Just call me Dr. Mel

I really wanted to save the title in this post for when I announced I got INTO vet school - but I'm impatient and so can't wait. :)

The interview went very very well. I had mixed feelings about it right after finishing, but now, after 24 hours I can step back, look at my overall performance – and I believe it was enough.

Of course – nothing is a sure thing, and I may come back to you guys in 4 weeks and announce that I will NOT be in the c/o 2015 and will have to reapply – and who knows how my emotions and feelings about the interview will change over the next 4 weeks – but for now, I’m optimistically hopeful.

If nothing else – I know that I gave one of the best interviews that I’m capable of right now, (with the exception of one thing I will get to a moment) so I know that whether I get in or not, will be based on the “real me” right now. And that’s a really good feeling.

OK – enough of my incoherent ramblings and onto the details:

Remember the “one thing” I mentioned. Oh yeah - I forgot my blazer at Matt's, so had to do the interview in a shirt and slacks that I had NOT planned on wearing without a jacket. When you are sitting in the parking lot 1 hour before your interview, and your blazer is one hour (one way) away, there’s one of two paths to take. One path is scrambling to find a replacement jacket, stressing, and INSISTING that everything go according to plan – INCLUDING THE D*MN jacket. However, I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and decided instead that the whole situation was funny. After all, I had dry cleaned my entire outfit for the interview. It was my first time in my LIFE I had dry cleaned anything and because I had changed my mind about the outfit at the last minute, the jacket was the only thing I still planned on wearing. Yes, the jacket that was sitting 60 miles away.

Remember me saying that everything happens for a reason? Perhaps I wouldn't have had such a relaxed "oh well" attitude during the interview if I had had the jacket? I managed to crack a few jokes, be relaxed, and ended with a killer answer of “why you should pick me and not the other guy”. No way to know for certain, but I think when I found out I was missing my blazer and managed to laugh at myself and I think it helped. Yes, I still wish I had that jacket. But even if I had the opportunity to “redo” the interview with the jacket, I’m not sure I would. The interviewers were dressed in business casual, so I still “over-dressed” them, so hopefully it’s not a big deal.

I didn’t sign a non-disclosure agreement, however I don’t think it would be professional or prudent to post all of the details of the interview. If you are a vet school hopeful and want more details than I’m posting here, I would be MORE than happy to talk to you privately – drop me an e-mail.

Suffice to say the interviewers were very interested in my endurance experience (in fact, my ethical question was related to endurance – something I was not expecting) and then quizzed me closely on what I had recognized in my preparation as the hardest question that I might have to answer. (and yes – to my dismay they were able to nail it right on the head and ask it. *sigh*). The question is: why are you getting your DVM instead of your PhD? This is a very good question. And I think I was able to answer the question well (thanks to my Aunt) and avoid the corner they were trying to back me in (thanks to Dr. C* for helping me recognize the corner).

My feeling is that they were trying to do 2 things with the question:
1. They managed to sniff out my weak spot and wanted to exploit it by putting me under pressure and to see how I would react.
2. They wanted to see if I would hang myself if given enough rope, by backing myself into a corner in a position that I couldn't defend.
3. They wanted to see if I would change my story/waver and show inconsistencies if pushed hard enough.

I didn’t get asked anything I would call especially “hard” or that was unrelated to my experience. I didn’t get asked about any current events. I actually thought I would get more technical questions – especially considering I come from a poultry background I felt that campylobacter was an easy question to ask (one of the leading causes of food borne illness in humans).

Not that I’m complaining – I don’t know anything about campylobacter (because I’m in RTE and not necessarily extremely knowledgeable about processing…) besides what I looked up and memorized from avma.org……

After the interview I attended class with my former roommate who is now a first year, went to the bookstore to buy gifts for my LOR writers and then cooked all my food for my 100 miler this weekend! :)

BTW – in case you were wondering (and you know that you were!), I FINALLY thought of an appropriate, thoughtful gift for the LOR writers and the vets that helped me to prepare for the interview. It was difficult because:

1. I don’t have a lot of $$ (big surprise……horses tend to do that)
2. I don’t have a lot of time (who does?)
3. Everyone is on a health kick nowadays and so the standard cookies and chocolates are not nearly as thoughtful as they once used to be.
4. A bunch of these people are high level people in the company I work for (VP etc.) and others I work with professionally.
5. None of these people graduated from UC Davis and have their own graduate school alma mater’s that they support…thus making them walk around with a UCD coffee mug would not be kosher.
6. I didn’t want it to be stupid.

Each person is getting a bottle of UC Davis olive oil, and a bottle of specialty balsamic vinegar that is made at a local winery that I really enjoy. I’m actually very proud of myself! I’m not known for timely, thoughtful gifts – just ask my family and friends.

I'm off to 20MT 100 tomorrow and I think that it will be JUST the thing to do to come down off the interview. And no, I won't be doing it in the rain. They are predicting "showers". Showers are not rain. "Wait a minute", you say......"showers mean"....

Lalalalalalalalala I can't hear you - what did you say? That's right - I'm an ostrich and my head is the sand right now.....LALALALALALALALALALALALALALA!