Preliminary Surgery SOAP

[MSMSM2018]

I am an American Medical Student who is applying into an advanced program requiring a general surgery preliminary program.

I was hoping to live in Chicago for my preliminary program, but only received one preliminary interview for Chicago, but many in cities along the West Coast.

Do you recommend I rank only my one Chicago preliminary surgery program and use SOAP to scramble into a general surgery prelim position if I don't get in? Looking for any information on the likelihood of scrambling into a surgery prelim year.

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[gutonc]

The number and variety of terrible ideas that Match applicants can come up with continues to amaze me.

Ask yourself this: would you rather match into a program that you know something about, but have to move for it, or suffer through the SOAP process to maybe land a spot in a program you know nothing about, and have to move?

Counting on open spots of any kind in SOAP, in a specific place is a recipe for disaster.

 

[rokshana]

The number and variety of terrible ideas that Match applicants can come up with continues to amaze me.

Ask yourself this: would you rather match into a program that you know something about, but have to move for it, or suffer through the SOAP process to maybe land a spot in a program you know nothing about, and have to move?

Counting on open spots of any kind in SOAP, in a specific place is a recipe for disaster.

or lose your advanced spot because you were unable to SOAP into a prelim surg spot because you did not rank the prelim spots not he west coast...

 

[IMPD]

or lose your advanced spot because you were unable to SOAP into a prelim surg spot because you did not rank the prelim spots not he west coast...

Surgery prelim is for sure the easiest to count on, but rolling the dice on a specific geographic location is foolish

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Looking at last year's results, there were about 20 prelim GS positions open in SOAP in Chicago. However, 16 of them were at Rush, with the remainder in other programs. If you applied to Rush Prelim GS and didn't get an interview, they may not consider you in SOAP, and you'd really have a tough time getting a spot. Rush had 15 open spots the year beforehand, so a large number of open spots there seems likely.

But, in the end, it depends on how important being in Chicago is. If it's "really, really important", especially if something new has come up since you applied (so you didn't apply to chicago programs, but now you want one badly), then it's a reasonable risk. In fact, you could contact Rush on Monday and see if they would be willing to rank you sight unseen -- sounds like they are going to be in SOAP anyway, so they might be happy to just match you. That might be the best option.

 

[MSMSM2018]

Thank you all so much for your help and guidance!

 

[Quizlet04]

I am in a slightly worse boat. I only got 2 prelim interviews. I am ranking 17 programs, three of which are advanced and all of which are in my top 7. I am terrified of failing to SOAP into a prelim anything but I don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering what if...

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Something seems wrong. You received 14 categorical and 3 advanced interviews, but only 2 prelims? Your prior posting makes it clear you're applying to Anesthesia, US grad, Step 1 210. You should be able to get prelim interviews, esp in GS.

 

[rokshana]

anesthesia doesn't require prelim GS...you can do prelim IM, and a TY as well...did you not apply to those? To how many prelim places did you apply?

 

[Quizlet04]

Something seems wrong. You received 14 categorical and 3 advanced interviews, but only 2 prelims? Your prior posting makes it clear you're applying to Anesthesia, US grad, Step 1 210. You should be able to get prelim interviews, esp in GS.

I applied to 50 transitional and 40 pre-surgery only to realize at the last minute that the pre-surgery didn't have all of my information loaded up. But yeah. I passed all of my classes, had good letters of recommendation, and in addition to that 210 on Step 1 I got a 249 on Step 2. I'm not sure what happened but they didn't want to interview me.

I actually got 20 interviews and turned down one for personal reasons (a funeral on the day of and no way to reschedule), one because I didn't want to go there, and what I went to but refused to rank because the program was so toxic.

 

[medstudent 1234]

I applied to 50 transitional and 40 pre-surgery only to realize at the last minute that the pre-surgery didn't have all of my information loaded up. But yeah. I passed all of my classes, had good letters of recommendation, and in addition to that 210 on Step 1 I got a 249 on Step 2. I'm not sure what happened but they didn't want to interview me.

I actually got 20 interviews and turned down one for personal reasons (a funeral on the day of and no way to reschedule), one because I didn't want to go there, and what I went to but refused to rank because the program was so toxic.

Dear Quizlet04,
I hope all is well. I found your post on SDN about prelim surgery soap. You have similar stats to me regarding step 1/2 and I wanted to ask you a few questions about your experience about the interview process. Would you be willing to answer a few questions I have about the entire process? I tried to PM you but your messages are turned off.