Early February brought excitement and exultation when Adam was sent an invitation to interview at the University of Calgary…and disappointment when the University of Alberta rejected his application pre-interview. The last few weeks have been a storm of emotion (mostly stress) as our family as struggled with being carless and preparing for Adam to get to Calgary for his interview this coming Saturday. He had no suit that fit, no dress shoes, and no transportation. So he bought a nice grey suit at a good price (much less than we expected), graphite-colored shirt, dress shoes, and a pink tie (and he looks fantastic). He reserved a rental car. He’s going to have to stay in a hotel Friday night because his interview is first thing Saturday morning. Lucy and I will be staying behind so the weekend is as complication and stress-free as possible for him. He tried to get a copy of Doing Right from the school library but it was on hold until May! So he got something similar…but it was a medical ethics book written from a US perspective. So I convinced him to shell out the $70 bucks for a copy of Doing Right and have it rushed. It’s reading week and Adam will spend his time off from class preparing for his interview (and attempting to potty train Lucy, oh joy). It may or may not arrive before the interviews (fingers crossed).

The pressure is high. All our proverbial eggs are in a University of Calgary basket. Only 33% percent of prospective students interviewed will be accepted. If Adam isn’t in that 33% that means no med school for us, at least not this year. It’s not at all uncommon for students not to make it the first time they apply. But being a somewhat “non-traditional” applicant, and being a bit older than many of his fellow applicants the longer it takes the harder it will be on our family. In other words…we’re really stressed.

We know we have to move this summer one way or the other, because there are no more classes Adam can take in Medicine Hat and he needs to transfer to a BA program. It’s so frustrating to look for affordable housing and have to eliminate choices because of family discrimination. Technically Canadians are supposed to be protected from landlords refusing to rent to families with children (except in buildings for the 65+ crowd). But the discrimination policies aren’t always laid out clearly and are not universally enforced.

Basically it sucks.

You know what else sucks?

Having to wait until MAY to find out if Adam is accepted or not.

Everyone knows medical school is hard and stressful. But very few people warn you how stressful the application process can be. Prospective students: consider yourself warned.

*ahem* I do believe it’s time for a little bragging on behalf of Adam:

Oh yes, I’m married to an MCAT-ass-kicking-machine!!!
So, for the unfamiliar MCAT scoring can be very confusing. Here’s more info:

Four separate scores are derived from the MCAT, one for each section and the total score. Each score that you achieve on the multiple-choice sections (Physical Sciences, Verbal Reasoning, and Biological Sciences) is based on the number of questions you answer correctly. This raw score is a reflection of your correct answers only…The scores for the multiple-choice sections—Verbal Reasoning, Physical Sciences, and Biological Sciences—will be reported on a scale ranging from 1 (lowest) to 15 (highest)…Your raw score on the Writing sample will be converted to an alphabetic scale ranging from J (lowest) to T (highest)...In addition to scores for the individual sections, a total score will also be reported. This total score will consist of a combined multiple-choice score conjoined with the Writing Sample score, e.g., 42T. {via the AAMC}

So, just to clarify, Adam got a good great score. I am not surprised, but I am proud, very proud. He is very smart and he worked very, very hard.
And now, I’m pleased to announce the start of a new series of posts which will be ongoing for the next million 8 or so years here on Domestic Dork:

Seeing as this is the inaugural post in the “Med School Mama” series I’ll give you some background info {for those of you who don’t already know it}. Adam has a bachelor’s in film. In his final year of classes he realized the film industry was not where he wanted to spend the rest of his working days. He spent some time in construction before deciding to go back to school. For the last year and a half he’s been taking pre-med classes with the intention of attending medical school. It was a big decision that we made together. We both knew that if he was going to pursue this dream I would need to be on board. Well, I am. And I’m doing what I can to help, starting with making the application process a little smoother.
Applying for med school is kind of a big deal. It’s exciting, and scary, and expensive and stressful and confusing. Different schools have different requirements. Some schools want your MCAT {Medical College Admission Test} scores to be this good other schools want them to be that good and some schools don’t care at all about the MCAT. This summer the med schools begin accepting applications for school beginning in fall 2011.
There are 17 accredited medical schools in Canada {versus 132 in the United States}. The Quebec schools were easy to eliminate.It didn’t take long before the list of schools Adam was interested in applying to was whittled down to 5 {though we’re not yet completely ruling out the others…except the ones in Quebec}. They are {in Adam’s current order of preference}:

1. University of British Columbia
2. McMaster University
3. University of Calgary
4. University of Alberta
5. University of Toronto

Basically, this is how the application process goes:












We’re not even to step one yet and already we’ve done plenty of the “cross fingers and try not to freak out” bit. See, we had to wait about a month before we knew how Adam scored on the MCAT. Since he did well we’ll move on to applying. If he hadn’t done well he would have had to write the test again and we’d start applying under the promise of sending in his scores after the retest. The MCAT is a big pain. It’s not cheap to take {$230 ouch!}. Plus it required that Adam drive to Edmonton. And, of course, it’s an important and loooong {5 hours!} test that required a lot of studying. So we’re both happy he won’t have to re-do all that {Adam especially is happy about that fact}. But either way it’s time to start preparing for the application process. So look forward to more Med School Mama posts. Next time I’ll show you how I’m helping Adam keep himself organized!
And again, a big, fat congratulations to Adam! Way to go, Love!