#uwsmph

[dancingfree]

Wilderness Medicine fire building 🔥🔥🔥 #uwsmph #wildernessmedicine (at Picnic Point)

[giangrene]

Losing Touch

One of the things I told myself before starting med school was that I would still find a way to practice piano and write regularly. I've been in school for 6 months now, and I've successfully managed to maintain neither.

For those who still creep on my tumblr, these next few months are packed with excitement and (hopefully) more free time to reconnect with the two hobbies that helped me push through the lowest moments of my "past life." For those who are curious:

1) I am going to spend 6 weeks in Ecuador (this summer) participating a program similar to the one I did in Argentina :)

2) For Spring Break, I am going to spend half of it in Madison with Julian, and the 2nd half in New Orleans at a Medical Diversity Conference (Jambalaya, Gumbo, and so much more!!)

3) I was recently "officiated" into a position next year as a Student Admission Committee Member for the Medical School. In other words, I will be on the committee that reads applications and decides who receives interview offers/acceptances to our medical school. THE POWER!!! 

Other than that, I'll try to finish the 10 medical school related posts I queued but never got around to polishing up... haha

[giangrene]

Med School Updates

I’VE BEEN ACCEPTED TO UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH WAHHHH.

As people who have been stalking/following my med school banters for the past few months, Wisconsin is definitely one of my top choices. I am so excited that I could possibly be a badger come Fall 2014!

It’s kind of funny how much I’ve changed in just 4 months. I feel like I’ve learned and grown so much from this process, mostly because I’ve had to come to terms with a lot of realities about myself as well as let go of my ego about “staying in California.” I feel humbled and honored that Wisconsin decided to accept me in light of my low MCAT score, and am happy that I DON’T HAVE TO RETAKE THAT DEMON!

Another fun thing is that I’m finally starting to learn my US Geography. I had no idea where Colorado or Wisconsin are until I applied and interviewed at those schools. 

I’M SO HAPPY. I’m still crying, and it’s been almost 3 hours since I got the acceptance phone call. LOLOLOL

AHHHHHH

[giangrene]

Post-interview thoughts

A part of me still feels pretty giddy about the fact that I attended my first (and hopefully not last) medical school interview this past Friday. This morning, I woke up and had to look at the school's welcome packet to help me believe that all of this actually happened :P.

It's really hard to sum up my entire Madison/Wisconsin experience, even though I was only there for 2 days. I'm incredibly grateful at the fact that I actually have a friend who is currently an M1 there, especially since he helped connect me with my student host for the night + several other Southeast Asian students on campus. Although the school isn't as diverse as I had hoped (since it's a public state school, it's required to give 75+% of its admission seats to in state applicants, which, given the fact that it's Wisconsin and it's in the midwest, basically means majority Caucasian students).  What I noticed during my interview is that pretty much every out of state applicant that was there on my interview day was either from California, or was an "ethnic minority" of some sort, relative to the school's demographic. There was actually another student who graduated from UC Davis (I've seen him around a few times on campus, but never met him)!

My interview itself was incredibly informal. I was told to not stress anything going into it, especially since my interviewer (an attending physician of the medical school) was very welcoming. For our "conversation interview," the interviewers are given only our personal statements, summary of our activities from undergrad, and our secondary essays. The school intentionally omits information about our GPA and MCAT score to avoid bias, especially since their goal is to find students who are "good fits" for the academic curriculum/environment, not those who are necessarily only "the most competitive applicants."

During my interview, we laughed and joked about random topics (in between the typical, "tell me about yourself" and "why do you want to be a physician and not a nurse, EMT, etc.?" type questions. He smiled and nodded at all of my responses, and made a note to mention that although my letters of recommendation were definitely the strongest component of my application (close second was my personal statement), he was very pleased with getting to talk to me. As we parted, he told me that he had a very positive experience, wished that there was more than 35 minutes to talk, and that he would write a strong recommendation on my behalf for the admissions committee to take into consideration when they make their final decisions. What left the biggest grin on my face was his, "I honestly hope we get to meet again in the Fall. I would be surprised if you do not receive an acceptance letter next month." 

Overall, it's unreal how friendly and hospitable EVERYONE is in the city. I'm not just talking about my student host (who is ridiculously amazing and super cool/down-to-earth), but even random folks on the street. My bus driver said "hi, how are you?" in a genuinely interested way, and I had a conversation with all of my bus drivers, who all wished me luck on my interviews :P. 

I may have been anti-out of state before (I originally only applied to UWSMPH because it was one of the biggest reach schools on my list, next to most of the UCs), but I would go to this school in a heartbeat if they would let me.  Now, all I can do is wait and hope for the best with the remainder of my application cycle. :D