2021 VIRMP MATCH!!

Started by cheathac
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Has anyone in the past who has been in this situation have tips on knowing when interviews go/don't go well? Or how much the interview it taken into account in program rankings? Just curious and want more insight if I can tell if my interviews are going well or not! 🤣
 
cheathac said:
Has anyone in the past who has been in this situation have tips on knowing when interviews go/don't go well? Or how much the interview it taken into account in program rankings? Just curious and want more insight if I can tell if my interviews are going well or not! 🤣
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I feel like that’s super subjective based on your own interpretation of the interview and also the individual school, right?

March 1st will be here soon enough🙂
 
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Yeah I can't read interviews well at all. I mostly just ramble and tell jokes and hope they found them funny :laugh: I do sometimes think it's a good sign if they nod a lot while they write things down, but that's mostly something I decided arbitrarily a long time ago

But yeah, I've honestly had interviews I felt GREAT about where the people apparently hated me (I only knew some of these specifically because they were something for res life and I looked at the interview sheets after) and others I thought went really badly where the interviewers were really impressed. I just try my best to be prepared and to represent myself in an authentic way. Interviews are just as much about you checking out the sites as they are about the sites checking out you, so even if an interview doesn't go well sometimes it's just more telling that the culture at the place doesn't vibe well with you and it might not be a good fit.
 
vetmedhead said:
Yeah I can't read interviews well at all. I mostly just ramble and tell jokes and hope they found them funny :laugh: I do sometimes think it's a good sign if they nod a lot while they write things down, but that's mostly something I decided arbitrarily a long time ago
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I always try to get them laughing, and I think it helps. I had one fantastic interview early on this cycle where I had them cracking up throughout (while still answering all of the questions and making sure everything worked out well). I love the random questions in interviews, especially if I get a moment to geek out and show excitement.

3 weeks! It’ll be here before we know it!
 
One of the interns here was talking about creating a scramble plan??? Like meeting with your mentor to have them also get in contact with hospitals to verbally vouch for you. Does anyone have one? I need to talk with my mentor but I’m slightly concerned now that I don’t have one.
 
cdo96 said:
One of the interns here was talking about creating a scramble plan??? Like meeting with your mentor to have them also get in contact with hospitals to verbally vouch for you. Does anyone have one? I need to talk with my mentor but I’m slightly concerned now that I don’t have one.
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Nah, it's called the scramble because it's chaos. It'll work out though, don't worry!
 
cdo96 said:
One of the interns here was talking about creating a scramble plan??? Like meeting with your mentor to have them also get in contact with hospitals to verbally vouch for you. Does anyone have one? I need to talk with my mentor but I’m slightly concerned now that I don’t have one.
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I haven’t actually thought that far ahead. I’m still working out how to rank schools lolol

So I definitely don’t have a plan but I do have a mentor who I’m sure would do that for me...so I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it haha
 
cdo96 said:
One of the interns here was talking about creating a scramble plan??? Like meeting with your mentor to have them also get in contact with hospitals to verbally vouch for you. Does anyone have one? I need to talk with my mentor but I’m slightly concerned now that I don’t have one.
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I was worried about this too, so I asked support. VIRMP will send your application and letters to anyone who has open positions in the scramble! No extra work needed. If you want to apply to places outside VIRMP for the scramble, you can download your application packet and send them that. The one thing that would be a PITA would be getting the letters sent over again, but you could have your letter writers send them directly or use a third party handling system to store and send, that way you can send them to a lot of places without bothering the writers. But it most likely won't have to come to that, since as mentioned before VIRMP is still centralized for the scramble too.
 
I also wouldn't worry much about the scramble for internships if you end up having to go through it. Yes it's stressful at the time, but I think the best thing you can do is check yourself if places you applied to still have unmatched spots (it will show up on their VIRMP page as " # Positions Available" or something along those lines) and if it's somewhere you want to go, email them ASAP!

I scrambled during my internship application, and I had TONS of places that still had open spots emailing and calling me on Match day, and a few days after. You will definitely have options, even if they aren't ones you were planning on. I lucked out and my #1 choice still somehow had 4 unmatched spots (I think they said there was a weird glitch that year because that's pretty much unheard of for an academic institution) and I just emailed the listed contact right away and got a spot!
 
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Was going to say, from the people I've met who had to scramble for internships specifically their phones blew up almost instantly and they had a lot of options available to them. The people who had a hard time finding a place to match were typically ones who were extremely location restricted in terms of where they were willing to go. I was told one of the bigger things was really just remembering to still be selective when the scramble is happening, since you still want to make sure you're going to a place that's a good fit for you.
 
vetmedhead said:
Was going to say, from the people I've met who had to scramble for internships specifically their phones blew up almost instantly and they had a lot of options available to them. The people who had a hard time finding a place to match were typically ones who were extremely location restricted in terms of where they were willing to go. I was told one of the bigger things was really just remembering to still be selective when the scramble is happening, since you still want to make sure you're going to a place that's a good fit for you.
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Blown up via email or via phone? Do you have to accept the first place that offers you a spot?

my patient is the one with a pheochromocytoma and yet I’m the one with a catecholamine storm right now. :laugh:
 
cdo96 said:
Blown up via email or via phone? Do you have to accept the first place that offers you a spot?

my patient is the one with a pheochromocytoma and yet I’m the one with a catecholamine storm right now. :laugh:
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My phone was blowing up with both calls and emails all day long. You don't have to accept the first place that offers you a spot, but just have to keep in mind that they are reaching out to lots of people so spots may not stick around.
 
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cdo96 said:
Blown up via email or via phone? Do you have to accept the first place that offers you a spot?
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You don’t have to accept any place, but the scramble isn’t a process where you get days to decide. If a program offers you a spot the expectation is that you pretty much accept or decline right then. You don’t want to go somewhere you will be miserable, but you also won’t have days to vet the practice. In that sense it can be good to decide ahead of time what you’re willing to accept and what you’re not. You don’t have to take the first place that offers, but you can’t guarantee you’ll get another offer. And offer 1 may not be available anymore after lunch if you try waiting out for other offers. For me I knew if I didn’t match I was just going to do GP for a year and not bother with the scramble, but for someone pursuing another specialty, they may be willing to go almost anywhere.

I did a quick google and this seems like a decent article of things to consider.
vetducator.com

Six Steps to Win the Scramble - The Vetducator

You applied through the match for an internship or residency- great job! Now, 8am on match day has come and gone, and you are without a matched position. You still want to do an internship or residency, and there are programs which did not fill all their positions. What do you do now? Now...
vetducator.com vetducator.com
 
Is the scramble something seen wtih residencies as well or mainly with internships? Like have people done the scramble with lab animal residenies? @Lab Vet did you say you scrambled once? Couldn't quite remember so I apologize if wrong but would appreciate any insight you have
 
It can happen with residencies. I do know of some lab animal residents that had to go through the process. Some scrambled and got into residencies that go through the match. There are also, in lab animal, there are programs (internships and some residencies) outside the match that will take applicants that didn’t match somewhere. From what I’ve heard, it’s stressful process, but that there is still some hope of landing somewhere along the lab animal path.
 
cheathac said:
Is the scramble something seen wtih residencies as well or mainly with internships? Like have people done the scramble with lab animal residenies? @Lab Vet did you say you scrambled once? Couldn't quite remember so I apologize if wrong but would appreciate any insight you have
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One of the Primate vets I talked to at Davis said she had to do the scramble because she was applying only to residencies that were very primate focused and she didn’t match. So she called up UCD and they had a spot so she went!
 
Golden Eagle 12 said:
It can happen with residencies. I do know of some lab animal residents that had to go through the process. Some scrambled and got into residencies that go through the match. There are also, in lab animal, there are programs (internships and some residencies) outside the match that will take applicants that didn’t match somewhere. From what I’ve heard, it’s stressful process, but that there is still some hope of landing somewhere along the lab animal path.
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Good to know! Thanks for your insight, it really helps 🙂
 
cheathac said:
Is the scramble something seen wtih residencies as well or mainly with internships? Like have people done the scramble with lab animal residenies? @Lab Vet did you say you scrambled once? Couldn't quite remember so I apologize if wrong but would appreciate any insight you have
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I know three people that have scrambled for lab animal residencies; two ended up at Penn, one ended up at UF
 
I haven't heard back from a few of the places that I have applied to for a surgical internship ( 2 private practice and 1 academic). Would it be frowned upon for me to reach out and ask if they interview?

Thank you!
 
vetmedhead said:
Interviews are just as much about you checking out the sites as they are about the sites checking out you, so even if an interview doesn't go well sometimes it's just more telling that the culture at the place doesn't vibe well with you and it might not be a good fit.
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This is super important to remember! A "bad" interview may not mean you did anything "wrong," but rather it's just not a good match for your personality and the program's culture. It's going to be anywhere from a year to upwards of 5 in a rigorous program, you're going to want to make sure you like the program as much as they like you.

Also, just put in my first draft rank order. What a weird mix of excitement, second guessing, and nervousness haha
 
noahmishkin said:
This is super important to remember! A "bad" interview may not mean you did anything "wrong," but rather it's just not a good match for your personality and the program's culture. It's going to be anywhere from a year to upwards of 5 in a rigorous program, you're going to want to make sure you like the program as much as they like you.

Also, just put in my first draft rank order. What a weird mix of excitement, second guessing, and nervousness haha
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I'm excited to hopefully have you as a colleague in the lab animal field!
 
cheathac said:
Is the scramble something seen wtih residencies as well or mainly with internships? Like have people done the scramble with lab animal residenies? @Lab Vet did you say you scrambled once? Couldn't quite remember so I apologize if wrong but would appreciate any insight you have
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I know it's already been answered but yep, scrambling happens for residencies as well.
Golden Eagle 12 said:
It can happen with residencies. I do know of some lab animal residents that had to go through the process. Some scrambled and got into residencies that go through the match. There are also, in lab animal, there are programs (internships and some residencies) outside the match that will take applicants that didn’t match somewhere. From what I’ve heard, it’s stressful process, but that there is still some hope of landing somewhere along the lab animal path.
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This.

Remember the match is an algorithm, so not matching somewhere (or a program not matching) is not a reflection of the candidates or the programs necessarily, it just means that the math didn't work out for whatever reason. Maybe the candidate was the #2 choice at multiple institutions that all just happened to match with their #1 choices or vice versa. It's always a good idea to have a rough plan for scrambling, even if its unlikely you'll need to. I don't think scrambling for residency (at least for lab animal) is quite as time sensitive as it may be for internships, though that may depend on the institution.
 
Can I just clone myself and do 10 different internships spontaneously? I have 1-3 solid, and then 4-10 I really like and I want to go to all of them. :laugh: I can’t pick :scared:
 
cdo96 said:
Can I just clone myself and do 10 different internships spontaneously? I have 1-3 solid, and then 4-10 I really like and I want to go to all of them. :laugh: I can’t pick :scared:
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I recommend a March Madness style bracket system resolved by coin flips 😉
 
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mmmdreamerz said:
I was just sayin today that I might make my rank order list using coin flip. I’m only sort of kidding lolol
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If you really can't decide, then honestly it seems like a fair strategy :laugh: plus could reveal some subconscious emotions if you find yourself disappointed by the results of the flip
 
WildZoo said:
If you really can't decide, then honestly it seems like a fair strategy :laugh: plus could reveal some subconscious emotions if you find yourself disappointed by the results of the flip
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I’m a horrific decision maker when it comes to my own life choices lolol
 
cdo96 said:
But like only one person would be doing the internship so it wouldn’t be different than regular! But then I get the knowledge and connections of 10 internships!!
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The fact that what you would do if you had 9 clones is do 10 internships rather than dividing the work of one or two internships among all your clones is very concerning to me.
 
cdo96 said:
But like only one person would be doing the internship so it wouldn’t be different than regular! But then I get the knowledge and connections of 10 internships!!
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finnickthedog said:
The fact that what you would do if you had 9 clones is do 10 internships rather than dividing the work of one or two internships among all your clones is very concerning to me.
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And this, kids, is how we define insanity
 
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Anyone else have a first choice in their head for months and then interview last minute for another program and feel completely torn? 😭😂
 
finnickthedog said:
The fact that what you would do if you had 9 clones is do 10 internships rather than dividing the work of one or two internships among all your clones is very concerning to me.
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well how would I explain that to the hospital? Why there are multiple Cdo’s running around

vetmedhead said:
And this, kids, is how we define insanity
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let the record state that I never claimed I was sane in the first place

Alright, I’ll concede. If I had 9 clones (Aka there were 10 of us) , I would only do 8 internships so that way two of them are constantly going around giving the other 8 a break from time to time
 
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