The University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine

After much deliberation, we've decided to attend the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. We received confirmation yesterday that all tuition and fees will be covered. We only need to worry about living expenses for the next four years.

Finals/Graduation/WICHE

Finals are almost over, I have graduation today, it's snowing, and I'm a little stressed out.

Jason got a phone call Wednesday afternoon from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The associate dean of admissions, Dr. Norma Wagoner, offered Jason a scholarship of $120,000 over 4 years. The scholarship still doesn't make UC cheaper than the University of Washington ($92,000 vs. $89,000 over the four years). However, the University of Colorado mentioned that Jason was number one on their WICHE ranking (WICHE is the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education). The WICHE funding would reduce his medical school tuition to the same price as resident tuition. With his tuition at the resident price, the scholarship would cover the remainder of the cost. We would go to medical school for free. The only problem is that we don't know for sure if Jason will get WICHE funding. WICHE only funds 6 Montana students each year, so they use a ranking system to determine who will get aid. Last year, only 2 out of the 5 Montana students that went to UC got WICHE funding. While Jason is currently #1 on UC's WICHE ranking, we won't know if he will receive WICHE funding for sure until possibly May 10-12. May 15th is decision day for future medical students in that they need to narrow down their choice to one school.

The difficult part is making the decision on what we're going to do. Jason has wanted to go to the University of Washington since he was in high school. We would also be near his family, since we'd spend two years in Montana and two years in Seattle. We'd have access to Indian Health Service facilities, so free check-ups and dental. The University of Washington School of Medicine is also one of the best in the country. On the other hand, the University of Colorado offers an excellent education and won't require us to move 4 times in 4 years like UW will. Denver is a nice city with all the amenities that we've come to enjoy in Provo. Jason also said that they had the nicest facilities of all the schools he interviewed at, having spent nearly a billion dollars over the last 5 years.

The prospect of a free medical education without payback (both service or monetary) is huge. However, we may not hear about WICHE funding before May 15th. In that case, we'll need to decide if we stick with the dream school of UW or go with the dream situation of leaving medical school at UC debt free.

Just a quickie...

We went to Date Night last night. It was a pretty funny, although definitely not for children. There were sexual references and it said the F word once. It was not the best movie we have seen, but it also was not the worst.

We also went to Gloria's Little Italy restaurant in Provo. It was not the Olive Garden. Not that the Olive Garden isn't good. I enjoy the Olive Garden, but it is a completely different experience. Cheery walls and personal photographs decorating the walls set the mood as a personal family restaurant. The food was delicious, and made from fresh ingredients! I really enjoyed my lasagna and it was so large bigger than a 3x5 card, and about 2 1/2 inches thick. The taste was so different than the lasagna's I usually eat, but just as good. Jason got Chicken Parmigiana and spaghetti, his was just as delicious.

After dinner we went to the Apple store to play with their Ipads. They are literally a giant version of the ipod touch. It was so neat. We had a lot of fun playing with them.

Again with the graduation...

I am registered for my last semester of college. Registration opened for people with 80 credits + on March 24 at 12:00am. I have had my schedule planned out since January, so when registration opened up and I finished registering for my classes the timestamp on my registration confirmation read 12:00am. It probably took me 15 seconds to register because I had all of the CRN's ready to type in. Anyways... I bought some announcements a couple of days ago to send to grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I am planning on emailing the rest of the family an announcement if you want one. (please leave me your email in a comment, I won't post the email address for others to see). I just purchased my cap and gown so I can have something to wear while walking!

April 30!!!

So I applied for graduation a couple of weeks ago and just heard back from them! I will be graduating in the summer and will be walking in April. I am very excited to be finished with school and I see that it is coming so quickly!

Update

Wow! It's been 2 weeks since I last updated. Other than school, work, and midterms we have been staying alive. We did go to the Byu Basketball game, which was sort of a let-down. Oh well, what can you do.

We got bubbles for our nursery kids and boy do they love bubbles! We will start the bubbles and madness ensues. They run around screaming, "Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles!" They try to catch the bubbles in their hands and their mouths inevitably open in awe as they watch the bubbles fall to the ground. It's such a simple thing, but it sure keeps their attention.

Anyways... It's about time to get ready for school. I will try to update when I get more time.

Graduation

I just applied for graduation, I can't believe I only have one semester left. I am so excited to be so close. It still feels like it's forever away, but it's not that bad. I just need to focus on passing all of my classes! If I look a little frazzled, or completely out of it, please ignore me until mid-July.