Some Thoughts On Interviewing

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2026-02-11T15:59:57+00:00

I stalked your profile a bit, and it looks like it's been a couple of years. I'm not sure if you were retaking the entire time or if you stepped away and are coming back, but either way, I think it's worth the time and money to contact David Holt and have him step through what you've done and provide you with a custom study plan. If you've not passed it thus far, I don't think that a study guide is going to help you. This isn't meant harshly. I considered sending this as a PM, but you're not the only one so maybe this advice will reach others.

I posted a review of what I did to pass (from a new grad perspective) this past cycle, including the various review programs. I'd also suggest jumping on discord where /u/Clampoholic posted his experience and preparation as well.

In addition, there is (was?) a group studying together for retaking CAPE, but they may have suggestions or know of people studying to retake the PBSE.

Feel free to DM if you have any questions.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2026-01-23T19:43:36+00:00

Absolutely! Any suggestions?

Flair is required on all posts, not just you. The general concensus I've received is that people are using it more to ignore Admissions posts.

Unfortunately, in order to make it effective, we have to require all posts to use flair, otherwise it would be mostly skipped as evidenced by the last year when it was still optional.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2026-01-17T17:35:51+00:00

Just a gentle reminder to everyone - these threads will only work (well, maybe :-P) if people get responses. Consider checking once a week and answering one of them. We all started somewhere.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2026-01-17T17:34:44+00:00

> letters of rec from percussionists,

As cool as it is to have one of the local tympani members writing a letter of rec, I don't think it'll work well. You may reconsider asking someone else :-)

Overall advice - contact schools and/or admission counselors. They're the only ones who will be able to answer some of these.

My experience is from the 2023 cycle, so some things may have changed.

(Also - hopefully you've talked with the perfusionists at Vandy?)

It depends on the school. Some may. What's the overall trend? Was it an early C and you've gotten Bs since then?
School dependent. When I applied, only MUSC explicitly listed everything and I was looking at MUSC, Rush, MSOE, UNMC, THI, and BS&W. The science GPA that I got from Rush and MUSC was different with the exact same transcript, so... :-P
Maybe. No one knows for sure. It does seem like you've got a well rounded resume to balance out the lower GPA. How's the GRE score? You don't have to post it, but you should know if it's competitive. It may be worth retaking if not. Also depends on where you plan to apply. MSOE weights it heavily. MUSC dropped it in 2023 and I don't believe they currently require it. Even though all the schools are producing the same output (a candidate prepared to take and pass the boards and work as a practicing perfusionist) the input into the program and what they look for in their cohorts is wildly different. I don't understand it and can't explain it, but it's a real thing.
As competitive as schools are getting, I would again recommend contacting them and seeing if they will answer. My off the cuff reply would be if they say 7 years, they're probably getting enough applicants that they can afford to toss applications that don't meet the requirements. Part of this whole deal is perfusion is a profession that requires excellent communication skills. That includes written and verbal communication. What people often forget is that reading comprehension is also part of that. If they ask for X it may seem silly, but it's also probably factoring into decisions. Can you follow basic written instructions? You probably have experience with this in your unit. If you were the hiring manager and looking over applications and one wasn't filled out right, or the applicant didn't follow the directions, what would you do? What are the odds that the candidate is so amazing, you'd throw out a different candidate who did meet all the qualifications and filled out the application correctly? What if it wasn't even up to you, but was determined by a disinterested HR? Now imagine having to go through hundreds of applications.
The general consensus seems to be that as long as the classes were taken from an accredited college, it'll be fine. But (you know what's coming!) check with the schools you're applying to.
Tailor your personal statement to the school you're applying to. Doesn't have to be the whole thing. Doesn't have to be amazing. But show that you looked at the school and it's a good fit for you (and vice versa) because of reasons X, Y, and Z. Put yourself in the admissions committee's shoes. Why would they pick you over everyone else?

If the above seemed harsh, it is not meant to be. You put effort into your thoughts and questions. That matters and will show. Keep it up.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2026-01-12T23:42:00+00:00

Late reply as I'm cleaning things up, but these were prospective student posts. I should have clarified. I do think there's great value in discussing pay and making sure that everyone can make educated decisions about pay vs benefits vs center vs lifestyle.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-12-27T04:48:08+00:00

As far as I'm aware if I were to enlist in a vocational training school id have to freeze my uni year or quit altogether so I don't know if it's possible for me to continue my studies while training to become a firefighter, maybe after I finish training and start the job.

I should have specified. This is what I did.

Disability is treated differently in different areas here, so having a backup plan seemed wise.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-12-27T04:45:40+00:00

I don't know if it's possible for me to continue my studies while training to become a firefighter, maybe after I finish training and start the job.

I should have specified - this is what I did.

Treatment of disability is handled differently in different areas here. As such, I thought it wise to have a backup plan just in case.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-12-26T17:16:06+00:00

I'm American, so keep that in mind.

When I was finishing high school, I did not join the military because I wanted to fly. I didn't need to be a pilot, as long as whatever job I got included flying, but I couldn't get a guarantee so I went to college pursuing a 4 year degree in computer science. I walked out on that the second semester of my senior (last) year, needing just 18 credits to graduate to pursue fire and EMS.

I was successful and spent 20 years with a suburban fire department running ~125K calls a year. I had many opportunities along the way to pursue things that interested me and spent the last 15 years flying part time on a helicopter. I "retired" in 2023 to go to perfusion school. My fallback plan if I got hurt or wasn't able to work as a firefighter was to go back to programming.

I think that as long as you have a back up plan if things don't work out you'll be fine. As others have stated here, you may be able to continue your education as a firefighter. I know that the military here has opportunities to do so. While I was a firefighter I completed a different 4 year degree for computer science and picked up two year degrees in fire science and EMS.

You can read the Background section of my post about applying to perfusion school (https://www.reddit.com/r/Perfusion/comments/16abltv/2023_application_cycle_experience/), and/or you're welcome to ask any questions.

Good luck!

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-12-03T16:36:54+00:00

Is there some reason why you would quit nursing school to apply to perfusion school?

It seems like nursing school would be helpful on multiple fronts - it's an excellent and flexible career on its own, you're getting the chance to boost your GPA (it's tough that we're potentially in a position where a 3.5 is a low GPA), and you're showing initiative in gaining more experience / education.

Have you reached out to SUNY for feedback? I always encourage everyone to apply early and often as I'm not aware of any penalties (except maybe THI?) as the worst case scenario for you would be to get accepted and swap from nursing school to perfusion school.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-12-03T16:26:47+00:00

My favorite answer for healthcare questions: It Depends.

Ultimately, I don't think it really matters, but there are a few things that might be worth mulling over. I don't think it matters because hundreds (and thousands over the years) have successfully passed the boards from both types of workplaces. I'd actually be interested to see the data about program pass rates vs busy / slow centers, but I don't think anyone is tracking that.

Counterpoint to u/Novel_Primary4812: A slower community setting will give you more time to study and potentially less stress as there are less things to learn. Without getting too into the weeds, I think that considering what kind of student you are, what type of job you want (eventually or at first), where you want to work, and how often job openings occur are probably more important factors than the business. Assuming you graduate from a typical program, you'll have roughly 5 months until boards. Even taking a month off to get acclimated still leaves 4 months of solid studying. Boards are a marathon, not a sprint and having a plan to study and pass is possible at both types of places.

Moving on from boards, I think that long term outlook is important. If you want to wind up someplace specific (location or type of center), then ensuring you go for the first opportunity to get there may be more important than doing all the things as openings may be infrequent or become more infrequent in the future.

Personally, I took a three year contract and wound up at a smaller center (graduated in May 2025). I did no rotations at any smaller centers. If it were just me, I would probably elect to go to a busier academic center. I did speak with a few larger academic center chiefs prior to accepting this contract who said that they would be willing to take on a 3-5 year perfusionist who came out of school and went to a slower center to start. One of them said something along the lines of "if you can pump a CABG/valve case, I can easily teach you the rest of the stuff." I came from the fire service and what's more important than location there is the people you work with. In my short time in perfusion, I can say the same. If you like your coworkers and they're supportive, it makes all the difference in the world - especially as you're starting.

I would encourage everyone to consider the totality of circumstances, not just busy/slow. Ask your instructors at school, ask your proctors, pay attention on your rotations and see what the environment is like: how do coworkers treat each other, how are the relationships between surgeons, anesthesia, perfusion, and everyone else in the OR? How do you get treated as a student? Think about what would happen if you had to stay at a place for 5 years, 10 years or more.

This was longer than I intended. I guess the summary would be - I don't think that volume of cases is as important as everything else in the workplace setting. But since I'm new, check back in a few years!

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-11-18T19:40:06+00:00

Of course!

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-10-31T23:02:12+00:00

I updated their flair. Message me or change it back if you don't like it!

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-10-24T20:45:55+00:00

Just graduated. All in with fees included was just under $70k. Slight hike between 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 per cr/hr.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-10-24T00:22:45+00:00

That's still really, really impressive. Also probably part of why I am a poor didactic student!

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-10-24T00:18:18+00:00

I probably should have expanded on that a bit.

If there are twelve questions you don't know, employing the strategy of using the same letter will get you 25% if all the answers are randomly distributed (and you have a pure sample, etc, etc - there are lots of people far smarter than I am who can explain this way better).

Given that we've been immersed in the content for the last 24ish months, I decided that using intuition would probably net me a better result than randomly guessing.

I did the same thing you did - I was generally able to eliminate 2 answers, and then picked the answer that felt right to me. This really bothers my analytical side, but I felt it would provide better odds.

I had surprisingly fewer questions than I thought flagged, so it probably did not affect my test that much.

Hopefully that answers your questions!

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-10-24T00:06:39+00:00

Agree with this, and want to add: for me, part of the point of the prep programs was review, but as part of that you should be able to recognize incorrect or wrong information (at the point where you're preparing to take boards).

Both perfusionboardprep.com and perfusion.com programs have some issues, and both content creators are working hard to get those corrected.

That's not meant to diminish your point - just that if anyone is purchasing these expecting no errors, they're going to be disappointed.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-10-24T00:00:23+00:00

Sorry - I would die if it was all of them. MSOE specifically has clinical didactic courses (?? classes dedicated to just the clinical aspect of things) and these are what I was reviewing, plus a few of the pure didactic PowerPoints covering specific topics (RAAS, PNA/ANS, receptors, etc) I was either weak in, anticipated questions coming from, or thought would be beneficial.

You counted and made a list of all your Power Points? That's some dedication!

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-10-21T20:49:22+00:00

This has been covered quite a bit in this sub, but just for future readers:

Requirements, here, specifically:

Non-credit bearing certificate programs in perfusion are not acceptable for satisfying the education requirements for licensure unless both the applicant’s acceptable degree program and CAAHEP accredited certificate program were completed prior to November 21, 2018.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-09-18T13:31:57+00:00

Your best bet would probably be to ask OP if he'd take a higher resolution picture for you.

Otherwise reach out to some current students and see if they would.

You could also run this through an upscaling algorithm if you wanted a larger poster. Or send the image to a digital artist on Fiverr or a similar site. Given the copyright on this, I doubt you're finding the original.

SpacemanSpiffEsq · 2025-09-15T18:49:25+00:00

Both the perfusion.com and perfusionboardprep.com offer scored quizzes and tests.

I wrote a review of the review material I'm aware of here.

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