What's New With You?

Y'ALL!! I am really sticking with my New Year's resolutions, and I am SO proud of myself. I've been drinking my water, going on "hot girl" walks around NYC, practicing Spanish with Duolingo, and spending less money at Starbucks. Two weeks in, and I feel like I can really keep these up!

Fourth year of medical school feels like the most free time I've ever had, so I am soaking up the flexibility. Last weekend, I visited my sister in Atlanta, and we did all of our favorite things - eat at great restaurants, shop, cook on the grill at home, and go to church. I still haven't found a church home in NYC, so it was really nice to be back in church early in the new year.

Faith has been my rock through so much, and with residency/Match day looming, it is more important than ever. I cannot wait to see where I end up and share more of my journey with you all post-Match day.

Chat soon!

- Morgan :)

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This week, I'm continuing my series on research in medical school.

My second research experience came during the summer after my first year. At my school, we dedicate 6-8 weeks to research, and my school was a host site for the NIDDK Medical Student Summer Fellowship Program. I connected with the head of the lab and the project-specific PI and submitted my application.

I joined a project looking at the feasibility of food response training. During the summer, I worked directly with participants and led data analysis using SPSS. While I enjoyed interacting with participants, I quickly realized:

1. I am not a big coder/data analyst
2. Clinical trials take alot of time.

I continued working on this project through my third year of medical school, and I was able to get some poster presentations from the preliminary data. However, I was also asked to mentor undergrad students on ancillary projects and to lead the writing of the protocol paper. As a clerkship student, I didn't have the capacity nor the experience to take on those responsibilities.

That experience helped me realize that if I was going to continue research in medical school, I needed:

1) A hands-on PI willing to actively mentor me

2) A public health or population health focused project.

...which led to my next research experience in medical school that I'll share next week.

Match Day Countdown

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Until Match Day, I'll be sharing updates on my journey, what I'm learning, and things I'm struggling with along the way.

I'll be honest - the stress of ranking is starting to settle in. It feels so weird that I rank my programs, programs rank me, and then an algorithm determines where I will spend the next 3 years (if not longer) of my life.

I know that the algorithm is designed to favor applicants, but there feels like a loss of autonomy of leaving my future to a computer algorithm.

I took a lot of notes during interviews and recorded my post-interview reactions for every program. Moving forward, my goal is to take some time to truly reflect and figure out what my priorities are in a residency program. Of course, I had some non-negotiables and general "wants", but those guided where I applied and interviewed. Now, I have to dig deeper as I think about ranking.

I know how all over the place my brain has been, so I am praying for all of my fellow fourth years right now and rooting for us!