Game, Set, Match

It's hard to believe that Match Day is right around the corner. We have been waiting for sooo long for this day, and we have finally made it to the home stretch. The applications began this past summer, interviews in the fall and winter, and then the big wait for the actual day in March. As we've come to find, this process is truly a game, hopefully one we have played well. As you know, we chose all midwest programs, except for Johns Hopkins and U of Maryland here. Since the midwest is where we ultimately want to be, we ranked the midwest programs higher than the two here. This resulted in a weird rank list, with Johns Hopkins as a "back up" school.

Ultimately, two programs stood out for Carl in the interview process: Wash U and Iowa. Both have extremely reputable programs with outstanding residents and attendings. Carl definitely liked these programs the best, and they seemed to suit him well. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but we remain confident that we will end up in one of these two programs. This has eased the stress of Match Day considerably. We really feel like we are in a win-win situation because both of these programs have aspects that make them highly desirable to us.

Wash U. offers the huge draw of being in St. Louis, with my family and a lot of friends. Also, since I grew up there, it would not be as much of a transition process because I know the area and so does Carl as a result of so many trips there. Not to mention that I have found a preschool program there that I would be very happy to have Lily attend (not a small feat).

Iowa has different positives. Since we would be in a small town, Carl's commute would be cut down considerably. We think that we could get more bang for our buck in the housing market too. But probably the greatest perk at Iowa is that the (family) health benefits, in a word, ROCK. Iowa City is only about 2 1/2 hours from Carl's mom, 4 hours from my family, and a similar distance to other relatives as St. Louis would be. Not too bad (and certainly a big improvement from our current situation).

So, we are not really as stressed about Match Day as you might think. It is still weird to only get 2 months notice as to where you are going to live for the next 4 or 5 years, but what are you going to do? You've just gotta roll with it. No matter where we end up, I'm sure we will learn to luv it.