Hello,

I am applying to medical schools this year and will be doing a lot of traveling for interviews. At least I hope I will be traveling for interviews. The premed forums have been of great benefit to me, but the suggested packing lists generated by a bunch of neurotic premeds started to create visions of loading a steamer trunk onto the Titanic. Disclaimer: I too am a neurotic premed. I'm a non-traditional student though so I am at least cognizant of the wonders of FlyerTalk. I don't think I will include any mileage run stats in the activities section of my application though.

I come to the professionals of travel with a humble request: how can I travel efficiently without appearing to have crawled outside of my suitcase the morning of the interview? The irony is that I fly everyday at work...but working on a medevac helicopter doesn't get me these needed skills. Neither did my previous employment at the fire department. I have a TravelPro carry on suitcase, but an out of town wedding a couple weeks ago left me convinced I was doing it wrong. Imagine CPR on a suitcase to get it closed.

Just like packing a car for the family vacation, I know this is an art. I will start practicing in advance, packing suits and leaving them in there for 24+ hours etc but in the meantime...any tips on things to purchase to make my life easier? Starting from scratch means I have a TravelPro carry-on suitcase...which I love but I don't have a garment bag etc. I am thinking that this is my last chance to upgrade, within reason, while I still have a source of income that doesn't have a 20 year repayment plan associated with it. Tips of travel friendly suits/dress attire would be great too. I have 4-5 good suits, but one more to the arsenal is never a bad idea.

Here is what I absolutely will bring:
1 suit, 1 sport coat, 2 dress shirts, slacks, dress shoes, belt, 2 ties, and the usual socks/underwear/toiletries etc. I will also bring my Macbook Air, noise cancelling headphones, and a small, zippered portfolio.

I killed most of today reading the one bag travel ninja thread and it was an enormous help, but I didn't want to hijack the thread by asking my questions. I am sold on the Cocoon Grid-It and heavily considering the Gate8 bag...but I don't know a thing about packing with cubes or other things I read about this afternoon.

Annoyingly long, I know. Neurotic premed function kicking into overdrive. Try not to laugh too much at us this fall as we stumble around the gates...got a lot riding on this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Safe travels.