So you want to be a doctor?

T'was quite a hectic week indeed. I've had 4 interviews at the University of Toronto in the span of 3 days, fun fun fun!!!


On Thursday, I met up with a professor to check out his lab and to see if it'd be a good place for me to do a PhD. Cool lab, wicked cancer research projects, and overall nice lab members. I've clicked quite nicely with a few of the girls there and they all seemed to be into running. What are the chances?

The next day, I met up with a different professor. One problem, she didn't tell me which floor her office was on. So I checked every single floor, all 15 of them... Eventually I found her... Well instead of actually talking about her research, she literally just gave me tips for my MD/PhD interview. How sweet of her!

Then came the actual MD interview. I was so excited, it was my first time ever wearing business clothing :) Yup, I wore dress pants, dress shirt, and a blazer.That was an interesting experience because my interviewer was very poker face. I was under the impression that it was his first time doing MD interviews or that he really didn't care to be there. I don't know what to make of it... Did I do well? Did I do bad? I really have no clue and it's very nerve racking. I couldn't read my interviewer at all and this person wasn't very encouraging. Just fired away questions and I answered them... I guess I'll find out in May how things went.

Kind of what the interview felt like. Except there were two people, there was absolutely no smiling from the prof.

On Saturday, I had my MD/PhD interview and that was much more friendly. The interviewers were very encouraging and engaged in the conversation. It was very stress free and comfortable. Yet again, everyone being interviewed for the program is highly competitive so I really don't know how I rank in comparison to them :(

Now my impressions of University of Toronto! Just wow! There are so many hospitals affiliated with it. There's Toronto General Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, St. Michael's Hospital, Sick Kids Hospital, Sunnybrook Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital, and so many more smaller ones. The facilities are amazing and there are so many opportunities. In terms of research, the labs are phenomenal and the equipment is top notch. I really felt like it was the first episode of Grey's Anatomy! I was so excited to see all of this, but why tempt us during the interview. It only gives false hopes :(

Exercise wise... I really didn't do any exercise this week but I did walk about 2-3 hours each day :) I did planks a few times and ran inside my room for about 15-20 minutes barefoot as well. The week has been exhausting that I pretty much crashed on my bed on Saturday. I did go for hot yoga on Sunday though, so I'm back on track :D Now it's time to catch up on all of the homework that I've fallen behind on during interview prep. Plus I need to email many more profs to check out their labs and keep my options open.

Have you guys had any interesting interviews? How did they turn out?