Sunday, February 8, 2009

Comments of the Week

Well...another 2 rejections came my way this week. The last one came Friday afternoon as I was sleeping off my night shift. I saw the blinking LED on my phone and took a quick glance at the email. Yep. Another resounding "you did not qualify for an interview".

I muttered an expletive, rolled over and went back to sleep. Starting to get numb I think.

It's been a rough week for many reasons. I have to say the things that have been keeping me smiling are the calls, emails, and comments of support....much appreciated.

Two particular comments have given me plenty of mileage already and make me laugh whenever I think of them--so Nature Nerd and Keith you two are tied for the number one comment of the week:

"I think you should send them some feedback, starting with unfortunately, i can't accept your rejection letter, as I am the best candidate to take a seat in your stupid ass school."

and

"Pooooop to U of C. Poop. They have no idea what they just passed up. No. Idea.
"

Ahh well. Life goes on. I can't really moan about having to spend the next couple of years in the Caribbean, but I can moan about having to be so far away from such amazing friends and family.



Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Admissions Committees are Just Not that Into Me

Once again I interrupt the slow plodding chronicles of my volunteer trip to India to write about current events in my long journey to medical school.

Yesterday I got three--count 'em--three rejection emails from Canadian medical schools. Ouch. The hits just keep on coming.

J.B was at the house when I opened the one from Calgary, which was the school I really wanted to get an interview at. The main bonuses were the proximity to my family, the 3 year program, the rural clerkships, the short drive to the mountains...oh and the hockey jersey that each student gets.

So I opened the email with a racing heart, thinking that it wasn't a good sign that I was getting the email on the first day of the notifications. I must say though, despite the contents, the thing that I really liked about the rejection was that the letter started like this:

February 2nd 2009


Dear Albinoblackbear,


Unfortunately,...(insert rejection monologue here)


I liked how they cut to the chase. They had me at "unfortunately" which I found thoughtful. I mean all one wants to know when opening a letter/email like that is YES or NO and you don't want to actually read 3 paragraphs and find buried somewhere in there the words "the cut off for the interview score invitations were higher than your application scores" or some convoluted drivel like that. Really, they ought to print the letters with either a green or red background so that you don't even have to read the words to get the message.

My rejection from Ottawa was like aforementioned wordy example. Buried. Paragraph three and with somewhat ambiguous wording.

So when I read that U of C didn't want me I had a small meltdown which J.B said "was a mixture of crying, laughing, and the F-word". It's true. It was a rant akin to the rant I had when I was first rejected many moons ago by a Saba.

But it brings me back to the question, what do admissions committees want? Is all this business about wanting 'well rounded applicants with life experiences that prove their dedication to medicine' a bunch of lip service to hide the fact that really they are still looking for borderline Aspergers applicants who have biochem degrees, 40 MCAT scores, and a research background?

Sigh.

Hold. Back. Rant.

Well, the upside is I am going to medical school, the downside is I will likely have to leave Canada to do so. Funny how today I got my renewal notification for the Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine. I just feel my heart hardening to the constant cries of "where are all the rural doctors in Canada?" and all the woes of rural ER docs when I am jumping up and down in the background going "pick me! pick me! I grew up in rural Alberta and want to continue to provide medical care to underprivileged populations in Canada!" and I get the letter from admissions that begins with the word 'unfortunately'.