Residency confusion.

Today Lee is off on an interview at the University of Indiana in Indianapolis. Thankfully this was another interview he could drive to, it's about 4 1/2 hours away.
I can't wait to hear all about it tonight when he gets home!  This is his 3rd actual interview, and at this point he's been offered 20... we're going through deciding where is the best use of our money to fly to interview and what not.  Sunday he flies down to Florida to do a couple..... leaving me alone in cold Michigan. :/

People continue to be totally clueless and ask a million questions about the residency process.  I don't blame them, it's pretty difficult to understand if you're not living it every day.  But people assume that since Lee's going on interviews that these individual hospitals are going to offer him jobs.... complete with "offers"
Not so much.  I try my hardest to explain that we won't know anything until March.  We rank the places he interviews at in order of where we'd like to go most, they rank the students in order of who they want the most, and a computer literally "matches" us to a program.  We don't have final say.

Here is a pretty good explanation of the process if you're really interested http://b83c73bcf0e7ca356c80-e8560f466940e4ec38ed51af32994bc6.r6.cf1.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/NRMP-Match-Process-Run-a-Match-Match-Logo.pdf

And I should note that not all hospitals have residency programs!  People ask why we aren't moving home.... well that particular hospital doesn't have residents!  That's reason #1.

Also, not all residency programs are created equal.  Some are university based (ie OSU Medical Center in Columbus), some are at really well known hospitals (ie The Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic), some are university affiliated (ie St. John's Hospital here is affiliated with Wayne St. U. but doesn't have a whole lot to do with the actual school or medical school), some are brand new this year, some have great  reputations, some have poor reputations, some take international medical graduates (IMGs) and some only take American students.... there are LOTS of factors.
This was not an easy decision.
So when you ask why didn't apply more places close to family, the reason is we wanted Lee to have the best opportunities for the best training and education.  And it doesn't hurt to go to an awesome program and have it look good for your career. Get me?

This year we find out on March 17th IF Lee matches to a residency.  March 21st we find out WHAT program he matches to.  If we find out on Monday that he didn't match then we have that week to scramble around and try to find a hospital, any hospital, with an open spot and beg them to take us.

Ah, I agree it is confusing.  If we weren't in this situation I would know nothing about it either.  They don't teach you all this stuff on Grey's Anatomy.

In other news,
Things with me are the same, I spent a lot of time over the weekend working on some nursery projects and I've decided to revive my old decorating blog for the occasion :)
http://kelseyinspired.blogspot.com/

Here's one of my projects I finished!