kansas City got destroyed by an ice storm.



It was like Godzilla attacked us or something.



My flights were canceled. I had to make other arrangements, and those flights were delayed and almost canceled. Anyway it was all worth it. When I finally arrived at the interview (several hours late) I was delighted to find some Mississippi-Style BBQ.



The hospital complex is absolutely huge.



They are building several new buildings right now that are scheduled to open next summer.



It was a great trip and I am really glad I went. I met a few more candidates. One of the candidates from Mississippi and I went to lunch on Friday and he was kind enough to let me use his house to change. It can be a little dangerous doing the Clark Kent changing routine sometimes.