Hellooooo New York!

I've been keeping this news a bit under wraps but I actually got my first interview invitation a while ago and (huge surprise) it was from Hofstra! Hofstra is a new medical school in Long Island which was started within the past three years (they don't actually have a graduating class yet). While for some this might be a huge negative, I actually think this means the school won't be mired in the same kind of issues surrounding worn-out curriculum and ineffective teaching methods that many of the more well-established medical education institutions face. There's already a ton of information on the internet regarding Hofstra's programs and their Step 1 scores are crazy high which is a pretty good indicator that their small group rather than enormous lecture teaching approach is working. I'll be flying out in October for a Friday interview date and I'm really excited!

New job, new apartment, NEW KITTEN!

I've been pretty busy over the past few weeks with oh so many things but I am happy to say that life is finally beginning to settle down (at least, enough for me to be able to get a quick post in!). Despite the absolutely cutthroat rental market in Chicago, I was able to find a wonderful apartment in the perfect area and finally moved in this weekend. Of course, as usual, there are a few maintenance things that I've already noticed need to be taken care of but I am thrilled to be in a new spot. Adding to that is my excitement and happiness over adopting a tiny ball of fluff otherwise known as Rufus O'Reilly, ginger orphan kitten (please see portrait below). On top of that I just started a new position at Northwestern that I didn't want to post about too early in advance (last Monday was my first day) AND I've been working hard on applications and sending in updates to schools. So basically I've been crazy busy! As everything has started to wind down though I've been thinking a lot about some topics that I really want to open up a discussion about and I have some serious issues on my mind regarding the application cycle and medical school in general so I hope you will all be on the lookout for my next post because I would love some feedback on what I have to say. Oh and please prepare yourselves for future pictures of tiny Rufus because I've already taken about 100 on my phone and I can't fight the need to share them his adorable face with the whole world!