To the west and back: WashU in St. Louis

Shortly after my interview at Columbia (for point of reference, that was November 12th), I spent the weekend recuperating and at the same time preparing for a nearly two week trip to the west coast and back to interview at Washington University in St. Louis, UCLA, and the University of Chicago, with a break in Albuquerque between UCLA and UChicago to chill with DM.

I arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, the Sunday immediately after my interview at Columbia. Lambert St. Louis Airport, for the record, is quite small. I took the train heading downtown, stopped at Central West End, and climbed the steps leading up to WashU's campus.

It was... quaint. I failed to take pictures, but it was a nice looking campus. Plenty of tall buildings. Clean. Quiet.

I went to Olin Hall, a dormitory for first year students that the school offered for interviewees for the night. After being kindly oriented by the front desk staff, I settled into my room, relaxed for a little bit, and then went to go have a lunch. I remember that it wasn't a far walk to the college town-ish part of St. Louis, and that I had a nice, "Modern American" type meal. I also got myself a fro-yo. All solid, but nothing that stands out in memory.

I then decided to head downtown. I'll be honest: I thought that the chances I'd end up here for the long term were quite low to start with, so I decided to see St. Louis while I had the chance. I took the train for the stop at the Gateway Arch, probably St. Louis's most distinctive architectural feature. I purchased a ticket to enter the Gateway Arch and go to the top. Everything was in walking distance.

And here's what I saw:

Inside City Hall, where you can get tickets to the Gateway Arch and read a little bit about St. Louis's history:

Leading up to the Gateway Arch:

View at the top:

At the back, a view of the Mississippi River:

I spent maybe an hour at the Arch, making small chat with other visitors (generally from the Midwest) and taking in the history of the Arch and the views. And then I decided that I was good, and left.

One last view of City Hall and the Arch before taking the train back:

Once I settled back into Olin, I decided to go for a run in Forest Park around sunset. It was too dark to take any pictures, but I do remember that it was a really nice park. Large, spacious, not too crowded, surrounded by suburban type homes and apartment buildings. Some people playing recreational sports in patches here and there. A brightly colored museum nearby. 

A small city, a nice park, quiet living. My glimpse into St. Louis living.

After I showered off the sweat from my run (in dormitory style bathrooms... not something I miss from Ellicott Hall at UMD), I went to a pizza get-together put on by the med students for interviewees. There were a lot of people and a lot of pizza. I enjoyed a few bites, chatted a little bit with some other interviewees and med students. The interviewees were all quite young, nice. Sadly I can't recall anything more distinctive about them. The medical students were happy to chat, but the one thing I remember is asking a student why she chose WashU. "Well, it was the best school I got into," she said, with a shrug. I smiled and nodded, but frankly, I felt less than inspired. 

I had my interview the following day. The other interviewees and I met up in some library-type room for probably the best breakfast I had had thus far (and which would continue to stand out throughout the interview season), with sausages, eggs, tomatoes, quinoa, other things I don't remember except that I liked it and felt full. Staff gave us instructions and then guided us into another room to hear a presentation about the curriculum and student life. 

All well and good. We then went to the rooms on our instruction sheets for our interviews, in a variety of places. I only had one interview, with the admissions dean herself, Dr. Valerie Ratts, and it was quite early in the day. The interview went... okay. She remarked on my record when I came in, and then asked me what I would come to find to be standard questions, like "Have you considered the ramifications of going into medicine?" and "What kind of work are you doing in South Africa?" Somewhat similar to my interview with Dr. Landry at Columbia, but just a little different in tone. She was friendly but direct, and she made every effort to sell WashU. She even made what might have been swiping gestures at programs like Columbia's three year PhD-to-MD program, saying "medicine is a big commitment... you can't study it in three years." And when I asked about the typical patient population at Barnes-Jewish (WashU's main teaching hospital) and the lifestyle of St. Louis, she said it was essentially like Baltimore but without the Bay, and that the patient population is arguably more diverse than some larger cities, since Barnes-Jewish provided catchment for not just St. Louis residents but also for those living in the surrounding suburban and rural areas. 

After the interview, I waited at a nearby cafe in the building with some other interviewees, listening to bits and pieces of gossip about the interview season. One guy found UCLA "underwhelming," and another guy said he had either already gotten into Baylor or had an interview lined up, and was just hoping for that really. People seemed at least modestly impressed by WashU, but I don't remember meeting anyone dying to get in. Just my personal sample.

I enjoyed the tour and appreciated the tour guide's friendliness and general knowledge of the school (an MS4 looking to specialize in radiation oncology, if I remember correctly), though really, at this point, I was becoming more and more convinced that all med school tours were pretty much the same. The financial aid info session was helpful and there was mention of merit scholarships, to be distributed in however way the committee saw fit. I enjoyed the lunch -- the food was pretty good, buffet style, and the students who came to eat with us with all warm and polite. I'll be honest again: I was kind of zoning out for a lot of it and have no good recollection of the questions that my interviewees asked and the answers they received.

The day ended with Dr. Ratts coming to say goodbye, asking us to fill out surveys for the admissions office, and giving us a cookie. It was a good cookie. And overall, I enjoyed my time at WashU. Everyone I had met seemed to all be "good cookies," as TL would say. 

But as I left on the train to the airport, watching the landscape of St. Louis and Missouri, I knew from the start and knew now that the odds were extremely low that I would end up here. A great school that lived up to its reputation, but did not really win me over. 

I got on a flight to LAX.