Damn, I am definitely going crazy. I just had a nightmare last night where I apparently didn't certify my rank list. Wouldn't that be just so so so sad?
I'm going to start the stats 2012 thread the early morning of 03-21-12 before I go on rounds. Going on rounds will be ridiculous if I check my email and it says "sorry, you have not matched. Please wait until noon EST for the unmatched list" I think I will just start crying...
I got my CV and letter of intent ready just so I could start flooding directors' email accounts around noon... =)
As an unmatched person from last year, some words of advice if you don't match!
If you're still on rotation, I would definitely discuss with your preceptor that match day is coming up. If you don't match, you will need the rest of the day off as it's a huge emotional blow AND you should be scrambling. Especially after ditzy girls in your class run into the pharmacy screeching about how they matched...rounds were awful. And even if you do match, you'll probably want to celebrate!
Obviously have your CV and a generic cover letter ready, as well as a prefilled form email that you can alter for each specific unmatched site. Everything else after that (LoR, records, etc) will come later.
When the list comes out, it's sorted by state, which is kind of annoying. It also has available openings and basic contact information. I didn't call, because I was worried i'd be "that guy", but since residency is so serious, I would get on the phone in retrospect.
Lower your expectations. You can look up my stats in last year's match thread, and in retrospect were not good enough for the big time. I had a couple options outside of residency, so I only applied to 6 top tier academic medical centers in good geographic areas during the scramble. There were a lot of lesser known names, smaller hospitals, and VAs last year that I think I could have scrambled to, but my mind wasn't open to it at the time. Now that I've been in practice for under a year and know what i've been capable of, I'm pretty confident that I could have a great residency at a lot of these places. Whether i'd want to live there or not is another issue altogether.
After reviewing last years list, some things stand out to me. Cali had a lot of openings, but is obviously the biggest state and will have the most competition. NYC alone had 10+ PGY1 positions, I assume due to cost of living and perceived hostility/licensing issues. In terms of how "good" the programs are...even though there were ~150 open positions, there were a decent amount of academic medical centers and VAs. Additionally, 2 out of the 6 unmatched programs that I emailed had more residency slots than anticipated (due to extra funding, etc), so you could luck out if you have the inside scoop.
After you mass spam emails to programs that you've heard of (and probably some you haven't), I would go over the list again with a higher up, like faculty or RPh coworker, as they may have connections to a particular site or know something you don't. Most involved faculty/preceptors have a lot of connections since they write all the LoRs and have been thru the process as well. In one case, an alum a couple years ahead of me emailed one of my preceptors that his site didn't match enough residents and to send anyone unmatched over.
Good luck and don't let the scramble discourage you if you don't match!
I know I sound like a baby but why force what was meant to be?
