so who's applying to path this year?

[smellycat]

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?

 

[yaah]

I thought I might apply again... 😉

Application time rapidly approaching - hope you all are working on your personal statements and LORs!!

 

[b&ierstiefel]

I will be applying this year for the 2005 match.

In several months, we'll have to start the interview thread like the peeps last year did.

 

[stormjen]

I'm applying for 2005. Really hoping it's not competitive.

 

[deschutes]

*waves* I'm applying. Feels like going to war. Appeals to the melodramatic in me.

 

[QuietSylph]

I'm applying this cycle too.... wheeee!

 

[Jeff1972]

I'm applying...procrastinating over writing my personal statement at the moment.

 

[JulianDelphiki]

Count me in, unless they come up with some new heretofore unkown specialty even better than Path (which is probably unlikely, huh?).

 

[deschutes]

This is rather exciting....! *bounce*
We rock!!! 😀

- deschutes <------------ easily amused

 

[pathchick]

i'm applying for 2005, meeting with my dean's letter writer tomorrow...so nervous about the whole thing!

 

[Gut Shot]

Count me in!

 

[cytoborg]

Ooh ooh, me too! Fingers crossed that the hordes will stay in rads.

 

[smellycat]

well, as you guessed i am too...
can't seem to get my personal statement going...need some inspiration! Anyone have a muse i can use?

 

[deschutes]

can't seem to get my personal statement going...need some inspiration! Anyone have a muse i can use?

Cannot resist jumping in on this one! For whatever reason, I like the challenge of the personal statement (I'm this HUGE narcissist 😛). I'm going to assume that you've already read a guide to writing a personal statement. Scutwork.com has a good one.

Start with your Eureka! Pathology moment.

I've found that drafting with pen and paper flows better than say, typing right into Microsoft Word. But I'm old-fashioned.

I also recommend long walks alone.

And I'm stealing Rilke's words here, but "...This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I do pathology?"

 

[yaah]

well, as you guessed i am too...
can't seem to get my personal statement going...need some inspiration! Anyone have a muse i can use?

I'll be your muse. Or let Virchow be your muse. Think about Virchow cutting ultra thin sections by hand, unaided by OCT, formalin or freezing, examining them under poor quality microscopes without any use of tissue stains, and still making many key discoveries.

Smellycat, let us discuss your reasons for pursuing a pathology career. What draws you to the field? What kept your interest once you discovered it? What kinds of things in the field thrill you? What makes the prospect of a career in pathology a pleasant thing? Avoid being negative towards other fields (like, don't say, "I could never be a surgeon because they are rude and short-sighted" because most surgeons are not rude or short sighted and people don't like you insulting others).

Then, if all else fails, picture the microscopic image of hepatic cirrhosis under a trichome stain. Beautiful swirling colors, sharp fibrous bands, nodules of hepatocytes, bile duct proliferation. The trichome stain of hepatic cirrhosis is worth at least two pages of glamorous description. Vermeer and Rembrandt only wish they could paint something as beautiful and awe inspiring as a trichrome stain. Let cirrhosis be your muse.

 

[deschutes]

Glomerular immunofluorescence!

The hauntingly evanescent glow of a 3+ C3-positive glomerulus on a background of pale green ghostly reticulations - made all the more elusive because the sharp contrast in light intensity in the field renders it challenging to photograph well.

Is there an unwritten rule against posting photomicrographs? I would have thought there would have been more otherwise.... at any rate this thumbnail is in the public domain:

 

[cookypuss3]

Oh yeah, me too, applying for 2005. Go team!!!

I am madly procrastinating re: the personal statement. Ugh. I don't want to write the same cheesy crap everyone writes. No offense to all of you, of course. I guess I am waiting for a godly burst of inspiration. I think I'm gonna be waiting a while.

 

[smellycat]

I'll be your muse. Or let Virchow be your muse. Think about Virchow cutting ultra thin sections by hand, unaided by OCT, formalin or freezing, examining them under poor quality microscopes without any use of tissue stains, and still making many key discoveries.

Smellycat, let us discuss your reasons for pursuing a pathology career. What draws you to the field? What kept your interest once you discovered it? What kinds of things in the field thrill you? What makes the prospect of a career in pathology a pleasant thing? Avoid being negative towards other fields (like, don't say, "I could never be a surgeon because they are rude and short-sighted" because most surgeons are not rude or short sighted and people don't like you insulting others).

Then, if all else fails, picture the microscopic image of hepatic cirrhosis under a trichome stain. Beautiful swirling colors, sharp fibrous bands, nodules of hepatocytes, bile duct proliferation. The trichome stain of hepatic cirrhosis is worth at least two pages of glamorous description. Vermeer and Rembrandt only wish they could paint something as beautiful and awe inspiring as a trichrome stain. Let cirrhosis be your muse.

man that is so poetic. Funny thing is we were looking at livers with trichrom today...no cirhosis yet...but i did see aspergillosis with "fruit!" Man it was BEAUTIFUL!