Cleveland

In early November, I interviewed at the two MD programs at Case Western Reserve University: the 4 year University Track and the 5 year College Track (aka Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine). I stalled on posting these pictures since there were all holy shit autumn leaves that were very similar, but all too dear for me to delete. These pictures, with the exception of these early ones of the city and a few at the end, were all taken at the Lakeview Cemetery. For the sake of aesthetics, the text won't necessarily describe the closest photos.

Cleveland in early November was a ridiculous blast of colors. Flying in over the drab Lake Erie and having my first glimpse of the state of Ohio be city + near confluent mass of red/orange/gold deciduous trees was absolutely jawdropping.

I took a train eastbound from Puritas Station to University Circle at around sunset. Cleveland literally looked like it was on fire. These are my favorite pictures from my trip since they capture the incredible autumn foliage and also the remnants of infrastructure and industry that formed my preconceptions of Cleveland. Would you believe me if I said I hardly edited these pictures?

Left: my CWRU student host's darling cat

Right: a basic boots + autumn leaves picture

Because I had interviews on Monday and Wednesday, I stayed in Cleveland for three days and three nights. On Monday night, I took a bus from the Cleveland Clinic to Cleveland Heights, the most picture perfect autumnal suburb I had ever seen. Since it was shortly after Halloween, walking at night in this part of Cleveland was spooky rather than scary, and actually pretty enjoyable. I have few pictures of Cleveland Heights, but imagine many brick houses, trees and their leaves everywhere, and curvy streets. My student host told me it was designed to reduce deer deaths by car. I don't know how true that is, but a buck did jump across my path during my nighttime walk.

On Tuesday, I explored Cleveland Heights, Little Italy, University Circle, and Case campus. My host dropped me off at the medical school, and I promptly went east towards the cemetery. Nothing quite like a stroll in a historical graveyard among autumn leaves to reflect on my own mortality, dwell on my abysmal performance at my CCLCM interview, and worry about CWRU on Wednesday.

I got to see the chapel, Rockefeller's memorial site, the mausoleum, and Hoover's monument.

After that, I went through Little Italy, University Circle, and Case campus. I had coffee and a bagel at a cute coffee house, then spent the vast majority of my day at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I'm far from an art connoisseur, but I enjoyed its collections, and was right at the level of Cantor, the free museum at Stanford. Because the CMA was free, I ended up going back to it a few times during the day.

There was also a little museum of medical history, with a special exhibit on childbirth, on Case campus. The same building had a beautiful, old-fashioned library, luxuriously decorated with oil paintings, antique medical equipment, and antique furniture. It reminded me of the Morrison Library at Cal, but much larger.

Creepy stumps

I did not see much of the city beyond the Cleveland Clinic itself, Case Western campus, Little Italy, and Cleveland Heights. I've deliberately left out most of the medicine-related details, which are the details that an applicant might find useful, but I have relatively little to say about either CCLCM or CWRU that is not mentioned on MSAR, the program websites, etc.

The Coffee House at University Circle: cute little place for a morning coffee and afternoon bagel and nap

That's all I have to say about Cleveland.

The atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art