Because of/In spite of

I remember when I was interviewing for my MD-PhD program. When I actually was on campus, only three people from my department were available to talk to me, while 5 actually needed to. Because of this I was forced to have 2 phone interviews when I returned back to Chicago.

I'll just say this. I really hated the program when I interviewed here. Everyone (including most of the other interview candidates, though I did like the students I met) seemed really pompous and full of themselves. One faculty member I spoke with didn't even know what program I was interviewing for. The basic science people who run the MD-PhD program told me that my (non-basic science research in health economics) was bullshit. That actual word may have even been used. I don't remember.

At least they didn't accuse me of lying about my involvement on projects, which is what one guy at Harvard did.

Anyway.

I had already decided that there was no way that I would ever go to my med school, and felt rather put out by the idea that I now had to waste two more hours of my time being interviewed over the phone with additional people I was probably going to dislike. Nonetheless (and I guess obviously because I am here), I set up a time to talk with each of the other two people.

I think one was scheduled for 2:30 PM Central Time one afternoon while I was at work. I waited and waited, tethered to my desk for an hour or so until the faculty member -- to this day I don't recall who it was -- bothered calling me at 3:30 PM Central Time.

I told them firmly that they were an hour late and they would have to reschedule because I had work to do.

Eventually we conducted the interview, and I guess it went well because I was accepted.

To this day I don't know if I got accepted because of or in spite of that interaction.

I bring this up now because "being late" seems to be how people operate in my department. In contrast to medical school, where if you are 30 seconds late to a class or an appointment someone jots something down and it is noted how unprofessional you are in your next evaluation, in the Epi department people will actually yell at you if you are three minutes early.

Yesterday I arrived thusly, and the person practically dropped their coffee into their lap and hastily told me to come back 15 minutes later. I thought to myself that maybe I had probably caught him looking at porn, but when it happened again with another person today (I was 2 minutes early this time), it occurred to me that perhaps this was a cultural thing in my department.

I wonder what would happen if I started routinely arriving 15 minutes late to all my appointments in the Epi department. Would I somehow signal to everyone around me how important I am?

Thus:

Medical student = one extreme. Important Epi faculty member = other extreme.

Ridiculous.