Should I reapply?

[turboyoshi]

Ok everyone, I would really appreciate your feedback on this. I have been back and forth on this so many times that I lost count. After not matching, I choose a less competitive field and a backup for this upcoming cycle. In the meantime I am getting my MPH in epi.

Everyday I find myself wondering whether or not I should go all out again and reapply..

What do you think my realistic chances are? Should I do it? Would you do it?

My stats:
step 1: 232
step 2: 250
Grades: All High Pass and a few Honors (This really hurt me.)
1 first author rad onc pub
3 rad onc presentations (middle author)
2 radiology publications (middle author)
3 radonc aways, with great letters
MS
MPH

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[kristofer]

Your grades are step scores are ok. Why didn't you do a prelim year? There have been by my count 6 post-match 2015 PGY-2 positions available since March (not including the one in the SOAP). If you had done a prelim year you could have potentially snagged one of these. The best route for people who don't match seems to be doing the prelim year and looking for out of the match positions. When these positions are posted, they are flooded with applications from FMGs and people switching from other fields like radiology. Being a recent US MD grad who has research and demonstrated interest in rad onc puts you in the short list of potential candidates.

I am guessing that your second choice specialty is radiology. There are typically a lot of these positions in the SOAP. Given that you still have to do the intern year, I don't think it would be unreasonable to apply again to rad-onc and rank prelim years on your primary list. If you don't match rad-onc, you could then decide to try to SOAP into radiology or try for out of the match rad-onc positions. Either way you will be doing the intern year.

 

[turboyoshi]

Unfortunately, I put only a few preliminaries on my primary rank list. My plan was to do medicine if I did not match, so I only put high-powered IM prelim programs on the end of my primary list. I thought that I could do better reapplying than trying to salvage a residency by doing a pgy-1 and then trying to squeeze into a pgy-2 medicine/radiology/etc whenever one was available.

Running out of residency funding was also a concern and I was afraid that it would be a major handicap in finding a residency. In retrospect, maybe I should have added those other prelims to my primary rank order list. I have a low risk-tolerance, especially after not matching. My plan was to apply for radiology with a categorical medicine backup.

It has been a crazy and expensive process. While I received some serious consideration from 2 RO programs post-soap, nothing panned out. Maybe not having a solid preliminary hurt me.

 

[kristofer]

Prelim years do not count towards your residency funding cap. The clock doesn't start ticking until you begin a terminal residency track. Yes, you will need to have a prelim year lined up for programs to take you seriously after the match. If rad onc is what you want to do, then I think you should focus on it. Radiology and IM are two very different specialties. You can probably find a funded postdoc position that will build your resume and make you a stronger rad onc applicant. You might want to apply to some of these along with rad onc programs. But...

There have been a lot of threads on this. Positions open up throughout the year. It sounds like you have a solid application, and if you are patient and do a prelim year next year, you have a decent chance of getting a spot to start the following July. You might get it 14 months before the start date, you might get it 1 week before the start date. Worst case, since you said you like IM, you can do the prelim year and then continue on into a pgy-2 IM position somewhere (ideally at the same place). Basically, an IM prelim gives you the option to either apply for oepn rad onc positions, apply for open radiology positions, or continue on into categorical IM, which are exactly the three specialties you said you are interested in. You really can't go wrong by doing the IM prelim next year.

 

[turboyoshi]

Thanks for the response Kristofer, I had no idea that prelims didn't count towards our cap. I would have ranked them all and considered more prelims in the soap rather than do the mph/epidemiology. Radonc is number one by far, while radiology vs IM(possibly heme onc) were more attainable possibilities.