When last I wrote, I had successfully presented my PhD thesis proposal and was celebrating that the progress bar of my ridiculously ill-conceived plan for post-graduate education had reached the neighborhood of 25%. Now, a short while a long while over five years later, readers may be surprised to find out that several events have transpired in the interim. I truly hate to be the one posting spoilers, but unfortunately for both of us the statute of limitations on these things has long since expired.
I went on to complete my doctoral work and a bit under two years later, I defended my thesis on September 5, 2014. Around the same time, I started medical school, which is more or less a great time for the audience to take a pee break and replenish their supply of popcorn. I invite you to draw on your mental imagery of “fast forward” as I say that over the next several years, I had a bunch of classes, took a bunch of tests, rotated through a number of medical specialties, took a bunch more tests, and emerged from the experience not necessarily any wiser, but definitely older and sadder.
Particularly attentive folks may remember discussion at some point of “Step” exams, the not-at-all-confusing three-step medical licensing process consisting of four exams; those are all done now save for the Final Challenge that actually results in the issuance of a medical license, which to the surprise of many doesn’t take place until well after med school. I’m now in the final year of second half of the MD/PhD, in the phase of medical school where I have rotations in different medical specialties that involve attempting to not be entirely useless in the hospital yet somehow simultaneously still in class and taking tests. I have only a few of those rotations remaining before I will have completed medical school (Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care, for the curious).
This is far from the end, however, because this is medical school where there is always more. Right now I’m waiting for the results from The Match—wait, have we talked about The Match yet? No? Oh goodness…
There exists another obstacle course to navigate in order to acquire a job after medical school, which operates thusly: sign up for an AAMC account release USMLE scores submit ERAS register for the NRMP schedule interviews create and certify a ROL wait for results and hope not to SOAP…on second thought, this probably requires a separate post to explain yet another one of this career’s arcane rituals. Update: For your reading pleasure.
Whatever happens with the next Great Uncertainty hurtling toward its scheduled impact a few weeks from now, it is highly likely that in fewer than one hundred days I will, for the first time in nearly a decade, be “done with school.” Something with this potential significance is far too important to approach with anything other than cautious skepticism, but there is a part of me that is willing to risk a little more light.