First Interview: tomorrow at Drexel

The first week at Christiana was good. Nothing about the program swept me off my feet, but everything has this unspoken confidence of doing things right. A resident would get a good education here, but the program has also shown me that I could get a good education at many programs. The only question mark in my mind is how they handle their volume with only two trauma bays. Their older design reminds me of UConn except I think UConn had four with two pairs back-to-back.

The attendings and residents have all been good to work with. I think I have been doing a good job based on the limited feedback offered thus far. I need to remember to ask for feedback directly at the end of each shift. Yesterday I had a chance to work with the Program Director. Since I had never met him I didn't even know who he was until a resident pointed him out. That was annoying. But it went well otherwise. His parting comments included mentioning that 80% of their interview invitations go out today. So I've pretty anxious all day.

I finally just started phoning up programs to ask what the status of my residency interview applications was. The only one I got through to anyone was Christiana. The Program Director wants to get some feedback from my attendings and residents before deciding whether to give me an interview. Not what I had hoped, but if I continue doing a good job I believe I'll get an interview while I'm here.

Dean's Letters went out on November 1st, last Thursday. I expected a rush of interview invitations and even rejections by now. But nothing until an hour or so ago when I received an invitation from Cooper in New Jersey. That's number seven. They are an inner city program across the river from Philadelphia, where I'd most likely live. Not a ton of volume, but lots of trauma and serious illness. I'm trying to get that scheduled while I'm here as well. However, the ones I really want to fit in, UMaryland and Hopkins, haven't responded yet :(.

Tonight I'm driving to Philadelphia for an informal social with Drexel residents. The interview is tomorrow at 11am. I'm trying to prepare my questions, review the program information online, etc. but it's been difficult with the anxiety of waiting to hear from all the other programs I applied to. Well, time to stop procrastinating with this blog and go back through all my first year research. I'm certain to get asked questions on it.