What should I do? Went Unmatched

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MadHopsMD

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I need SDN's help. I am in a unique situation.

My stats:

-Graduated from a US allopathic school
-Canadian who needs a J1 Visa
-Did a one year residency at Ob/Gyn at an Academic institution, but decided to leave. Program director of my old program wrote me a favorable reference
-Average US step 1 and 2 for family medicine

This year I applied to 50 programs, got 13 interviews, went to 8 and ranked 8. Most were highly competitive in the West coast and academic only. I was shocked but humbled that I did not match. Most of the feedback I got from interviewers were amazing. I even got "we will rank you high on our list" letters from 3 places. But oh well...

Since I resigned from my former residency I have been in one of the Central America countries working and providing medical care. It's been a fantastic experience. However, I am back now...and confused as to what will give me the best chance to match into a family medicine residency. As I see it my options are:

1) Keep doing work in the Central American country.
2) Write my Step 3
3) Get a MPH, MBA
4) Work in the US as observership. Maybe at my former medical school.

I am definitely going to apply WIDELY this time, and will go to ALL the interviews I am fortunate to get. However, I want to put myself in the best situation possible. I have couple red flags already the biggest of which are 1) Resigning from a previous program 2) Canadian national citizen 3) By the time I start residency I will be 2 years out from practicing medicine in the states.

Please can you help. I am so lost and confused.

P.S I am in a good financial position, so I can do any options.

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Options 1 and 3 will only put you further out from medical school which makes it even harder to match.

I would probably work on getting Step 3 completed so you can have your Steps done in a timely manner.

Getting in touch with your medical school may be helpful, specifically the FM department. See if you can talk to that PD.. But when you reapply, apply WIDELY and go on every interview possible.
 
Apply to some non academic, community programs widely all over the country. You will match.
 
I rather do Step 3 when i am in residency. I feel I'll do better. Plus I am so afraid i will do bad, and be stuck. During my international travels, i was doing tons of medicine. so even though i was away from medical school, i was learning medicine...
 
What were your Step scores?
Why did you leave your initial residency program?
Did you actually complete your intern year, or did you resign prior to June 30th?
Did you apply to a wide variety of programs (academic and community)?
 
I rather do Step 3 when i am in residency. I feel I'll do better. Plus I am so afraid i will do bad, and be stuck. During my international travels, i was doing tons of medicine. so even though i was away from medical school, i was learning medicine...

To be honest, you should have done Step 3 during your initial intern year when you were in an OB GYN residency.
 
-Step 1 and 2 were 210.
-I left my residency because it was a mutual understanding that obgyn was not for me. I did remediation and passed successfully. but in the end obgyn was not for me. i miss family med. the program director again wrote me a favourable letter. program directors while interviewing have told me so.
-Yes i completed my pgy 1 year, they gave me a certificate that says so.
-I was going to take Step 3 but my head was not in the right place to study for an exam and work 6 days a week as an intern. Especially since during my intern year, i was suffering from loss of my mother (all of a sudden with no warning). She died 1 week before i started residency.


-No i did not apply widely. That was my mistake. Also I found it difficult because lots of programs dont offer J1 visas. So programs I did apply maybe 40 that offer J1 visa. Out of that i got 13 interviews..
 
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Most were highly competitive in the West coast and academic only.

There's your mistake right there. The residency match was brutal this year. Although Family Medicine may be less competitive, the academic programs in popular metropolitan areas are very competitive, especially on the West Coast. They get the pick of who they want. They do not need to resort to DO's, FMG's, IMG's, non-traditionals, etc. to fill out their numbers.

I'm sure everyone wants to do their residency in Hollywood, although I can guarantee you that your $50K a year won't buy the lifestyle you see on 90210 or whatever. You'll be doing call not hanging out on the beach. Maybe you don't want to spend 3 years at a no-name community hospital in some place like Mobile, AL or Green Bay, WI or whatever. But is that worth the cost of going unmatched?

People need to be brutally honest about the residency match process. Instead of looking at it in terms of what you want (in terms of specialty choice, prestige, location, etc.), you need to look at it in terms of whose actually going to rank you. Who would take me, ahead of some other candidate? Folks don't want to hear that, but with the glut of "I have good stats, didn't match" threads on these forums, medical candidates need to be much smarter about the match so that they don't end up as one of the increasingly large number of MD's that are squeezed out with a useless degree, no job, and $200K in debt in this process.
 
It wont happen again. I'll go where ever they will take me. I just want to put my degree to good use: for the service of people.

Canada will not let me apply because I did a PGY1 year in the first round (they have two rounds, the second one is after the American match).
 
Do a preventive medicine residency that will give you an MPH. You can at least be board eligible/certified then work in primary care, occupational medicine, or public health while you try to get into family med.

Lots of preventive med tied with family residencies. From what I hear, lots of unfilled spots too.
 
I need SDN's help. I am in a unique situation.
This year I applied to 50 programs, got 13 interviews, went to 8 and ranked 8. Most were highly competitive in the West coast and academic only. I was shocked but humbled that I did not match. Most of the feedback I got from interviewers were amazing. I even got "we will rank you high on our list" letters from 3 places. But oh well...

This year about 500 US grads didn't match at all. Next year that number will be even higher (more med schools opening up; class sizes increasing).
I would just take Step 3 and apply next year to 100 residencies (and avoid the competitive ones, it will be just a waste of application). Find residencies that didn't match or have trouble matching. Look at their websites and choose ones that seem to have many IMG/FMG residents. Apply to locations other than CA and East Coat.
 
Also try and find all the fm residencies that did not fill at match....there must have been some
 
Wanted to bump this thread for people with similar situation as me. Leaving a residency is hard. Not matching and soap is harder. But its not the end of the world.

I ended up a re-applicant and had success the second time around (third time if you count my first residency). Never give up hope.

Things I did during my year off:
- I went to all 26 interviews I got. Ranked all of them. Expensive but so worth it.
- Did research at my school.
- Will be traveling aboard for a medical mission next week (yahoo!!)

I am happy with where I ended up!!! And I missed medicine so much, that I am looking forward to being an intern again. Wish you all the best and I could not have done it without the advice and support I got from this board. I will try to retain the favor by continuing to give advice with the best of my ability in the future.
 
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Here are my stats:

American citizen (born and raised)
Graduated from allopathic American medical school >5 years ago
Received MBA at the same time
Finished Prelim year in internal medicine >5 years ago
Left medicine for completely different career after internship
Step 1 > 230
Step 2 CK, Step 3 - just above 200 at first attempt
Step 2 CS - Passed on my 3rd attempt
I finished two observerships during this year's interview cycle

This year, I applied to 37 anesthesia programs, interviewed and ranked 5. I matched. Based on my experience, doing an observership can be helpful. I was able to get an interview at an institution that had previously rejected me during this year's interview cycle. That institution is #1 on my ROL. I am not sure if taking Step 3 will help, especially if your score isn't better than Step 1 or Step 2 CK. I have an MBA, but I think interviewers found me interesting because of what I did with the degree. I would not remain in Central America if you want to return to the US.
 
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madhopsmd matched this year - he was trying to encourage others who may not have matched this year by bumping this thread.
 
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Here are my stats:

American citizen (born and raised)
Graduated from allopathic American medical school >5 years ago
Received MBA at the same time
Finished Prelim year in internal medicine >5 years ago
Left medicine for completely different career after internship
Step 1 > 230
Step 2 CK, Step 3 - just above 200 at first attempt
Step 2 CS - Passed on my 3rd attempt
I finished two observerships during this year's interview cycle

This year, I applied to 37 anesthesia programs, interviewed and ranked 5. I matched. Based on my experience, doing an observership can be helpful. I was able to get an interview at an institution that had previously rejected me during this year's interview cycle. That institution is #1 on my ROL. I am not sure if taking Step 3 will help, especially if your score isn't better than Step 1 or Step 2 CK. I have an MBA, but I think interviewers found me interesting because of what I did with the degree. I would not remain in Central America if you want to return to the US.

Congrats, Cognitus! Hats off to you. Have a couple questions for you, would you mind to shoot me a PM? I'd send you a msg myself, but the new format doesn't seem to make it so easy.
 
Your story goes to show that dedication, working hard, and importantly -- working SMART -- yields results. You figured out exactly what you needed to do and executed that plan despite the effort and sacrifices it required. All the congrats and best wishes for you.
 
MadHopsMD beat me to it, but after having went unmatched last year due to multiple red flags and then following it up with a matched result this year, I also wanted to share my efforts from the past year in an effort to provide encouragement and share my experience for anyone in similar position, and of course to also thank those of you who provided me with valuable feedback. Thank you. I won't bother bumping another thread or else we might end up with multiple similar copies, but here is a link to a similar thread I had started last year: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...-family-med-any-advice-for-next-time.1019163/

Here's what I did. I made large efforts to seek out extensive advising from my Medical School administration and department head, and in doing so feel I really earned their support which you will see really paid back in multiple factors later. I think I also emailed the handful of PDs I'd interviewed with in my first time through the match, thanking them for my prior interview but telling them of my situation and letting them know I was looking for openings if they happened to hear anything over the coming months. In doing this, one PD even invited me to sit down with them again to brainstorm ideas and provide me with advising, including feedback on my application and my prior interviewing skills. I spent most of the spring and summer working part-time on a study for the clinical research department of medical school. I was fortunate when my Medical School, having had an unusually high number of unmatched students in the 2013 match compared to normal (I never heard any exact numbers but have gotten the impression it might have been along the lines of 5% when it had previously typically been around 1%?), decided to offer us the opportunity to postpone our graduation from May to December. This was clearly valuable as it allowed me to maintain my clinical experience and patient contact during the summer and fall by continuing to do clinical rotations, not to mention provided me with continued financial aid support. I realize this may not be an option for many depending on the support of their institution, but may be something worth asking for as I believe it was critical for me. I unfortunately found it was near impossible to get clinical experiences prior to getting this opportunity, as even free clinics, volunteer clinics, and student-run clinics were unable to provide me with opportunities due to lack of liability coverage without being an enrolled student. My Medical School also did multiple mock interviews with me to provide me with feedback on my performance. During any weeks throughout the fall that I did not spend on clerkships, I was hired to work full-time as a hands-on teaching assistant to 1st year medical students in their human anatomy lab and in the course where they are taught their interviewing and physical exam skills.

Regarding the application season, I increased my applications from 20 applications in 7 states, to 121 applications across the country. I received 26 interview offers, took 24 of them (in 10 different states), and ranked all interviews I went to. I ended up matching with a program towards the higher end of my list (coincidentally one of 4 programs that I interviewed with each year but had not matched with in the first attempt!). Between application costs and travel costs, this increased my expenses from approximately $500 the first attempt to probably on the order of $9000 the 2nd time around. However I realized this is what it was going to take to match, and the result has made all of the effort worth it.

Best of luck to anyone unfortunate enough to be in this position this year, I know the feeling and my heart goes out to you. I hope in sharing some potential ideas and insight on the application process I've been able to give back and help someone for next year.
 
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