The Interview Trail

I have decided to pursue a residency in family practice and spent last week interviewing at three of the programs Melissa and I are interested in. At the moment we have (or have had) 8 interviews set-up. Most of the interviews are located in the mountain west with the exception of two in South Bend, IN this coming week. The month I did in South Bend was great and I am certainly excited to take Melissa back there.

I'll review a little information for those of you who may not be familiar with the process of medical education. I am currently in my 4th year of medical school. As I am at a DO school without an affiliated hospital I spent my 3rd year in Yakima, WA doing the required 3rd year rotations at the hospitals there. My 4th year is filled with mostly electives so we have moved the family to Cedar City where I am doing most of my elective rotations. Towards the end of the 3rd year I filled out my residency application (a national service) and submitted it to 13 family practice programs. Since that time I have veen offered various interviews and decided to set up times for 8 of the programs. Apparently I'm not good enough for the Idaho programs as all three in that blessed state told me they are not interested in offering me an interview. Following my interviews I will create a list ranking my order of preference for residency. At this same time the programs will create a list ranking their preference for students. The "match" takes place in March and at that time Melissa and I will know where we will be moving for the next 3 years.

As I stated we are heading for South Bend this coming week. We interviewed in Grand Junction, Colorado as well as Casper, and Cheyenne, Wyoming last week. The three programs last week had their good and bad of course, but overall we were impressed. We have decided to avoid any firm decisions as to where we want to go until we have interviewed at all of the programs. Apparently we are attempting to keep our minds open to future programs.