There's more than one way to skin a cat

So I recently learn that a local school allows their 4th year med students to take a concentrated number of electives in the area they hope to pursue in residency. And not only that, they will allow you to get a PhD as well. This could mean that if I attended this school, I could get a serious leg up on my residency, however, one slight problem is that this school's pathology program is not well regarded. Now this is the same set up that a school in B'More has as well and seems to be "common" in Path programs, although I've heard of a similar thing in Family Practice as far as unofficially starting residency in the 4th year is concerned. Bottom line is that there's an MD/PhD in my future but I have no idea how/when that is going to happen. But I'd be a fool not to keep ALL my options open!

Now I'm learning that living in metro DC has advantages beyond belief where the study of Pathology is concerned and I've learned enough already to know that I would do myself a serious favor by getting Hopkins somewhere on my CV (I'm thinking of one of 2 ways, either finishing my MPH or doing a 1 year fellowship in Path). Of course, ALL of this is supposition and given how I did on my midterm today, I may have to rethink Hopkins being in my future again, lol. I'm sure blew my "A" average, but what can I say, I'm not in the best frame of mind these days.

In sad news, my StepDad lost his battle with cancer late Monday, then my Mom "disappeared", so I was worried sick about what was going on. I didn't hear from her until 8:00PM today when she finally decided to get around to returning my 2000 phones calls (My Mom is down South). So to say the least I was pretty distracted during my test today, but in reality I'm pretty sure I did OK, and just barely OK. The "A" is definitely gone, but right now I'll take the "B" and run knowing that this is my LAST exam until mid June!

But life must go on and while I could have delayed my test, I decided not to since I'll have to get used to being "under the gun" as a Doc one day. That, and I wanted to just focus on the MCAT and my research from now until June! Yippee!!!