AOA Match

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thedoguy705

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Worst case scenario during match: anyone know how hard it is to scramble into internal medicine? How many spots are typically open and how easy is it to get them? Anyone with prior experience scramble? Thanks guys.

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It's my understanding a lot of AOA IM programs have a few spots in the scramble. Some wait until after the ACGME match to grab people since they participate in both and probably get better candidates in the ACGME scramble. Program dependent.
 
Don’t some usually leave a few open to grab up the hot applicants that somehow don’t match into xyz competitive specialty?
 
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Don’t some usually leave a few open to grab up the hot applicants that somehow don’t match into xyz competitive specialty?
How do you leave some open? You submit a rank list. If they entirety matches, it's done and over with. AFAIK you can't choose to only allow a certain number of spots to be filled
 
Depends if the AOA match is "all in" or not. If not, and I have 10 spots, I might set my match quota for 8. But the price I pay is potentially losing 2 good people from my ROL. So it's a gamble either way. I expect most try to fill all, and then only scramble what's left.
 
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I'm a terrible applicant on paper that has only received 3 interviews with 1 comlex pe failure, is there any chance for me to match IM/FM during scramble because I think programs will not rank me even though I think I interviewed well because of my failure?
Theres always a chance. Your failure is done with. Control what you can and look at programs that had openings last year in the scramble. Maybe call them now while you are allowed to.
 
Anyone else have input? Looks like the number of Aoa residencies went drastically down on the participating list especially for internal and family. I am actually terrified of me not scrambling anywhere. Any other suggestions?

Are there any other major red flags on your app besides the PE failure? Also, have you since passed the PE? A PE failure alone should not preclude you from an FM or community IM residency, especially if you’ve already passed on retake.
 
Theres always a chance. Your failure is done with. Control what you can and look at programs that had openings last year in the scramble. Maybe call them now while you are allowed to.
What do you mean by call now? How would that conversation go?
I'm in a similar situation, ranked 2 EM programs but anticipating to scramble into FM/IM. Any advice on the logistics is welcome. Thanks.
 
What do you mean by call now? How would that conversation go?
I'm in a similar situation, ranked 2 EM programs but anticipating to scramble into FM/IM. Any advice on the logistics is welcome. Thanks.
I mean literally pick up the phone and call places. Explain your situation, that you aren't sure you will match and you can't apply till after the match has run at this point, but you are interested. It sounds uncomfortable, but at least they will have heard your name before SOAP opens and you are not allowed to contact at all. I don't think you have good options this deep in the season, so this is kind of a 'throw it against the wall and see if it sticks' thing.
 
I passed it my second time. My other red flag is I went down on my complex 2 score.
I don’t think you have to worry about securing a post-match position as long as you’re not picky. The only issue that complicates things is that programs may opt to save their unfilled positions for the ACGME match, meaning that you may have to wait for the SOAP rather than the usual AOA scramble. It sounds like your app is solid enough that you should still be fine, though. Your lack of interviews was probably a result of not applying broadly enough, which is understandable if you didn’t anticipate a PE failure. Anecdotally, it seems like a lot of M4s experienced a drop in Step 2 this year, likely due to the widely speculated inflation of 2017 Step 1 scores. And many PDs in uncompetitive specialties don’t care about the PE as long as you have a passing retake score.
 
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