Adventures in Rochester (NY)

Poor Natalie had to wake up at 5:15 on Sunday morning to take me to the airport for my flight 7:14am flight out to Rochester, NY via Chicago (and she even picked me up the following night at 11:45! She must like me a lot!). I got to my gate around 6:55ish, but sadly our plane didn't make it for another two hours. Apparently, it was having a rough time getting going in the early morning because it was having trouble getting out of the hanger. We were all wondering if it was going to have a hard time getting up in the air and staying there, too. Randomly enough, another BYU student (with whom I worked and knew pretty well) was interviewing at the same place on the same day! So we talked for awhile. Needless to say, however, that the beginning of my first experience with United airlines was not a positive one. Apparently, our flight was on a tiny airplane (at least it had jet engines) that looked more like a missile with wings. The flight crew consequently gate checked large carry-ons (my poor bag included). However, they told me (and nobody else this) to try and see if mine would fit. My seat was in the back of the plane, so I got to walk by everyone on my way to my spot. It seemed that everyone in the aisle felt obligated to tell me that my bag was too big and that I needed to gate check it (did they not hear everyone else chastizing me too?). Even one of the flight attendants had to tell me off. Fortunately, even the guy behind me started telling everyone that I was told to see if it would fit in the cabin. Sadly, though, my bag didn't fit in the overhead bin. The awkardness of this was compounded a thousand times by the presence of another flight attendant, standing five feet away from me and watching me. I was about to squeeze it under the seat in front of me (it would have fit) but she snatched the bag away from me and walked it off the plane. So I was not the flight attendents' favorite passenger. However, I felt much better about United when I actually got into my seat. The seat was pretty comfortable for one in a missle and the window was actually at head-level. While I love flying Southwest, I get a little annoyed that my shouler gets the best view while my head (where my eyes are located, strangely enough) gets a nice view of the airplane's interior. I had never flown east of Utah before (I flew west to get to the Far East), so it was fascinating to look down at the country below. I officially came to the conclusion that the midwest/great plains are flat, and it was actually pretty boring to fly over it (good thing we didn't apply to any schools there... :) ). When we were waiting to board our connecting flight to Rochester from O'Hare airport in Chicago, TSA workers were conducting random searches of passengers boarding our plane. We were in a later boarding group, so I said to the other BYU student (as we watched), "Oh sad! They're only searching minorities." (Which they were.) It would be just my luck, then, that they asked to search my bag as I walked by them (the other BYU student was just laughing at me). They looked through the lunch bag that Natalie packed for me (seeing all the Zingers at the top of the bag) and said, "Somebody packed you an amazing lunch." They were coveting my lunch. My wife definitely looks out for me!

In Rochester I stayed with a former BYU student (he was my MCAT prep teacher) and his wife. He picked me up from the airport and gave me a driving tour of campus, so it was really nice. The next morning his wife dropped the two of us off at campus, and my day at Rochester finally began! There were only seven of us interviewing that day (including the other BYU student). I had never heard of the majority of universities the other students were coming from. I had never realized how well represented and respected BYU is outside of Utah (eat that, Ute fans!). Rochester loves BYU students and pursues them pretty aggressively. Out of the 100 students in their class, they usually take about 5 students from BYU. Most of the other students interviewing had never heard of BYU before, so they were surprised that it seemed to be so well represented.

Our day started with orientation with the associate dean of admissions, and then we were turned loose to go visit a class in a lecture. We snuck into the back of the room (well, we "snuck" as best we could, seeing as how the doors were at the front of the class and all of the med students just stared at us). During the class break, all of the med students descended upon us. You can perfectly imagine this if you have ever seen (in a movie or real life) what happens if you throw a ton of bird feed to a bunch of pigeons in a park: the instant the feed hits the ground, all the pigeons just swarm around the food in a frenzy. That's exactly what happened with us (the bird feed) and the medical students (the pigeons). I kept hearing "Oh my gosh! It's interview time again!" "It feels like just yesterday!" "I didn't interview until December!" Several of the BYU med students came up and talked to me, and everyone kept asking me if I was nervous (which I wasn't, for the record). The break was a lot longer than usual because most of the 100 students in the class wanted a chance to see us up close. When class resumed, I went out to my first interview.

My first interview was with a retired physician who was still closely connected with the university. We met in some sort of closet that seemed to potentially be able to double as a conference room for Smurfs. Space was kind of tight (but there was a relatively large table!), but it was enough for an interview. The doctor who was interviewing me was very nice and sweet, and spent the first seven minutes or so talking about himself so I would know him better. He then asked me such questions as "Why do you want to go into medicine? What experiences have you had in healthcare?" It was a really laid-back interview that was more of a conversation. He seemed to be familiar with our church, and said that he frequently drives by the temple "down the road" (meaning the Palmyra temple). He has a lot of respect for BYU and says that it is an amazing school that prepares students very well. Overall, the interview lasted for an hour, but it definitely seemed a lot shorter than that. After my interview, while I was waiting for lunch, the associate dean of admissions came out and chatted with me. He definitely likes BYU a lot (he came and visited BYU for the first time in March, and that's actually how I found out about Rochester). He even asked me how I thought our football team would do this year. When I told him that my brother used to play on the team, he then wanted to know everything about him. So it looks like he is slowly being converted into a BYU fan, too. : ) While there may be more Ute fans in the state of Utah, BYU definitely has a larger fan base outside of it.

After waiting around for an hour and a half after my interview, we had lunch with some medical students (who were actually kind of weird and spastic) . We then took a tour of the medical center. I felt pretty dignified and important walking around the hospital (like I was someone important) and didn't let people get too close a look at the big badge on my coat that said what I truly was. I felt that the big interviewing badge was analogous to the orange "dork dot" that I had on my MTC name tag for my first 10 hours or so in the MTC; everyone would just stare and smile at me.

At 2:00 I had my second interview (which was also one hour). I can only think of one word to describe it: "Yikes." My interview was with the associate dean of student affairs, so I showed up at the student affairs office and waited for her (the associate dean) to be free. While I was waiting, it became clear to me that I have seen way too many spy movies in my life. As I sat and waited, a custodian walked into the office, pushing a large cart with him. He could not speak English very well at all, and tried several times to tell the receptionist that he was there to change some of the uniforms in the locker room and needed to be let in. The first thing that jumped into my mind was, "Don't do it! He's a spy dressing up as a custodial worker! Haven't you seen any of those movies??!!" It would have been the perfect time for him to steal something or hack into some files or put a bug in their phones. But I don't think he did (I know, kind of boring). Right after that incident, I was called in to my interview.

My interview lady (she is an african-american) did not smile once throughout the whole interview! She did not talk about herself at all, but rather just asked me question after question. Some of the questions were the basic ones (Why do you want to go into medicine? What experiences have you had?). But then she brought out the bigger guns by asking questions such as "Talk about a time in your clinical exposure where you saw something that went against your personal culture/values. What happened?" or "How do you deal with stress/academic pressure? Give me a recent example of how you dealt with it;" "What contribution do you hope to make to medicine? What are your goals for medicine?" And also "We consider attendance and effort to be very important. Please talk about how you have shown your dependability to attend lectures and do your best in class." And she of course asked the classic question "Why would you be a good fit for Rochester? Why should we choose you?" Then, at the end, she asked if I had any questions. I knew that I would be toast if I didn't have any questions, so I thought of a couple at first, but she kept asking for more questions (at one point I even said, "this is my last question," and after that question she asked, "do you have any other questions?")! I eventually satisfied her quota, and the next thing she asked me was "So, when do you leave?" (Ah! What's that supposed to mean?!) I think she was just trying to make polite conversation. So we talked about random things for a few minutes, and then I left and was done with my day at Rochester! I'm not sure how I did overall as a result of that last interview, but I felt like I was able to deal with most of her questions pretty adequately. However, I keep kicking myself over an answer I gave that could very well be interpreted as a confession of depression (which I DON'T have). When talking about stress and pressure, I said that I am not affected by external pressures and demands. But to refrain from looking prideful or self-righteous, I further explained that the only stress that gets to me occasionally is internal stress, that comes when I don't think I'm doing as well as I should be doing or feel inadequate with low feelings of self-worth, which I haven't had recently or very often. Yeah, it kind of came out wrong in hindsight (which is always 20/20... 20/10 in my case, actually), but I'm pretty sure that she understood what I meant.

I wanted to explore a little bit of the campus before I left, but I ended up getting lost in the adjacent cemetary (I was told to walk through the cemetary to get to the undergraduate campus). The hospital has a huge cemetary right next to it, apparently making an accomodating place for all of those who don't survive a night in the hospital.... Supposedly the graves of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony are both in that cemetary, but I didn't come across them. I did find a way awesome tombstone that was simply a large deck canon from a navy vesssel. Also, there were some small buildings that looked like the tomb where Aragorn (from LOTR) is probably buried.

I eventually did find the undergraduate campus, walked around for a few minutes, and then took a taxi from the medical school back to the airport ($13 for like a five minute ride! Forget med school, I should be a taxi driver!).

The flight back from Atlanta to SLC was a four hour nightmare (it took us forever to get off the ground... I think the pilots must get paid by the hour). My "window" seat did not have a window right by it and the wall was so smooth that I couldn't rest my head on it. But I needed to close my eyes because my contacts were hurting. So it was a very long flight. However, Natalie was there to pick me up on time and we traveled home safely! We will find out how I did on October 15!