Interview Time Again

We made it to 4th year of medical school and interviews are already upon us!!! This has been so exciting because we can end up ANYWHERE!

Because the military makes things a little different for us I thought I'd explain how 4th year match works a little. Derek will interview at the schools he gets invited to and then he get's to rank those schools in order of where he would like to go most as #1. We will rank about 10 different school. Derek applied to 20 different anesthesiology residency programs. As of today he received interviews to 14 of those programs!!! To make it more complicated let's throw in transitional years. For anesthesiology they have either 3 or 4 year programs. The first year of residency is always an intern year. Derek will be doing a transitional year if the anesthesiology program is only 3 years. Transitional year is very similar to the 3rd year of medical school. So, we could go somewhere for 1 year and finish the last 3 years somewhere else. Either way residency will be 4 years total for us. Have I totally lost you yet?

Anyway, today was a good day because Derek got invited to interview at Johns Hopkins and MAYO in Minnesota.

So, in order of interviews:

Oct 25 - University of Utah
Oct 30 - Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
Nov 8 - Dartmouth in New Hampshire
Dec 4 - University of Virginia
Dec 6 - University of Oklahoma
Dec 16 - Cleveland Clinic in Ohio
Dec 20 - University of Florida
Jan 3 - Penn State
Jan 7 - Virginia Mason in Washington
Jan 8 - University of Wisconsin
Jan 9 - Wake Forest in North Carolina
Jan 14- Johns Hopkins in Maryland
Jan 15 - University of Kentucky
Jan 16 - University of Pittsburgh medical center
Jan 21 - University of Texas Southwestern


THEN he has to interview at transitional years because some of those programs are only for the last 3 years of residency. Thankfully some of the transitional years are at the same school and he can interview at the same time. But, here is our list of transitional years.

Nov 13 - University of South Dakota Program
Jan 7 - Virginia Mason in Washington
Jan 10- Indiana University School of Medicine
Jan 27 - Reading Health System in Pennsylvania
Feb - 6 Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center

As you can see flying to all of these places will be quite expensive... He will have to cancel some of them just from pure expense and days not lining up. Each interview has a dinner the night before and then all day interviewing. Derek has already tried to put as many in January that he can because MATCH DAY for the military is December 18!!! This is when we will find out if we will be going to San Antonio, Texas for the next 4 years to do the military residency program.

We have that as our #1 match spot for the military match, then civilian deffered for our #2. If we get civilian deferred we will enter the civilian match and match at one of the programs listed above. That match day is MARCH 21!!!

So, keep your eyes and ears open from the Bradley's in the next couple of months and see where in the U.S. we might be moving!

I'm so proud of Derek for all of his hard work! The journey to come to medical school was not easy, and medical school has proven just as tough! He is a champ! He has worked so hard for our family and continues to do so. Derek will be graduating from medical school on May 24, 2014! Last stretch and he will be there!

I hope this helps to enlighten any who are curious about our journey and I'm excited to see it written down. He could still get more interviews, but we are just so grateful for all that we have been blessed with. Truely, this journey has been a blessing in our lives and we are stronger from it. Derek is going to make the best anesthesiologist and I'm so lucky to have him for a husband! LOVE YOU DEREK! WAY TO GO!