It only LOOKS chaotic

July 11, 2006 at 6:37 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Interesting few weeks…

I just rearranged my schedule for perhaps the 5th or 6th time these last two years. I was supposed to do my OB/GYN rotation, but the slides came back from Aberdeen with positive results, and now my research mentor wants to do a host of other tests as part of the overall investigation. All the tests are basic techniques of research that I need to learn, plus I’ve already put a significant amount of my time and energy into this project. So when she asked me to come back and continue working on it, of course I want to do so. It involved getting permission from the dean, but so be it. It’s important to me, and I’ll do what I need to do to make it happen. It’s true there was an unspoken element of “come finish this or else,” but I’m not going to turn down a fabulous opportunity just because it came in the form of an ultimatum that involves rearranging my life. And obviously there are no guarantees about what finishing the project means for my residency chances. But the project is worth the time, even without that.

Substance is far more important than form.

The other interesting thing that happened was the admission committee selection. Without going into too much detail, I have to say I was really surprised by the results. I went in there thinking that there were a couple of people who were complete shoo-ins. But the people who stood out during the interview were entirely different. It was really hard to make that last decision. We could have flipped a coin and not done a disservice to the committee in terms of finding outstanding people to serve on it. But it would have been a disservice to the people applying, for us to decide in that manner. So we talked it out until we had a consensus. And the funny thing is, after comparing and contrasting and paring down the list applicant by applicant using more objective criteria, we ended up with the same three people we’d all first mentioned as a gut reaction the minute we finished interviewing.

I think that’s a good sign.