Anyone got the D.O. perspective on the miserable match this year?

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I have been hearing the match this year was particularly bad. Whats going on with this from the DO perspective? I see that approx. 60-70% of D.O.s who apply to allo residencies match. What happens to the other 30-40%. Is this including those who did osteo residencies or are these people out of luck. Thanks in advance.
 
Yes, the 30-40% match DO. In the Ostoe forum I have seen some pretty good matches for DO's into Allo-residencies. I think for the FMG and IMG, it was a really tough match year.
 
Plenty of people who don't match will land good spots in the scramble.
 
So when DOs apply for residencies, can they apply to both osteo and allo residencies at the same time? Or, I have heard that if you want to do allo residency, you can only apply allo otherwise if you put osteos on your list, you will automatically be matched with an osteo position. Then, if you don't match into an allo residency if that is al you apply to, you would then scramble for an osteo residency spot? Or, can you indeed apply for both at the same time, but just rank your allos higher if that is what you want to do? I hope this makes sense to someone. Thanks!😀
 
The osteo match is before the allo match, and like with the allo match, when you match, you are contractually obligated to train at that program. Thus, you will automatically be withdrawn from the allo match.

The good news is that if you've got your eye on a specific allo program, you can work out a pre-match agreement with them, and if you nail that down you can forego both matches. I do not believe MD students have this option. At least not technically. There are plenty of similar arrangements made, unofficially, I believe.

At least that's my understanding of it. I'll have a better feel for the whole thing in a few years.
 
Okay that makes much more sense. Thanks...

And then if you apply to only allo (without any prearrangements), and don't match, I'd assume you'd then scramble for an osteo slot?
 
You'd scramble for whatever you can find. It won't necessarily be an osteo slot. More likely, an allo slot, since there are a lot more allo programs. Everyone I've heard of from my school who scrambled ended up allo. But we're talking about a small sample size here, so I really don't know. Your school would help you do this. That is, people from your school will have some connections, and make a few calls for you. You won't be on your own to do this, and you might very well end up with a pretty good spot somewhere.

Also, don't think that allopathic offers better training across the board. There are some osteo programs that compare favorably with just about anyone. Familiarize yourself with names like Lehigh Valley Hospital (PA) and Doctor's Hospital (Columbus, OH), for example.

And don't think that places like Harvard, Hopkins, and Stanford (i.e., big names) necessarily offer the best training for what you want to do. It looks pretty on match lists, and it may have something specific that makes it a good fit for the applicant who matched there, but there are A LOT of places that offer good training.
 
TexasTriathlete said:
You'd scramble for whatever you can find. It won't necessarily be an osteo slot. More likely, an allo slot, since there are a lot more allo programs. Everyone I've heard of from my school who scrambled ended up allo. But we're talking about a small sample size here, so I really don't know. Your school would help you do this. That is, people from your school will have some connections, and make a few calls for you. You won't be on your own to do this, and you might very well end up with a pretty good spot somewhere.
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How many people from your school had to scramble?
 
Our first graduating class went through the match this year, and generally did very well, from what I've heard. People are excited about two of the four allo radiology spots at MCG going to our grads. Some good military matches too. Other than that, I don't know a lot of specifics, and I do not know how many people ended up in the scramble.
 
I really do not think the match was that miserable this year. Many people from my school did very well and i only know about a few people who had to scramble. This year programs got smarter about interviewing and ranking more people and therefore there was less available in the scramble. The people who end up scrambling will generally have an unrealistic view of their application for a certain specialty and noback up plans
 
JonnyG said:
I really do not think the match was that miserable this year. Many people from my school did very well and i only know about a few people who had to scramble. This year programs got smarter about interviewing and ranking more people and therefore there was less available in the scramble. The people who end up scrambling will generally have an unrealistic view of their application for a certain specialty and noback up plans
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Only 93% of U.S. allo students matched this year. That number was 98% last year. I'd say that's miserable.
 
TexasTriathlete said:
Our first graduating class went through the match this year, and generally did very well, from what I've heard. People are excited about two of the four allo radiology spots at MCG going to our grads. Some good military matches too. Other than that, I don't know a lot of specifics, and I do not know how many people ended up in the scramble.
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Oh wow has is seriously been 4 years? Well in light of this I take back my comment. And I still think 93% is pretty damn good, can you imagine if 93% of applicants got into med school? Even though it's down from last year I have to say I like my chances
 
TeamZissou said:
Oh wow has is seriously been 4 years? Well in light of this I take back my comment. And I still think 93% is pretty damn good, can you imagine if 93% of applicants got into med school? Even though it's down from last year I have to say I like my chances
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The difference is that the people who don't get into med school can then do something else with their lives. Once you've gone through four years of med school and realize that you have no residency (ie no license), what are you going to do? And I'm not talking about the tough specialties either. People were shut out of many of the less competitive specialties this year, both DO's and MD's.
 
MedStudentWanna said:
The difference is that the people who don't get into med school can then do something else with their lives. Once you've gone through four years of med school and realize that you have no residency (ie no license), what are you going to do? And I'm not talking about the tough specialties either. People were shut out of many of the less competitive specialties this year, both DO's and MD's.
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It's not as if it is the end of the world. If you don't match you can try to scramble for the remaining unfilled categorical spots (there won't be many left in competitive specialties), you can enter into a prelim year or take a year off to do research and reapply. Hell I know a guy who took the year off and reapplied the next year.

My point is that yes while 98% is better than 93%, I'm confident that remaining 7% wasn't just screwed and I'm sure they found something to do. It's not like they have NO options if they don't match. Albeit they aren't the preferred options but they don't just sit at home and play video games contemplating what other type of a career they should pursue.
 
TeamZissou said:
It's not as if it is the end of the world. If you don't match you can try to scramble for the remaining unfilled categorical spots (there won't be many left in competitive specialties), you can enter into a prelim year or take a year off to do research and reapply. Hell I know a guy who took the year off and reapplied the next year.

My point is that yes while 98% is better than 93%, I'm confident that remaining 7% wasn't just screwed and I'm sure they found something to do. It's not like they have NO options if they don't match. Albeit they aren't the preferred options but they don't just sit at home and play video games contemplating what other type of a career they should pursue.
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I'm sure that's consolation.
 
I think it was Taus that said you need to look at Allo preliminaries because those aren't reported in match statistics. That said, the %age goes up. But, of course, being in a preliminary spot is not nearly ideal as categorical from my understanding.
 
Bacchus said:
I think it was Taus that said you need to look at Allo preliminaries because those aren't reported in match statistics. That said, the %age goes up. But, of course, being in a preliminary spot is not nearly ideal as categorical from my understanding.
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other way around:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=7927906&postcount=28

Several of my classmates were also included in the "unmatched" category for a variety of other reasons, though they are fully matched for their entire residencies. Some of these are outlined in that same thread as my post above.

Bottom line: statistics can be very misleading and the overwhelming majority of DO's are matched for residency.
 
TexasTriathlete said:
Plenty of people who don't match will land good spots in the scramble.
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This is definitely not true. I helped a friend of mine scramble (who is an excellent student), and I can say that it was definitely one of the worst experiences to go through. Most of the time, you don't get through to places, you fax fax fax, call call call and keep your fingers crossed that someone answers on the other end. There are thousands of other people doing the same thing you are, and it's basically a time race. I hope everyone doesn't think that you can just waltz into the great spot of your choice, because that's not the case for the majority of the time.
 
That's not what I meant. Also "good spot" is a relative term.
 
match2009-1.jpg
 
TeamZissou said:
PCOM-GA hasn't graduated a class yet, so they didn't have any students trying to match.
Click to expand...
Their first class are seniors though....so they should have matched for the coming year.
 
tkim said:
match2009-1.jpg
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Only 48% of IMGs who are US citizens end up getting a residency spot in the U.S.?? What happens to the other 52%?? 😱

I guess this shows you how much Carribean/International medical schools suck. :meanie:
 
Demas567 said:
Only 48% of IMGs who are US citizens end up getting a residency spot in the U.S.?? What happens to the other 52%?? 😱

I guess this shows you how much Carribean/International medical schools suck. :meanie:
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or the bias against them in the match
 
People will go where they want to go. But for me, this reaffirms why I will not be an IMG.
 
Doesn't the same apply to matching as a DO? There seems to be a huge descrepency between matching as a MD compared to that as a DO.
 
proteolytic said:
Doesn't the same apply to matching as a DO? There seems to be a huge descrepency between matching as a MD compared to that as a DO.
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not really because it only shows matched pgy-1 when many DO students will stay in the osteopathic world for their intern year then go onto an allo specialty. PMR radiology and anesthesia are common occurrances. There is probably still a discrepancy but not as bad as it looks and still better then img
 
you're also forgetting that match rates vary between FMG schools. The most reputable schools (big 3/4) tour match rates in the 80's/90's, and while thee numbers were depressed this cycly, they were nowhere near 48%. DO schools still match at a higher rate than even the most reputable offshore schools though, + they have the DO match...
 
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