Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.

Tag: grad.school

  • Snow in Southern California

    Perhaps as a result of Loma Linda University being a private graduate school (and the increased tuition income that allows), the Student Association’s Christmas party this week was fantastic. In addition to folks spending Monday through Thursday wrapping every vertical object near the party area with lights, they brought in snow. In Southern California, where…

  • Operation Turkey Cook

    Operation Turkey Cook

    Let’s start with the news you were dying to hear: Operation Turkey Cook was a success. In addition to preparing a delicious bird, Rachel and I created a sumptuous feast that is bound to have us eating leftovers for a week or more. While listening to This American Life, we made cranberry sauce, asparagus, cornbread…

  • Here’s the Windup

    We’ve got our second test on Monday, so this week I’ve been more and more occupied with studying and preparing for that. In other words, I’m going to be less busy starting this coming Tuesday. Last week our good friend Kyle (formerly of this now-defunct blog, currently with no internet home sans Facebook) made good…

  • Mouth-Watering Barbecue

    A bunch of us in my class wanted to have a post-test celebration, but since the exam was on a Monday we had school and lab obligations all week. Thus, our Post-Test Party was a kind of extended lunch at the creatively-named “Korea House,” a Korean barbecue forty minutes away from Loma Linda. I’d never…

  • First Test Down

    My grad school class had its first test yesterday. I’d say that it went pretty well, and not just because the multiple-choice section was accidentally made from the answer key. The essay questions will likely carry a lot more weight now, but I’m as cautiously optimistic as I can be after a test I spent…

  • Round and Round We Go

    Studying has more or less pushed me underground for the past week—we’ve got our first biochem test tomorrow. A side effect is that I’ve been unwittingly collecting pictures of metabolic cycles drawn (and redrawn) on various whiteboards. It started innocuously enough with me simply intending to “look at it later,” but instead of doing that…

  • Why Two Degrees?

    Looking over the long road ahead of me, one might consider asking, incredulously, why somebody would want to do an MD/PhD program at all. It’s certainly a justified question, to which the short answer is that I think receiving training in both clinical medicine and research science will be especially valuable in my future career.…

  • How I’m Spending the Next Decade

    I am still somewhat dumbfounded and incredibly grateful that I got into the MD/PhD program at Loma Linda University. Now that classes have actually started, I’ve noticed the people around me becoming increasingly confused about what MD/PhD actually means in terms of my daily activities. Indeed, the overall plan for how I’ll be spending the…