Match Day!

Actually, I should leave off the exclamation point because although it was a very exciting day, we didn't match. That's too bad. The kids and I were really hoping that we could move closer to the mountains. And we thought we had a good chance because the interview at Wake Forest went really well and they had written Nathan a letter afterward saying how much they liked him. But I guess it wasn't meant to be. The fellowship director here is the guy who wants to hire Nathan for research, so it's no surprise that he didn't match here.
We thought about scrambling and looked at the list of unfilled programs and I was surprised to see how many great programs there were: Yale, Emory, Georgetown, and lots of other ones mostly in the north: Michigan, Mass, Conn, Ohio. Nothing in North Carolina or bordering states, so Nathan didn't want to scramble. He just wasn't interested in those programs or leaving NC. So I guess now we'll do plan B--getting a research job. Most likely we'll stay here, doing research for the said fellowship director. At least a research job will pay more than a fellowship. :) It will be nice not to have to sell our house since we love it and the market isn't very good for selling. However, before we sign on here, I'm sure we'll look around just to make sure there isn't anything we'd like better. We have a year to think about it. Nathan graduates June 2010.
Really, as disappointed as I was at first, I think it's for the best. Nathan continues to have brilliant research ideas and the sense of eagerness to get started on them, so I know he'll be really happy to have a break from so much clinical work. He's happy it worked out this way. I'll keep you updated.


I bought the kids 99cent lunchables at Kroger when we were doing the grocery shopping this morning and they enjoyed eating them in the hospital cafeteria while we waited for Nathan to get done rounding.
On the elevator on the way up to find a computer to check his e-mail. Since there were only about 5 residents going into a medical subspecialty fellowship, there weren't any big match day festivities, but you just check your e-mail at noon to see the match results. You can see the time on the camera: 12:17. This is because although he was done rounding at noon, we got stopped in the hall a dozen times at everyone wanting to see Doc Holladay's kids. I guess we don't visit him enough.

Checking his e-mail in a call room.

Rank List

Last Wednesday at 9pm EST Nathan had to enter his ROL--rank order list. He debated for a long time but everything kept pointing towards Wake Forest, so that is what we ranked number 1. Everyone said it would be dumb not to since they are a nationally ranked school in terms of medical research. We ranked here #2. That's all there are. Only 2 programs. Most people apply to 30. We got our #6 choice when we came here, so we'll probably not match at all, but it will be fun to see. If we don't he'll just start in on a research job. He's excited about both options. Actually, he's more excited to start his research career, but feels like he needs to do a fellowship to finish his schooling and specialize in what he wants--nephrology. So we'll see. Match Day is June 17.
Not much happenin until then. Just kickin back and enjoying summer. I'm getting tons of scrapbooking done and hardly leaving the house. It's wonderful.