The Crying, the B*tch, and the Wardrobe

Quippy title right?

I interviewed with the University of Washington School of Medicine last month. If you’ve been following my blog you already know that I was rejected, but what I haven’t addressed was the chaos surrounding my interview. It’s safe to say it was a memorable affair and it taught me a few lessons to consider before I interview at Penn State Feb. 24:

1) Never embark on a road trip wearing only a bright pink sports-bra tank: You may wake to find you forgot to pack a bra and end up rushing to the nearest Target at 8 a.m., because you’re pretty sure that going braless to your 8:30 medical school interview would be frowned upon.

** As I was rejected from UW, some of my guy friends suggest that next time I take a risk and forget the bra… I’ll think about it**

2) Own it: Many of the girls I’ve ran into at my interviews show up wearing ill-fitting, boxy skirt suits, no make-up, and sporting unstyled hair. I usually consider it to my advantage that I stand out in a stylish pencil skirt, tailored top, and tamed tresses, that is, until my interview with a 2nd year medical student from UW. This girl was seriously dealing with a high school inferiority complex. It was clear from her demeanor that she did not intend to take me seriously and instead she treated me like a mindless ‘pretty’ girl. Let’s just say it’s not so easy answering questions when it’s clear the asker thinks that you’re a bimbo. Next time I’ll remember that I got an interview for a reason and just own it.

Clearly my interviewer had one of these...

3) Keep it Conservative: Though I refuse to justify the behavior of that 2nd year med student (it’s not my fault that you never got asked to any high school dances or that you were voted “most likely to die alone”), I’ll avoid drawing unnecessary attention to myself in the future. My interview outfit is stylish, but I picked a pencil skirt sans slit and I rock the nylons to keep things conservative. There are however, accessories I could lose to perhaps stick a little closer to the status quo. I’ll ditch my new and mildly flashy Guess bag (even though it’s beautiful) and stick with my more plain Jane briefcase style tote in the future.

Things might not have run as smoothly as I’d have liked in Washington, but I walked away with a few valuable lessons. After shedding a few tears in a frantic morning bra search (The Crying), I’ll never forget to pack one again. It was a little disconcerting answering questions with a 2nd year med wench scoffing in the background (The B*tch), but I learned to handle myself with grace under pressure. And lastly, though I plan to stay true to myself and my style, I’ll be sure to maintain professionalism and keep things a little more conservative next time (The Wardrobe).

…I know, you like how I worked that title in…

I’m off to Penn State. Wish me luck!