So Where's it Gonna Be? It's Mayo not UCSD!

Well today's the big decision day for all medical applicants everywhere as post May 15th if you are holding onto multiple acceptances you can get threatened by each individual medical school that you are holding to make your mind up -- and fast. As such to people like me who were struggling between decisions like UCSD and Chicago, the May 15th release of acceptances also magically finds new opportunities and new offers like: The Mayo Clinic

We were actually out hiking yesterday up Provo Canyon again and this time saw a 3' diamondback rattlesnake that was out sunning. It was about 5 feet away before I noticed the bushes rustling and caught eye of the snake (we were both listening to The Wild Trees on audiobook on our iPods so we didn't hear it earlier). It wasn't too big and it only spanned about 1.5" across at its thickest portion, but 2 hours up the canyon was hardly the place where we wanted to get bitten by a rattlesnake. It had a nice 3" long rattle but didn't seem to notice us nor need to use it.

So by the time we returned home we were hardly thinking about medical school decisions when Jane, the friendly admissions correspondent at Mayo popped up in the answering machine messages. Both excitement and despair hit me at the same time; excitement that I now had the Mayo Clinic as an offer, despair in that just as we had finally acclimated in our minds for San Diego would see a drastic change in the next hours.

Sure enough after relatively short consideration the table was turned in favor of Mayo and now my summer's been cut short to a start date of July 23, 2007. Not to worry though, we're headed out next week to find a condo, and hopefully will be moved out of Utah by the end of June! This summer may see some excitement yet beyond summer hiking not that I mind either.

I won again this week and also $120,000†

†So I won another $20 in Bajio, $15 in iTunes, and another t-shirt from playing Tetrix again this week. At this rate I think I'll win this prize 5 times before summer's out. What about the cash I'm mentioning? No I wasn't on Deal or No Deal, I'm probably dumber than a Fifth Grader, I haven't made it to Jeopardy--yet, and I don't think any other gameshow awards that much money these days after their ratings drop. So where'd the $120,000 come from? University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

So someone between the Financial Aid office and my mailbox goofed as I was apparently supposed to get notification about this scholarship months ago and just got a message this morning after inquiring about financial aid that I had a three-quarter tuition scholarship there all along! The catch is I have until Tuesday May 15, 2007 to decide what one and only one school to keep. It is now a battle between University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine (Shown to the bottom right) or University of California San Diego School of Medicine (Shown in the top left). Both are great schools and San Diego has already offered me a great financial incentive for going there, but with Chicago's new ante this drop tuition at Chicago to about half of San Diego's. Housing is financially comparable in both places and academics are par between the two with perhaps a little more respect from residency directors for Chicago over UCSD. The key thing here is can we forgo the amenities of a city like San Diego to save a bit in Chicago with a marginal benefit to my education -- or is keeping the wife and kid happy with prospects of the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, and the beach worth the marginal cost of "name brand" recognition? I think it's a very tough call and sometimes wished I didn't even have this choice to make between the two - let alone only two days to make it.
I determine the fate of my future, my education, my career within these next 48 hours.