Interview Frenzy...!

...okay. So, not an interview frenzy, per se. Not even really an interview hubbub, actually. Maybe a tad bit of interview commotion, though.

For those of you new to... me and my ramblings: I am going into pediatrics. And for those of you not familiar with the direct realtionship between monetary remuneration and the popularity of medical specialties (and/or the inverse relationship to level of difficulty): peds is not hard to get into. (presuming, of course, that you are sensible enough to apply to a school or two outside of the top ten - or smart enough to get away with it)

Originally, I wanted to apply to 10 schools. Ten is a nice, round number. Plus it is how many we get 'free' with the first lump payment of the application. Every school above ten costs an additional amount. Ten made a lot of sense.

I tried moderately hard, but couldn't narrow it down to ten. So... 15. Fifteen is also a good number. A strong number. Fifteen. Very nice.

In the end, I applied to 16 schools. Maybe not as sexy a number as 15, but still very elegant in its own square-of-four fashion. I like square numbers.

After submitting my application, I got three interviews relatively quickly. One of those three was quite persistent, too (making me believe it is a 'lesser' school - I'm that desirable??) My own school rounded my interviews out to four.

Then the silence.

No interviews. Which was all good and fine until someone introduced me to the forums at studentdoctor.net. Every time I open that freaking site, my whole body goes into panic mode. Panicpanicpanic. It was from those forums that I discovered that two of my top four choices were already offering interviews - and I hadn't gotten one! Horrors! Panicky-panicky horrors!

So... Nineteen. Nineteen schools is a great number of schools to apply to, don't you think? I mean, nineteen may not be as elegant as 16, but 19 is a prime number. That means it is special, and therefore luckier, right? Of course, right.

It especially helps when the three schools you add are ones that you know are offering interviews. I'm up to six interview offers now. I'm not a fan of the number six, though... too smug.

Talking to the peds residents who have been through all of this before - they say that 5-8 interviews was about all they could take. One I talked to this morning had done 11 interviews and said it was way too many. I need to start making decisions, I guess. But at the moment - it is SO addictive getting the interview offers. It helps ease the panicky panic. I just want more! More more more!!!

23 is a prime number, too, right...?

And 25 is a square....