Need some perspective about match

[turin]

Congrats to all those who matched! I'm writing both in hopes that I can help anyone going through couples match and also for some perspective from residents and attendings that may lurk here. My SO (similar specialty in terms of competitiveness) and I are both AMGs from a top 40 med school/above avg grades, excellent LORs, from what we were told on the interviews personable and convincing statements. We both interview well. No red flags. We both received ~20 invitations/30 applied, went to 12. Received multiple handwritten notes and a couple rank to match calls (I know these are to be taken with a grain of salt, but..). Anyway, we matched #12, as in almost didn't match. I know you shouldn't rank a program if you feel like you would rather go unmatched and I suppose we did feel that we should rank them, but now I'm not so sure. Besides all the "what if's" that we as a couple have already discussed and mostly settled, I still am very concerned about my future training and opportunities re: fellowship and job offers. The program is academic, but the perceived training, leadership, reputation from my visit of ~2d was nothing short of terrible. I kind of feel like all my work in medical school was for nothing. Has anyone been in this situation? Plans of right now are just to buckle up and ride it out for 4 yrs while hoping for the best. At least my SO and I are together. I know there is some talk after switching after PGY-1, but at best I feel like we would probably arrive in the same situation as we are now.

Thanks for all the support on this forum! I've lurked and read countless thread posts that have been invaluable on during applications and the interview trail.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[NeuroNoob]

Couples match is really tough it seems like. Heard multiple stories over the years from my school about awesome applicants who went far down their rank lists when couples matching. With that said Neuro alone felt pretty competitive this year, seemed like a lot of solid applicants wherever I went during interview season this year. Curious to see if the amount of applicants went up significantly from last year. Congrats on matching, good luck.

 

[Cutie Dibbles]

Hey Turin - That's rough. I'm so sorry.

I agree that neuro might have been extra competitive this time. I suppose people probably say that every year, but in recent years my home school has matched neuro applicants at Columbia, Mayo, UCLA, etc...and ZERO applicants in my class matched anywhere like that. I was honestly SHOCKED that I dropped down to #6 on my list, which was my home school, after having had really positive interviews at and feedback from my top programs. And if anything, I was more competitive in some ways than my predecessors who matched at the aforementioned "prestigious" programs.

But I'm an optimist, and here's what I'm telling myself to keep a positive spin on things; maybe some of this spin will work for you, too:

1) Because I matched at my home school after my neuro-professor mentors here had expected me to leave for bigger and better things - they have all expressed how *lucky* they feel to have gotten me. I am considerably more competitive than the average person who matches at my school for neuro (mostly IMGs and DOs - *Not that there's anything wrong with that and sorry you guys get discriminated against*). This puts me in a position of being appreciated by my bosses before I even start, and it's already working to my advantage (half the neuromuscular division personally texted me with glee after they heard the news). If you were overqualified for your #12, and it sounds like you are, then hopefully the attendings at #12 are thrilled to have you and know how lucky they are. Had you matched at Partners, perhaps they would take you for granted.
2) Should it turn out I am the brightest of my residency class (and I may not be, of course - haven't met the rest of the team yet), then I may be given all the best opportunities, like first dibs on cool research. I could be the "darling" of my little neurology department! I don't have anything to prove. It's like being in a class where the teacher tells you you've already got an "A" until you prove otherwise. While I prefer being the dumbest in a room of smart people, being a Big Fish has its perks, too. You should *own* being a Big Fish at a so-so program, and Big Fish-it-up by taking advantage of every career-furthering opportunity you can. While the fellowship match stats for your #12 might not be stellar, usually the best resident in a given program has a chance at a sexy fellowship, and if that's you, then there's nothing to worry about.
3) If the education at #12 is weak, then promise yourself now that you will teach yourself, and that you will teach yourself like a ROCKSTAR. That's my plan, anyway. Get books, read articles, take notes, be organized. Teach yourself better than all the best lectures at UCSF could. Then you still win!

Finally, as a single girl, I will just note that being in a happy relationship and having a partner to go through this with you makes you luckier than a snooty neuro program ever could. Of course, you know that. And it still sucks that you guys didn't match higher. But you should hold your head high because you nobly sacrificed a higher match for LOVE!!! You can proudly tell your kids that someday.

Good luck being a super baller rock star in your 2nd-rate program! KILL IT!!!

 

[turin]

That's some damn great perspective Cutie, you da best! The icing on the cake now is that attendings and committee members from my home institution (ranked #7) told us both in emails after match that they were surprised and sad that we didn't end up there, which is not only an additional slap in the face, but also something I really have no idea how to reply to. Sometimes I wish neuro programs had more than a handful of positions open.. a buddy matching into UTSW IM is ~1/50, and that's only for the categoricals.

Anyway, congrats on matching! Let's go be super awesome nerdologists!

 

[NeuroNoob]

Totally agree with C Dibbles. Also it's probably a lot less important to train at one of the high profile places than it used to be (before Internet, specialty societies, next-day shipping from Amazon, etc.) There seems to be a lot of parity among neuro residency programs, to the point that it was difficult to differentiate between curricula while doing interviews. Of course the newest/coolest things are still mostly going on in big cities with big name programs and research money, but it has never been easier to keep up with things by reading. Unless you have esoteric research interests that you want to be pursuing right now, general neurology training is probably the most important. It seems hard to find a Neuro program where this is not possible (maybe I'm naive here). Most important things are being able to maintain strong relationships with family/friends, comfortable living in the area, nice people in the program (residents, faculty, support staff), decent hospital facilities, etc. Hopefully your program has some if not all of this to offer.