Anyone have any advice for a Phase II applicant?
In some ways this is feeling like a fresh start... but I'd also appreciate any input others may have to offer.
Anyone have a Phase II success story they'd be willing to share?
I thought I'd chime in here...
I went through Phase II the first year it was in existence (2 years ago). Excluding Match Day, I had a great Phase I experience. Lots of interviews, they went well (in my opinion), and then got "that" e-mail on Match Day. Felt incredibly frustrated and confused and upset. I found out after the fact that one of my sites ranked me #2 (I did not ask, they told me after the fact) so I was ONE PERSON away from matching in Phase I.
Went into Phase II and applied just about everywhere that fit with my interests (ended up applying to 21 sites). I got 6 interviews for 7 tracks (FWIW, that did not seem like the norm that year....seemed like 2-4 interviews was the norm. I don't know what it was like last year). Thought long and hard about how I was going to rank sites (do I go in order of what I really want? Or where I think my best chances are in terms of numbers? somewhere in between?). I ended up going with my heart and ranking in true order of preference. My top choice was one of the few APA spots and they only had 1 opening and that's where I ended up matching. I found out after the fact that they had 190+ applicants for that one spot in Phase II.
I say that because I felt so defeated throughout all of Phase II. The numbers were so much worse and people were applying everywhere (literally - at least one or two people applied to every single spot in Phase II) and somehow even though the odds were so much worse, I ended up with my top choice. I ended up having a GREAT internship experience and now I'm on postdoc at a site that I interviewed at in Phase I from that year.
The Phase II process sucks. It's better than clearinghouse in my opinion, but it's still incredibly stressful, plus you have the added factors of peers talking about the sites they matched with, people trying to help you who just end up making it worse, or worse yet - being unintentionally ignored because nobody knows what to do or say that will help. That on top of the stress of not knowing how Phase II will end up makes the coming weeks very difficult.
Get support from wherever it is that is helpful for you. In my experience, this time (right after the first Match Day) and the time in between submitting rankings and Match Day #2 were the absolute hardest times and I needed all the support I could get. Keep up with self-care, do fun things just because they're fun - give yourself a break from internship stuff every now and then, and take care of yourself!
I know it's frustrating but I just wanted to share to let people know that sometimes Phase II can work out for the best (yes, it's easier to say that in hindsight. Two years ago I was nothing more than a blubbering, frustrated, defeated pile of tears). I would not have traded my internship experience for any other site and I'm so thankful that I ended up there (to this day, I don't know why I didn't apply there in Phase I!!!!)
If it helps, I told myself over and over again that in the long run, it doesn't matter. I have my doctorate now and it is no different from the doctorate that my peers (who matched in Phase I) earned. There's no asterisk on my doctorate, there's no tiny fine print, mine is the same as everyone else from Phase I. I still matched. I just matched on a different day. Period.
