It’s hardly fair to sum up roughly six years of my wife’s life in a couple of paragraphs, but here goes…

The Decision to go to Medical School

Carina started her undergrad in 2004, seven years ago (from the date I am writing this), which would have put Tanner at four years old and Andi at six.  That doesn’t seem right, but it must be.  Were they really that young when she started school?

When she first started classes at St. Cloud State University, Cari had every intention of becoming a nurse.  That intention didn’t last long. At all. Within two semesters she knew that being a nurse wasn’t going to quench her curiosity and love of science and biology.

From my point of view, it was fun to watch the idea of becoming a doctor slowly percolate and take shape in her brain.  I knew she had the right stuff to handle medical school, but it took a while for the idea to grow on her. Despite prodding and encouragement from her professors at the university, from good friends who are also an MD’s, from her own parents, and from me, the idea was terribly intimidating to her.

I don’t think there was ever a single moment when she said, “I’m going to do this!”  It was a slow decision that she grew into over a period of many, many months, fully considering factors like family and motherhood.

Once she arrived at the decision, it was obvious to everyone who knew her that it was, without question, the correct decision. You could see it in her eyes and in her countenance. She glowed!

 

Being a Good Student and a Good Mommy

One of the things that Cari and I discussed often was how to balance parenting on one side with her education and eventual career on the other. We both agreed that parenting needed to always come first, but the details were sometimes hard to work out.

In particular, we both felt strongly that our family wasn’t yet complete and that we wanted at least one more child, maybe more. When that child should join our family, however, was a point of frequent discussion.

I think the timing ended up just about perfect. Not long after Cari graduated, Piper Jolie Crookston joined our family in March of 2010.

 

The MCAT

Cari graduated from SCSU with a strong GPA, strong enough to merit consideration from some of the top medical schools in the country. We were excited!  Before graduating she took a Princeton Review class that helped her prep for the big test. And she spent what I thought was an impressive amount of time studying and getting ready.

Despite being two months pregnant and suffering from morning sickness, she courageously plowed ahead.  She took the test, and we waited anxiously for the results.  They seemed to take forever. During the waiting period she told me she felt peaceful about whatever the score might be.

When the score came, her heart sank. Her score was not terrible, but it also wasn’t great either. She’d had her sights set on going to medical school at the Mayo Clinic.  Her GPA was more than enough, but with her MCAT score, acceptance was unlikely.

 

What Now?

We faced two choices: 1) Cari could begin the studying process all over, take it again, and hope for a better score. Or 2) we could find a school that would take her with her strong GPA and existing MCAT score.

At first the choice was obvious.  Take it again.

And we began to mentally gear up for that choice.  Put all plans on hold for a year. Study like mad.  Hope for a better result. And the more we headed down that path, the more it felt wrong.

So we decided to try on the other option to see how it felt. Find a school that would take her with the existing MCAT. That, in contrast, felt like a breath of fresh air. We decided to move forward and see if it kept on feeling right.

The research began.  Look at all the schools.  See what scores they accept.  Make lists of the ones that are possibilities.

And what about D.O. schools?  Our neighbor across the street is a D.O. and she encouraged Cari to examine that route. Their schools were not as stringent on MCAT scores and her GPA was more than enough.  At first Cari was opposed to the D.O. route, but she softened to it as she studied it and realized that it is a legitimate route to becoming a doctor.

Nine D.O. schools were selected. She was applying late in the acceptance cycle, but we felt good about moving forward anyway.  Nine applications were filled out and submitted.  Nine schools were paid the expensive application fee.  Then we waited.  One by one the letters came back. Thank you for applying, but no thank you. Some said she had a strong application and asked her to reapply after she took the MCAT again. Others said they were full and invited her to reapply next year.

Eventually, we got nine of those letters.

She felt encouraged about the schools who sounded as if they would have accepted her if they had not been full.  The problem, however, was that these schools had a three year time limit on the MCAT. She had taken a break after Piper was born, and if she waited another year to reapply, that deadline would have passed.

 

NOW What Now?

Cari was about as low as I’d ever seen her.  Ever.  We were back to square one. Take the MCAT again, or keep looking for some school somewhere that would accept her as is?  Once again, we just could not make taking the MCAT again feel like the right thing to do.  So, we keep looking.

In the research I had done leading up the the nine D.O. school applications, I had come across some info about Caribbean medical schools.  I had mentioned the idea once to Cari before and she had rejected it with such ferocity that I hadn’t ever brought it up again.  But I wasn’t sure we had any options left.

I tried once more to suggest the idea, and she shot it down just as fast.

“Listen” I pleaded.  ”Let’s at least study the possibility.  Educating ourselves doesn’t mean we are committing to anything.  It’s just means we become more informed.  Let’s at least look into some Caribbean options and see what we find. Right now we don’t know anything.”

She agreed.

 

Caribbean Research

It didn’t take long to come up to speed on the Caribbean medical school landscape.  It’s simple.  Only three of them are worth considering.  All of the others (and there are a lot of them) are not fully accredited, you can’t take out U.S. student loads, and when you graduate you are not licensed to practice in all 50 states. Scary!

The other three are St. George’s University on the island of Grenada, Ross University on the island of Dominca, and The American University of the Caribbean on the island of St. Maarten.  I quickly focused my research on AUC.  Of the three it was the least expensive, had the smallest class sizes, and from what I could tell, their board pass rates and residency placement rates were just as high as the other two, as high as many U.S. MD schools, and higher than just about every D.O. school.

 

AUC Appears on the Radar

The first time Cari ever heard of The American University of the Caribbean is when I emailed her a link to their website, which at the time was advertising an open house in Minneapolis that was only two weeks away. I took it as a good sign that the first time I ever saw AUC’s website there was an open house that close in both proximity and time.

Cari agreed to go and listen to what they had to say.

We walked into the open house with a sense of curious apprehension, but also anticipation. We wanted to listen carefully to what they had to say, but we also wanted to filter what they said through objective ears.  We walked out of the open house an hour and a half later knowing that we would submit an application.

 

Accepted!

The rest is history.  The application was submitted. She was accepted.

For as low as I’d seen her after the nine D.O. school rejections, she was every bit as high after getting her acceptance from AUC. She was going to realize her dream of becoming an MD! And in the process, we were all going to have the experience of a life time… two years on a beautiful Caribbean island!