Residency Applications

As the years of medical school have wore on, I have found myself less and less interested in the whole process. But mostly the process. The first year I was all about when the exams were and what courses he was taking. The second year I spent obsessing about test scores and researching options for clinical placement. Now Ross is in 4th year at what is pretty much the most important step in medical school.

RESIDENCY APPLICATIONS

Ya know, where he will be working for the next three years... as a DOCTOR.

Last year I was making this insane spreadsheet with all this information about residency. I was texting all my friends and asking a million questions. But now that day has come and gone, I'm not too worried about it. It is all in Ross's hands and I have a calm feeling that life works out. It is going to be okay.

This disturbs me so much.

As an International Medical Graduate you don't always have a lot of things going your way. You are recommend to apply to about 5 times as many places to ensure you match into a residency. As a result, Ross picked a lot of random hospitals that were considered a little more "safe." Just in case he doesn't get call-backs from his tops. I was laying on the couch being lazy while Ross researched at the table in the kitchen.



R "Between Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, which do you prefer."
K "Hmm, I guess Connecticut although it's probably more expensive."
R "What about Albany? How far is that from Ali?
K "Sure."
R "How do you feel about Virginia"
K "Good."
R "What about Pennsylvania?"
K "I don't know. It's nice."
R "Philadelphia?"
K "Scary."
R "Baltimore"
K "Only a little less scary."
R "Florida?"
K "Ehhh."

That's about how the conversation went as we rolled through practically every state in the union. I only care about matching. If we end up in West Virginia I will buy a banjo and shotgun and remember that it's okay. Life works out just the way it is supposed to.



Failure comes from the life we create in our head. And it pretty much never works out to be the way you expect it. Maybe you end up spending two years of your life in a developing country while your husband goes to school. Maybe you do dumb job after dumb job that you hate because you just really need to make rent. And it is frustrating. And it is hard. But that's okay.

At least you already figured out the PTAL right?



And you don't yet have to think about how you could possibly start paying off loans on a residency "salary" next year.



Right now you can still dream about loans being paid off before you die. That sounds good.



Residency isn't a real job. For his specialty, he might make around $50,000. My friends "oo" and "ahh" at this.



Knowing about loans and interest rates, that makes me want to pass out. Not in a good way. Besides the fact that he went to school for 8 YEARS- and half of that income will go to pay off student loans, a quarter of that will go to taxes, AND he will have just spent upwards of $10,000 just to apply to residency, then yeah, we are pretty much the Trumps. True Love:



But yeah! He finished third year of school. AND he has applied for residency. So yay!