Adventures in Chicago


Spent a couple days in the snowy world of Illinois. Chicago was cool as always, and we also drove down to the small town of Peoria. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, it did have a red lobster and a circuit city, so i guess its not such a bad place afterall. Got to hang with a couple of my married and successful cousins, all while eating some buffet breakfast and watching the Hulk on tv.

Mom: "Wanna hold the baby Mike?"
Me: "Sure!"
Cousin: "I think it's time to change her diaper."
Me: "Here ya go"

Return to UCSD

After about half a year, I made my triumphant return to the campus of UCSD for interviews. Got to see some familiar faces, as well as meet lots of cool new people. Activities were pretty fun, other than the interviews themselves, and consisted of dinner at some italian place in downtown la jolla, dinner at some thai place in hillcrest with professors, bonfire at the shores, walking around Salk, talking about cancer biology, dinner at the Birch aquarium, and going for a hike through torrey pines reserve and the beautiful beach. Wow, if it comes to it, I will really hate leaving San Diego. And getting to talk science with some of the new professors as well as spend time with the grad students has made the appeal of devoting the rest of my life to a lab slightly better, especially if I'll be able to study something i love with people i like.

Alas, the crossroads of life becomes much more foggy.

Back from Irvine.

The school was surprisingly pretty, although the great weather may have had something to do with it. Lots of new buildings, so everything seemed rather high tech and modern. And I have to say, after doing interviews in Utah and Philadelphia, I seriously don't know why anyone would EVER leave southern california.

Met some pretty cool people too. Its always interesting meeting peeps who look like they know nothing about anything, and then all of a sudden start telling you about their work crystallizing the structure of a synthetic viral protein. There was also some pretty hot girls there (hot + interested in biological sciences = super hot), a fact which alone is making the decision between med school and grad school that much more difficult. My roommate was pretty cool, but he spent the nights out with relatives he had in town, which meant the big comfy bed for me and lots of uninhibited tv watching (friday night was smackdown, nba games, First Knight, and Star Wars).

The actual recruitment stuff wasnt so bad. They fed us some decent (and free) food, and the actual interviews were pretty laid back. I can say without a doubt that interviewing for grad school is MUCH better than interviewing for med school. Here's a comparison:

Food
Med: free lunch
Grad: free breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Travel
Med: do it yourself
Grad: free flight reservations made, gas reimbursed

Hotel
Med: do it yourself
Grad: free reservations made, with a big comfy bed that had 8 pillows

Typical Question
Med: How do you fix health care in America?
Grad: How are you enjoying the day?

Extra Fun
Med: Tour of the cadaver lab
Grad: Tour of the beaches

So now that the pain of the experience is over, I can say that overall it was kinda fun. And if there was one thing gained from the whole thing, it would have to be a greater appreciation for the beauty that is So Cal. And a love of hot girls who study neurobiological diseases.