Interview was yesterday

I had my med school interview with Ross University yesterday.  

 I am torn between becoming a Med student and continuing the teaching career.  Going to Med school is something I have wanted to do since high school.  It is the reason I went to Midway and became a Bio major.  Upon graduation it is not something that I pursued because I thought my GPA was too low.  As I progressed in my career I always wondered ‘what if???’.  Finally, after being laid off from Lilly I decided to begin the process and took a Kaplan class to prep for the MCAT, took the test, and started the ap process.  I have applied to more schools than I care to mention, but it was a LOT.  I have now had my interview with Ross University.  One would think that this would be clearly exciting, but I look at this upcoming interview with a bit of trepidation.   My first concern is that Ross is a Caribbean med school.  It is probably the best Caribbean med school, but in the US students who went to these schools are often looked at differently.  In the hierarchy of med schools first is MD then DO then Caribbean then all other foreign med schools.  As I am typing this I realize that my decision on this is sort of based on ‘what will others think’?  My second concern about Ross is that I will be separated from my family for 18 months while on the island.  This isn’t a whole long time and certainly military families do this sort of thing all the time.  Finally, for once in my life I have a pretty cushy career in teaching college classes via an online environment.  I had an interview last Tuesday with Western Governors University.  While I have seen first-hand the ups and downs that come with corporate bubbles, and I think that these for profit institutions are now in a  bubble situation.   I don’t think that they would last more than 10 years or so.  Part of the reason I’m wanting to do Med School is to get away from the cycle of ups and downs related with the market.  I feel that med school is going to keep me away from these cycles.  

While in my interview and discussing possible start dates, my admissions officer  said that all I would really need is my books and clothes and personal effects.  Reflecting on this later, I pictured med school as a sort of vacation.  I am possibly going med school on an island and bringing my clothes to go to a resort like area and study.  While there is still the possibility that I won't get into med school or I won't go to Ross, it is still similar to a vacation.  First of all, I have been out of school and in the working world for about 10 years.  I will be 'taking a break' from working to go into med school.  Most likely, I will be away from my family, and so this is also an aspect of vacation-dom, and so, I begin this blog with the title of "My Med School Vacation".  I will be also reflecting on different aspects of my life outside of med school.  Stay tuned!