despite my best intentions, i again have fallen off the face of blogspot status post (medicalese for after) match day. the past three months have seen a ton of things fall into place, and i feel like my professional life - and my life with chris - is really moving forward. quick flashback to match day:
1) match day.
prior to match day, you submit your rank list and then wait for three weeks to find out the result of your match. i actually ended up making a lot of semi-last-minute changes after talking out things with chris and others, but ultimately ranked programs in the order i thought would best meet my needs (and also that of chris and yoda!)
the week of the match, you first get an email on the Monday telling you whether or not you matched. the night before this email went out, i told chris i was going into preventive med or something if i didn't match because i didn't think i could deal with the scramble.
while I was at the Ford School, a friend I met on the interview trail instant messaged me: "I matched! Check your email!" I quickly found the email with the subject line, 'Did you match?' and then you open it - I got, 'Congratulations, you matched!' . this was good, but i still had no idea where i matched - i had to wait for a few more days to find out!
on thursday, chris stayed home from work so we could match together. i didn't end up attending the school's 'celebration' because i knew very few people in the class i ended up graduating with (i entered with the class of 2007 and did three years with them) and just opened my match results on the computer. the subject of this email was 'Where did I match?'
and this is what i got when i opened the email:
March 19, 2009
AAMC ID: 11458085
School Code: 145
School Name: University of Michigan Med Sch
Applicant Name: Tanyaporn Wansom
Congratulations, you have matched!
Program Code: 1237140C0
Program Name: Internal Medicine
Institution Name: Johns Hopkins/Bayview-MD
i was kinda freaked out because i just read the top part, and was like, what, i matched at Michigan? but then kept reading and was really happy to see that i matched at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. i had done a 2nd look there over the winter holidays since we were down there visiting Chris's extended family and really liked the flexibility of the program, the residents, and also the ID faculty and substance abuse/HIV clinic faculty that i met with while at the hospital for the day. Chris was also thrilled because he wanted to be near his family and we knew there would be tons of jobs in the area, esp. with the government.
right after i matched, chris disappeared downstairs because he had been eyeing this job posting on monster.com for months. i helped him throw a cover letter together even though i was like, weh, i want to celebrate (but good for him to get a job too!). he was interviewed on the phone and then got called in for a hardcore all-day interview less than two weeks later. After the interview, he was offered the job right away. so that was cool - he is now officially assistant VP/network services manager at sandy spring bank, which is a local community bank with 50+ branches in maryland/dc/va. we both feel super incredibly blessed that he was able to get a job in this economy, especially one that would help him move into the management track and let him be based close to home.
my parents were super pumped to hear i was going to hopkins bayview although my mom was sad that i was (officially) leaving michigan. i finished celebrating with friends from the med school and Ford school at Dominick's.
matching is much more anti-climactic than you think it might be, but i think it's just waiting and waiting. it was exciting to get text messages from my friends matching around the country though and a relief to know where we were going to finally end up!
2) post-match day: househunting!
one of the chief residents who i'd gone to med school with referred us to his realtor, wendy slaughter (he chose her out of a phone book because her last name sounded like someone who would fight for you, and he was right!) after talking on the phone with her, she helped chris and i find a lender (and get pre-approved for a mortgage), narrow down our price range, and identify things that we wanted in a house (# of bedrooms, garage, stuff like that). once that part was done, she sent us all the listings that matched our criteria, and we chose around 25 that we liked from the ads/virtual tour online.
two weeks after matching, we headed down to maryland for the weekend, where wendy had organized a 2 day tour of all the houses that we liked. in between coffee stops, getting a little lost in her pilot, and snarky commentary all around, we narrowed down our field to two or three places. one of the places we loved was a foreclosure, and when the price dropped on it a week or so after we looked at it, wendy helped us put in a bid right away, hounded the listing agent until he got back to us, and advised us on what to do once multiple offers got to the table. luckily, our offer was accepted, chris was able to do the home inspection while he was in maryland for his job interview, and we got everything squared away for closing.
only chris attended closing so i could take acls and go to thailand (subject of another post later). most people thought it was weird that i wasn't present (it is our first house and everything), but you know, that's just the way we roll sometime. in the end, it was really fortunate that i DIDNT attend closing because i had to emergently wire $$ to chris - he learned the hard way that banks clearly DON'T accept personal checks for closing costs/down payment, and need a cashier's check. just an fyi for all you house-buying ppls out there. :)
ok, this is a good update for match and house right now. more and more updates to come!
1) match day.
prior to match day, you submit your rank list and then wait for three weeks to find out the result of your match. i actually ended up making a lot of semi-last-minute changes after talking out things with chris and others, but ultimately ranked programs in the order i thought would best meet my needs (and also that of chris and yoda!)
the week of the match, you first get an email on the Monday telling you whether or not you matched. the night before this email went out, i told chris i was going into preventive med or something if i didn't match because i didn't think i could deal with the scramble.
while I was at the Ford School, a friend I met on the interview trail instant messaged me: "I matched! Check your email!" I quickly found the email with the subject line, 'Did you match?' and then you open it - I got, 'Congratulations, you matched!' . this was good, but i still had no idea where i matched - i had to wait for a few more days to find out!
on thursday, chris stayed home from work so we could match together. i didn't end up attending the school's 'celebration' because i knew very few people in the class i ended up graduating with (i entered with the class of 2007 and did three years with them) and just opened my match results on the computer. the subject of this email was 'Where did I match?'
and this is what i got when i opened the email:
March 19, 2009
AAMC ID: 11458085
School Code: 145
School Name: University of Michigan Med Sch
Applicant Name: Tanyaporn Wansom
Congratulations, you have matched!
Program Code: 1237140C0
Program Name: Internal Medicine
Institution Name: Johns Hopkins/Bayview-MD
i was kinda freaked out because i just read the top part, and was like, what, i matched at Michigan? but then kept reading and was really happy to see that i matched at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. i had done a 2nd look there over the winter holidays since we were down there visiting Chris's extended family and really liked the flexibility of the program, the residents, and also the ID faculty and substance abuse/HIV clinic faculty that i met with while at the hospital for the day. Chris was also thrilled because he wanted to be near his family and we knew there would be tons of jobs in the area, esp. with the government.
right after i matched, chris disappeared downstairs because he had been eyeing this job posting on monster.com for months. i helped him throw a cover letter together even though i was like, weh, i want to celebrate (but good for him to get a job too!). he was interviewed on the phone and then got called in for a hardcore all-day interview less than two weeks later. After the interview, he was offered the job right away. so that was cool - he is now officially assistant VP/network services manager at sandy spring bank, which is a local community bank with 50+ branches in maryland/dc/va. we both feel super incredibly blessed that he was able to get a job in this economy, especially one that would help him move into the management track and let him be based close to home.
my parents were super pumped to hear i was going to hopkins bayview although my mom was sad that i was (officially) leaving michigan. i finished celebrating with friends from the med school and Ford school at Dominick's.
matching is much more anti-climactic than you think it might be, but i think it's just waiting and waiting. it was exciting to get text messages from my friends matching around the country though and a relief to know where we were going to finally end up!
2) post-match day: househunting!
one of the chief residents who i'd gone to med school with referred us to his realtor, wendy slaughter (he chose her out of a phone book because her last name sounded like someone who would fight for you, and he was right!) after talking on the phone with her, she helped chris and i find a lender (and get pre-approved for a mortgage), narrow down our price range, and identify things that we wanted in a house (# of bedrooms, garage, stuff like that). once that part was done, she sent us all the listings that matched our criteria, and we chose around 25 that we liked from the ads/virtual tour online.
two weeks after matching, we headed down to maryland for the weekend, where wendy had organized a 2 day tour of all the houses that we liked. in between coffee stops, getting a little lost in her pilot, and snarky commentary all around, we narrowed down our field to two or three places. one of the places we loved was a foreclosure, and when the price dropped on it a week or so after we looked at it, wendy helped us put in a bid right away, hounded the listing agent until he got back to us, and advised us on what to do once multiple offers got to the table. luckily, our offer was accepted, chris was able to do the home inspection while he was in maryland for his job interview, and we got everything squared away for closing.
only chris attended closing so i could take acls and go to thailand (subject of another post later). most people thought it was weird that i wasn't present (it is our first house and everything), but you know, that's just the way we roll sometime. in the end, it was really fortunate that i DIDNT attend closing because i had to emergently wire $$ to chris - he learned the hard way that banks clearly DON'T accept personal checks for closing costs/down payment, and need a cashier's check. just an fyi for all you house-buying ppls out there. :)
ok, this is a good update for match and house right now. more and more updates to come!
