And the journey continues...

With only 35 days left in Dominica, what is next, you ask?

5th semester! (ok, obviously that comes after 4th semester, so what does that mean to the rest of the world??)

5th semester is basically a transitional period between learning the basics of medicine (sems 1-4) and clinical clerkships (sems 6-graduation..not sure how many total sems this is..10 I think). Its basically a period where the students still attend classes, but also do mini clinical rotations, all while studying for the big test that matters - the USMLE Step 1. Students are allowed to take the USMLE Step 1 once they have passed the Comprehensive exam, which is the first Friday of class (May 18 for us - please keep Blake in your prayers!); however, most students wait until after 5th semester, a fews months after actually, to take the exam. Most students prefer to take a little time for intensive studying before taking the USMLE Step 1. I mean, its a big deal, its what matters when getting chosen for clinical clerkships and residency programs, so its better to study as much as you can and be prepared when taking it. Yes, you can re-take it, but its expensive, I mean around $900, so its better to get a satisfactory score the first time.

Where is 5th semester? 

All right, this is the next thing everyone wants to know. WHERE in the world will we be living for 5th semester?

The options are: Dominica, Saginaw, Michigan, and Miramar, Florida.

You basically apply to one of these programs, and see if you get in. That said - Michigan is the harder one to get into and Florida is the default where most students go. Students apply to Dominica too, but historically everyone that applies to Dominica is allowed to stay in Dominica. We were not in the group that wanted to stay here on the island, and  we saw pros and cons of both locations in the states, so we decided to apply for the option that put us closer to family - Michigan. My mom's entire family lives up there, and I'll be headed there for a wedding in June, so we thought it would be nice to be around them for a little while. Michigan accepted 50 students out of Blake's class (I think his class has around 300 students). Unfortunately, we didn't get in. Ross does a "points" system that ranks you to get into the program, and although we thought we had enough points, we received an email saying that we were going to Miramar, Florida for 5th.

We found out on Thursday that we were going to Miramar, and I was lucky to find a fully furnished 2 bedroom / 1 bathroom condo with cable, internet, electric, and water bills included, washer and dryer, for the three months we will be in Florida. The leasing said they didn't allow pets, but the landlord is allowing us to bring our Shih Tzu Charlie, who has been living with my mom and stepdad for the past 16 months. What about Rosalie, or little island adopted cat? We will have to find a nice home for her here. They won't accept cats at the condo. Although this makes me a little sad, we have been running into problems with getting her back to the states anyways, so this just made our decision a little easier to leave her on the island. We signed the lease yesterday, and I'm happy to have the peace of mind that we have a place to live!

On that note, here is our timeline - 

5th semester - May 14 to August 3, 2012 - living in Miramar, Florida
August 4 - September 2012 - living in Texas, Blake studying for the Step 1
Step 1 Exam - late September 2012


OK...thats only the next 5 months, then what?? 

Who knows! Its all a part of this journey called being a student at Ross..we could literally be placed anywhere in the United States, other than Texas, because Ross doesn't have clinical clerkships in Texas at the moment (although we have heard about negotiations with a hospital in San Antonio and another in Houston). All we do know at this point is that Blake could start an elective clinical clerkship before receiving his Step 1 scores, but the majority of the core clinical clerkships start in January.

And the journey continues....