2005-10-24 - 10:00 a.m.
i finally figured out how to fill out the stupid online residency application. turns out even after "applying" tp a number of schools, i forgot to designate all the important stuff...like grades and scores. basically i sent all residency programs my name, but nothing else. they make the damn online thing so annoying. anyway, so last week i finally finished applying everywhere...i applied to 68 school. it was expensive as hell. with my dismal scores and grades, it was necessary to apply to that many.
The first thing I got in my email was this:
"Thank you for your application to our program in general surgery. It appears
from review of your folder, that you are a person we particularly would like
to have in our residency program."
This came from a small community program on the beach in North Carolina...the place where Dawson's Creek was filmed. I was in shock cause i really convinced myself that i wasn't going to get any interviews. I thought to myself...."this must be a mistake." I mean, it's not like it's a super competitive program, but they only interview 33 people and they only take 2. so i thought the odds were most definitely not in my favor. i promptly responded and accepted the interview. Two hours later I received this:
"I am embarrassed and must apologize. You were sent an email by me for an
interview and I must ask you to disregard this message. At this time, your
file has been pulled for review but has not yet been reviewed by our
educational committee. Completion of this process should take place in the
next week or two.
Your file may not be complete enough for our committee and thust has not yet
been reviewed, or your file may simply not have been reviewed as there is a
large number to read this year. As soon as we are able to complete the
process I will be in touch with you concerning the status of an invitation to
interview at our program.
I apologize again for the inconvenience of a premature invitation. I will be
in touch with you very soon concerning the status of your application."
So it was a mistake. I felt like complete ass. The least these people can do is not jerk us medical students around. I mean, we are all so stressed and disillusioned and unhappy and fragile at this stage. We pay for exams, we pay for school, we pay to apply to these programs, we pay for the flights and the hotels for our interviews, and then we get totally crapped on. we enter into this match, which i happen to think is totally unfair, unethical, and just cruel. we have no idea where we're going to be in the next year. who interviews for jobs like this? it's absolutely ludicrous. Lawyers and bankers and consultants and other professionals get pampered. They get flown around, put up, fed. We get none of that. we sacrifice so much to get where we are. We're not in this for the money. I don't even remember why I'm in this anymore, but it's certainly not for the money. At the very least be kind enough not to send out fake interview invitations, my pride and self-confidence in this field are struggling enough.
so i was pissed. i really want to write something about it and send it to the times or the trib. of course i haven't gotten around to it.
since then i have gotten 2 real interviews, although i am skeptically waiting for a follow-up emailing saying "JUST KIDDING!"
oh, and i got my grades back from that awful rotation i did at UC-irvine. there was this one attending who totally wanted a piece of my ass. of course i did not reciprocate his advances, and he got a little bit short with me. he was only mean to me once. actually, for the most part, he kind of kissed my ass. he gave me a proficient (worst grade you can get and still pass). that wouldn't have really bothered me except that he wrote in my comments section that he though i lacked the capability to be a surgical resident. that was completely unnecessary. just cause you're 50 and single and lonely and i'm not going to touch you, don't insult me like that.
so this field continues to make me feel less and less like myself. people just suck. they really do.
that's the news with my road to becoming a surgeon. if i could erase my debt and start another career, i would do it in a second.
