Chugging Along

Well, I guess a month has passed. How is it that when I have more time outside of work/school, I post less? Weird.

My radiology rotation came and went, interrupted by 3 interviews and Thanksgiving. The rotation was easy hours (8-4 M-F), no responsibilities...basically I sat and looked over the radiologist's shoulder all day watching them read films. They were all very nice and tried to involve me, but not much I can do as a student. I am glad I had it as a rotation though, nice and easy and hopefully I learned something.

Now comes some drama. Originally I had the next 5 weeks off for interviews and Christmas. However, I decided last minute to sign up for a "reading elective" (aka 1 hour of reading a day, 1-2 meetings with my mentor = 4 weeks of credit. Sweet!) with an attending at my current first choice EM program, both to learn something as well as hopefully impress them. I laid it out very clearly in my first email that I would not be around very much due to interviews and that if they could be flexible with me, I would love to do this elective. He agreed. I signed up. Then I came to find out that I am expected to meet in person with him at least once a week, read/work about 45 hours/week, and write a 10 page paper. What?!?!?!? I am SO upset about this, basically because this is NOT what I signed up for and if I had known that, I would have asked him to do an informal "reading list/discussion" with me for no credit. However, now that I am signed up, I can't very well back out just because it is a little more work. Alas, I have to spend the next 3 weeks juggling interviews, travel, and all of this work. There goes my vacation!

Interviews are getting to me. They are just fine to go on (although airports and hotels get tiring), but I wish I were getting more offers. After 29 applications, I have gotten 8 interviews, 9 rejections, and have not heard from 13. That is more flat out rejections than I was expecting, and at this point if I haven't heard anything I am not planning on hearing anything. I wanted to go on at least 12 interviews, so this is a bit of a let down. My last ditch effort is to email programs and basically beg for an interview. We'll see how that goes. Frustrating! I still know that everything will work out, but I am getting tired of this process.