MD & DO co'21 Residency Panic thread

[LutGholein]

Would love my top 2, still feel good about my top 5-7 and I’d be fine with my top 10ish. But beyond that I’d be wondering if I’m a terrible gauge of interviews haha

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[Oedipa Maas]

Ugh, yeah, I had kind of a weird resident social at my top choice. I'm chalking it up to zoom though, cause I still think it's the best program for me. The other applicants were pretty quiet and the residents first told us the group last week was more lively (????) and then complained about the cost of car insurance. Hey, we all have our days.

I'm on 11 out of 12 and I am dragging! I wish I had canceled yesterday's interview. Decent program honestly, just not one of my favs and when they say things like, "We definitely want you here!" I felt super awkward and had a hard time gauging how to respond. Guess I am not good at "playing the game". I'd be psyched for any of my top 3, happy with top 9, and after that still grateful to match. Will pain me a little if a program I ranked higher than where I match ends up in the SOAP, but I am telling myself that's unlikely.

This definitely happens on our end too. I saw an applicant wince when myself and my co-intern gave our “favorite thing about the program” and there was a pause before the PGY2s went (not because they are uninvolved or hate it, they just both were super laid back people), but of course there is no way to explain that in the moment. I think we all have off days. Plus it depends on how programs divide the rooms. Mine typically has one resident from every level of training (or something like that) in each room which means it’s great for “hmm I’m not sure how that’s been this year, PGY3, what do you think?” but not great for showing all the rapport that each class has from within itself because with covid we haven’t really had much opportunity to spend time with our seniors.

 

[Jack Donaghy]

DO applying FM. Got 20 invites, went on 15. I'm in a not-so-great place because I have fallen head over heels for my #1 and honestly don't like any of the rest. Don't get me wrong, I would be thrilled to match but I just know how sh***y the sinking feeling in my gut would be if I didn't match #1. I can already feel it now...

 

[FindersFee5]

Hey! I recently started posting a guide to clinical rotations that I'm working on (link in sig). I'd love it if I could get some opinions from y'all, especially 4th years who've been through it all with me now and newer residents who have more recently transitioned from the med student -> resident role. I realized while I was writing that only having a single point of view is a significant weakness in a subjective topic like this, so additions and differing opinions would be super valuable.

 

[Chibucks15]

How many interviews did you guys do in total?

17 neuro. Cancelled 5

 

[ciestar]

DO applying FM. Got 20 invites, went on 15. I'm in a not-so-great place because I have fallen head over heels for my #1 and honestly don't like any of the rest. Don't get me wrong, I would be thrilled to match but I just know how sh***y the sinking feeling in my gut would be if I didn't match #1. I can already feel it now...

This was me. I didnt match my number 1 and did not take it well initially, but i genuinely love my program.

 

[cjcarter]

How many interviews did you guys do in total?

16 total, cancelled 4

 

[CavsFan2016]

Soooo ready for match day

 

[sunshinefl]

I LOVE my #1
Would be very happy with 2-6
Would be happy with 7-11
Would be glad to match with 12-14
Would feel mehhh with 15
Might prefer to SOAP over 16 and 17

(I attended 15 interviews, but 2 interviews were also for PC track so I have 17 ranks)

 

[angeloflogic]

EM, 16 invites, 14 interviews, 2 cancelled. I'd be very happy 1-3, pretty happy 4-5, okay with 6-11, ...12-14.

 

[Jack Donaghy]

This was me. I didnt match my number 1 and did not take it well initially, but i genuinely love my program.

This makes me feel a lot better, thanks for sharing.

 

[ciestar]

This makes me feel a lot better, thanks for sharing.

Things tend to work out. Hopefully you get your #1 and it doesnt matter! Good luck!

 

[frenchyn]

DO applying FM. Got 20 invites, went on 15. I'm in a not-so-great place because I have fallen head over heels for my #1 and honestly don't like any of the rest. Don't get me wrong, I would be thrilled to match but I just know how sh***y the sinking feeling in my gut would be if I didn't match #1. I can already feel it now...

I keep imagining myself in March, opening that email, and find out I match very low on my list or worse case scenario don’t match at all...I don’t know what I would do...

 

[PorkChopsOG]

How many interviews did you guys do in total?

16, cancelled 6.

 

[Oedipa Maas]

I keep imagining myself in March, opening that email, and find out I match very low on my list or worse case scenario don’t match at all...I don’t know what I would do...

I did this before match day too, so much so that I was relieved when it ended up being virtual. Something that helped me was looking up apartments/houses and things to do in each area that I had the possibility of matching at. That way I got to channel the energy into something more productive, it gave me something to look forward to about each program, and told myself that if I did match really low, the whole process wouldn’t feel so onerous and bad if I started looking for a place before match.

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

How many interviews did you guys do in total?

15 DR 11 Prelim (4TY, 6IM, 1GS)

DR:
1: Would lose my mind; 10/10 will beer bong champaign on match day
4-5: Would be very happy
5-10: Would be happy
11-14: Would be satisfied
15: Would not be happy.... did not like them at allllllll

 

[NotaCop]

Got my rank list in a couple days ago (urology). Feels good fam! Now we wait

 

[Espressso]

How many interviews did you guys do in total?

I got 16, cancelled two of them. Plan on ranking 14

 

[Spectreman]

when do we submit our rank lists exactly? And we do it through NRMP, not ERAS, yeah?
Sorry I’m clueless about this part.

 

[Espressso]

when do we submit our rank lists exactly? And we do it through NRMP, not ERAS, yeah?
Sorry I’m clueless about this part.

From the NRMP login page. I'm actually not sure about if it's through NRMP or ERAS, I think it's through NRMP but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Spectreman]

View attachment 327435

From the NRMP login page. I'm actually not sure about if it's through NRMP or ERAS, I think it's through NRMP but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks!!

 

[PorkChopsOG]

View attachment 327435

From the NRMP login page. I'm actually not sure about if it's through NRMP or ERAS, I think it's through NRMP but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

You do it through NRMP. They have PDFs that walk you through how to do everything from rank list, couples matching, and SOAP.

 

[mandu_cheeks]

My match day reaction predictions:

Top 2: cry hysterically, treat myself with the second cheapest champagne from Costco, dance until I throw up
Top 3-7: shed some happy tears, treat myself with the fanciest sparkling alcohol product from Trader Joes
Below 10: cry hysterically, try to purge negative feelings with whatever heavy liquor I still have in the kitchen

 

[Naruhodo]

Do we know yet if the fellowship match in 2021 will be virtual?

 

[underthesun]

My match day reaction predictions:

#1: drink beers on my back porch with friends

#2: drink beers on my back porch with friends

#3-10: drink beers on my back porch with friends

 

[KoalaT]

So I had to post here to figure out what the heck is going on. I applied to orthopedic programs (89 total), and I received back only 7 interviews. Here's my stats:

Texas Medical school:
-Senior AOA
-Step1: 251
-Step2: 255
-Course Grades: Honors in most rotations, high pass in all others, then covid changed it to P/F grading
-Research: 3x Publications on Pubmed (all orthopedic topics, 2x head authors), plenty of posters/oral presentations with 1 best surgery poster award
-Previous Work: 1 year as a scribe in a level 2 trauma ER prior to med school
-Dean's Letter/MSPE: Absolutely glowing. Multiple different faculty at different points stated "best student I've ever had", "works at the level of an intern...well beyond his peers", "amazing with patients and family", etc.
-LoR: 3x Great from what I was told. 1 from my highly respected program chairman, 1 from an ortho surgeon whose research is well respected nation-wide (also did an AI on his service), and 1 from an AI rotation. Both AI LoRs were glowing I've been told by interviewers.
-Awards: Award for Excellence in Surgery, An award from local nonprofit clinic for excellent service to my community, best surgery poster award
-Extracurriculars: I founded my own student organization that became very successful and has even begun the process of being given a dedicated physical space on campus because of the popularity and impact.

So what the heck is going on? I've been looking around, and it seems hard to find people discussing the disparities of interviews in competitive subspecialties since COVID caused so many people to apply so broadly. I had kept my cool because every faculty, interviewer I've spoken to, and my peers have told me "you are an excellent candidate. Don't worry". Compared to other ortho applicants at my school and others I've spoken to, it seems a lot of applicants only have 3-5 interviews, so I felt I had done well with my lot.

Yet when I crunch the numbers of interviewees and the number of positions available, I statistically only have a 50% chance to match. And at that, if I only consider the programs I really would like to end up at, that drops to 28%.

I am becoming seriously concerned and was wondering if anyone else has heard of similar situations or the major disparities of interviews in this COVID match year. Who is getting all the interviews? Were programs really lazy/unconcerned enough to have given all their interview positions to broadly applying applicants who they would normally never match? If that's the case, SOAP is going to be insane.

 

[Banco]

So I had to post here to figure out what the heck is going on. I applied to orthopedic programs (89 total), and I received back only 7 interviews. Here's my stats:

Texas Medical school:
-Senior AOA
-Step1: 251
-Step2: 255
-Course Grades: Honors in most rotations, high pass in all others, then covid changed it to P/F grading
-Research: 3x Publications on Pubmed (all orthopedic topics, 2x head authors), plenty of posters/oral presentations with 1 best surgery poster award
-Previous Work: 1 year as a scribe in a level 2 trauma ER prior to med school
-Dean's Letter/MSPE: Absolutely glowing. Multiple different faculty at different points stated "best student I've ever had", "works at the level of an intern...well beyond his peers", "amazing with patients and family", etc.
-LoR: 3x Great from what I was told. 1 from my highly respected program chairman, 1 from an ortho surgeon whose research is well respected nation-wide (also did an AI on his service), and 1 from an AI rotation. Both AI LoRs were glowing I've been told by interviewers.
-Awards: Award for Excellence in Surgery, An award from local nonprofit clinic for excellent service to my community, best surgery poster award
-Extracurriculars: I founded my own student organization that became very successful and has even begun the process of being given a dedicated physical space on campus because of the popularity and impact.

So what the heck is going on? I've been looking around, and it seems hard to find people discussing the disparities of interviews in competitive subspecialties since COVID caused so many people to apply so broadly. I had kept my cool because every faculty, interviewer I've spoken to, and my peers have told me "you are an excellent candidate. Don't worry". Compared to other ortho applicants at my school and others I've spoken to, it seems a lot of applicants only have 3-5 interviews, so I felt I had done well with my lot.

Yet when I crunch the numbers of interviewees and the number of positions available, I statistically only have a 50% chance to match. And at that, if I only consider the programs I really would like to end up at, that drops to 28%.

I am becoming seriously concerned and was wondering if anyone else has heard of similar situations or the major disparities of interviews in this COVID match year. Who is getting all the interviews? Were programs really lazy/unconcerned enough to have given all their interview positions to broadly applying applicants who they would normally never match? If that's the case, SOAP is going to be insane.

Sorry to hear about your experience, you seem like an absolutely baller candidate so I can't explain why you only have 7/89. This cycle has been weird for many reasons in many specialties. You may want to check out the ortho residency google sheet for 2020/2021; I think there you will find others who have shared your experience too.

I think for chances to match, you should look at this and customize it based on your stats: Tableau Public

80% of US MD Ortho applicants with 250+ on Step 1/Step 2 and 5-10 contiguous ranks end up matching. So you still have a good shot even if it isn't ideal.

 

[frenchyn]

Sorry to hear about your experience, you seem like an absolutely baller candidate so I can't explain why you only have 7/89. This cycle has been weird for many reasons in many specialties. You may want to check out the ortho residency google sheet for 2020/2021; I think there you will find others who have shared your experience too.

I think for chances to match, you should look at this and customize it based on your stats: Tableau Public

80% of US MD Ortho applicants with 250+ on Step 1/Step 2 and 5-10 contiguous ranks end up matching. So you still have a good shot even if it isn't ideal.

I applied to surgical subspecialty too...not ortho tho...but yes there is big discrepancies in interview distribution this year. Mainly the really top applicants who got them all. I don’t know why you did not get more...but I think you have a good chance to match...as long as you perform decent with interviews. Questions though: how are the places you got interviews with? Are they top? Mid? Low? Are they where you think you expect to get interview from?

 

[Oligodinero]

Got a rejection today from a place I probably wouldn't have enjoyed living in anyway. Then an hour ago got an invite from a program in California, which IS where I want to live. So that's good.

 

[Lawpy]

So I had to post here to figure out what the heck is going on. I applied to orthopedic programs (89 total), and I received back only 7 interviews. Here's my stats:

Texas Medical school:
-Senior AOA
-Step1: 251
-Step2: 255
-Course Grades: Honors in most rotations, high pass in all others, then covid changed it to P/F grading
-Research: 3x Publications on Pubmed (all orthopedic topics, 2x head authors), plenty of posters/oral presentations with 1 best surgery poster award
-Previous Work: 1 year as a scribe in a level 2 trauma ER prior to med school
-Dean's Letter/MSPE: Absolutely glowing. Multiple different faculty at different points stated "best student I've ever had", "works at the level of an intern...well beyond his peers", "amazing with patients and family", etc.
-LoR: 3x Great from what I was told. 1 from my highly respected program chairman, 1 from an ortho surgeon whose research is well respected nation-wide (also did an AI on his service), and 1 from an AI rotation. Both AI LoRs were glowing I've been told by interviewers.
-Awards: Award for Excellence in Surgery, An award from local nonprofit clinic for excellent service to my community, best surgery poster award
-Extracurriculars: I founded my own student organization that became very successful and has even begun the process of being given a dedicated physical space on campus because of the popularity and impact.

So what the heck is going on? I've been looking around, and it seems hard to find people discussing the disparities of interviews in competitive subspecialties since COVID caused so many people to apply so broadly. I had kept my cool because every faculty, interviewer I've spoken to, and my peers have told me "you are an excellent candidate. Don't worry". Compared to other ortho applicants at my school and others I've spoken to, it seems a lot of applicants only have 3-5 interviews, so I felt I had done well with my lot.

Yet when I crunch the numbers of interviewees and the number of positions available, I statistically only have a 50% chance to match. And at that, if I only consider the programs I really would like to end up at, that drops to 28%.

I am becoming seriously concerned and was wondering if anyone else has heard of similar situations or the major disparities of interviews in this COVID match year. Who is getting all the interviews? Were programs really lazy/unconcerned enough to have given all their interview positions to broadly applying applicants who they would normally never match? If that's the case, SOAP is going to be insane.

Whoa what a trip to the memory lane since i remember your MCAT guides. Here's to hoping you match 🐶

 

[efle]

So I had to post here to figure out what the heck is going on. I applied to orthopedic programs (89 total), and I received back only 7 interviews. Here's my stats:

Texas Medical school:
-Senior AOA
-Step1: 251
-Step2: 255
-Course Grades: Honors in most rotations, high pass in all others, then covid changed it to P/F grading
-Research: 3x Publications on Pubmed (all orthopedic topics, 2x head authors), plenty of posters/oral presentations with 1 best surgery poster award
-Previous Work: 1 year as a scribe in a level 2 trauma ER prior to med school
-Dean's Letter/MSPE: Absolutely glowing. Multiple different faculty at different points stated "best student I've ever had", "works at the level of an intern...well beyond his peers", "amazing with patients and family", etc.
-LoR: 3x Great from what I was told. 1 from my highly respected program chairman, 1 from an ortho surgeon whose research is well respected nation-wide (also did an AI on his service), and 1 from an AI rotation. Both AI LoRs were glowing I've been told by interviewers.
-Awards: Award for Excellence in Surgery, An award from local nonprofit clinic for excellent service to my community, best surgery poster award
-Extracurriculars: I founded my own student organization that became very successful and has even begun the process of being given a dedicated physical space on campus because of the popularity and impact.

So what the heck is going on? I've been looking around, and it seems hard to find people discussing the disparities of interviews in competitive subspecialties since COVID caused so many people to apply so broadly. I had kept my cool because every faculty, interviewer I've spoken to, and my peers have told me "you are an excellent candidate. Don't worry". Compared to other ortho applicants at my school and others I've spoken to, it seems a lot of applicants only have 3-5 interviews, so I felt I had done well with my lot.

Yet when I crunch the numbers of interviewees and the number of positions available, I statistically only have a 50% chance to match. And at that, if I only consider the programs I really would like to end up at, that drops to 28%.

I am becoming seriously concerned and was wondering if anyone else has heard of similar situations or the major disparities of interviews in this COVID match year. Who is getting all the interviews? Were programs really lazy/unconcerned enough to have given all their interview positions to broadly applying applicants who they would normally never match? If that's the case, SOAP is going to be insane.

Your odds with 7 interviews should be way above 50%! Unless you got a really weird interview distribution with all highly competitive programs

 

[Lawpy]

Your odds with 7 interviews should be way above 50%! Unless you got a really weird interview distribution with all highly competitive programs

wait where did you get this from

 

[Banco]

wait where did you get this from

Tableau Public

public.tableau.com

This is charting outcomes data but interactive, so you can plug in your specific stats. With 250+ and 7 contiguous ranks, he/she sits at around 80% for ortho.


I actually recommend all here with any semblance of anxiety to plug in your numbers there. For example with 240+ as a US MD applying to gen surgery, it's like 99% with 11-15 ranks. A lot of overkill is happening often with regards to interviews attended.


For IM it's like 90%+ with 3-5 ranks, as long as you have a step 1 > 200...lol. And like 99% regardless of step score with 5-10 ranks.

 

[Lawpy]

Tableau Public

public.tableau.com

This is charting outcomes data but interactive, so you can plug in your specific stats. With 250+ and 7 contiguous ranks, he/she sits at around 80% for ortho.


I actually recommend all here with any semblance of anxiety to plug in your numbers there. For example with 240+ as a US MD applying to gen surgery, it's like 99% with 11-15 ranks. A lot of overkill is happening often with regards to interviews attended.


For IM it's like 90%+ with 3-5 ranks, as long as you have a step 1 > 200...lol. And like 99% regardless of step score with 5-10 ranks.

Good stuff thanks! That link answers a lot of questions

 

[Dr.Bruh]

Posting an update on my season bc I think future applicants (particularly those who feel like underdogs) can hopefully learn from it to strategize for next year.

Specialty: EM
Bio: Midwest DO 22x/23x 55x/59x. Bottom half pre-clinical class rank (top 1/3 clinical rank tho).
Letters: 1 eSLOE, 1 Subspecialty SLOE (ultrasound), 2 non residency SLOEs (community EDs my home program lets us rotate at).
Applied: 78 (too many. Was gunna apply 50 but with COVID I got spooked increased)
Invites/Rejections/Waitlist/Cancelled: 27 invites, 11 rejections, 2 waitlists, 38 ghosts

• 15 Community
• 12 University/County (mostly mid-tier, 1 Top 5 program)
• 4 of these were former DO programs
• 2 From the programs I rotated at.
• 8 Invites from programs I networked with(Attending socials, Contacting residents, EMRA Residency fair etc).

Letters of Interest:

• Sent 10 (Sent to any program that if I was offered an invite I would rank in top 1-5)
• 3 invites post LOI (not sure if I got the invites bc of the LOI bc the invites like a month+ after lol)
• 2 Waitlists post LOI, ghosted by the rest.

Invite Timeline:

• I got the majority (17) in Oct/November, another 6 in December and 4 in January.

Cancelled: 11. ranks = 16 (13 uni/county, 3 community). I Feel bad bc I planned to rank 12-15 but I got 2-3 invites in Jan that were in my top 5 and already went on my other interviews. I would have cancelled a few more if I got those ones earlier.
Interview distribution:

• 14 Midwest/North (included Chicago/Michigan/Minnesota in this)
• 4 Northeast (NY/NJ)
• 8 South/Southeast
• 1 West coast/PNW (only applied to 2-3 programs here)

Application Strategy:

• So going in a was just praying to get at least 10-12 invites and wasn't feeling confident as I felt very average/below average stat-wise. So I applied to 10-15ish programs I considered safeties. Obvi there is no formal definition of a "safety" program, but I considered any brand new program former DO program in my geographic region a safety . I tried to make close to 1/2 of them in my region (Midwest/South/North), and did not apply to very many coast programs (mainly bc I didn't want to go there). I also didn't apply to any program that didn't have at least on DO in each class (or if they had a class without a DO they at least had one in all others). I also identified programs i had a "good shot" at based on geography, number of DOs, etc. Here's my interview yield based on those classifications I made based on my app:

- Safety programs (9): 6/9
- Good shot programs (14): 7/14
- Top choices (10): 4/10
- All others (45): 10/45

• - As you can see its kind of a crapshoot but I definitely think being able to accurately understand your competitiveness and identify programs that fit with that is crucial to getting a comfortable enough amount of invites.
• Overall very happy with rank list: Would be over the moon to match at any of my top 5 and my top 10 are all programs a year ago I thought were pipe dreams for me personally.

What I think worked/helped me:
1.) SLOEs

• This was by far the biggest and most obvious factor. My letters were mentioned in every single interview I had. Was told by one that by SLOE and Subspecialty SLOEs were both Honors.
• Idk what was all in my SLOEs but I think being likeable and someone who everyone at the programs thinks is nice/fun and would want to work with is much more important that knowledge base. I dont' think I crushed my auditions in terms of nailing every pimp question, but based on my interviews the letters seem to focus on my personality, being well likely by faculty and staff, and looking eager to be there and that I enjoyed all my shifts.

2.) Perceived commitment to the specialty and ED experience

• This also came up on most of my interviews. I worked in the ED for 3 years in undergrad (phlebotomist and a scribe).
• Was heavily involved with EM leadership (EMRA, ACEP etc), Attending a national EM conference, published articles for EM magazines/websites.
• I was lucky enough that despite COVID I was able to go into the application cycle having 5EM rotations (3 non-residency electives I did 3rd year, my audition, and US rotation).

3.) Networking

• My school did not have a home EM program/department so I used EMRA to assign me an EM resident mentor as an M1 (who was a grad from my school/DO) and I used him periodically throughout med school for advise etc.
• Once auditions were cancelled I realized that I was not going to be able to rotate at my top places and as an average DO I knew I had to get noticed somehow. So I was pretty active on social media, zoom stuff, contacted DO residents at programs I was interested in (literally just asking them If based on my app if I would even have a shot). This seemed to pay off pretty big for me.

4.) Other things that came in clutch

• My hobbies and interest section
  • DO NOT SKIMP ON THIS. This was talked about in every interview. I do have other hobbies (guitar, music on spotify, did improv comedy etc).
  • I literally listed all of my fav Netflix/Hulu shows and it was a talking point a lot. I'd be quoting Arrested Development, The Office, or talking Star Trek with random interviewers.
• Working in the service industry
  • I was a bartender/server for 4 years (and I maintain that the skills from this job translated better to me working in the ED than any other job I had).
  • I was told by multiple interviews that they either try to find applicants who have worked in the service/food industry. 2 programs told me its an extra point they have on their app scoring system.
  • I knew a few friends who left out their service jobs on their apps. If you're applying EM DO NOT DO THIS. Its valued.

TLDR:
- Building an accurate understanding of your true competitiveness (which I think many people miscalculate) and identify programs who typically interview/rank applicants of similar competitiveness is key in my opinion. SLOEs, networking, and being well rounded very important.

 

[KoalaT]

I applied to surgical subspecialty too...not ortho tho...but yes there is big discrepancies in interview distribution this year. Mainly the really top applicants who got them all. I don’t know why you did not get more...but I think you have a good chance to match...as long as you perform decent with interviews. Questions though: how are the places you got interviews with? Are they top? Mid? Low? Are they where you think you expect to get interview from?

4/7 are really terrific. Top for sure. Other 2 I'd say are mid and 1 is low. Places I really wanted to go and are really top notch residencies.

Whoa what a trip to the memory lane since i remember your MCAT guides. Here's to hoping you match 🐶

Ha! Cool to see people still recognize me. This is the first time since then I've come back to post. Wish I would have shared my Anki and medschool guide on here, but I'd say a solid 50% of all the 1st/2nd year medical students at my school are using my custom Anki deck ha.

Your odds with 7 interviews should be way above 50%! Unless you got a really weird interview distribution with all highly competitive programs

I was doing this solely based on number of applicants and number of positions. It is only considering if they selected applicants randomly, so obviously it's not a great estimation.

Thanks everyone for the concern and advise. I think I'm honestly in a better situation than it would appear at this time. I just really expected more interviews and to rest assured that I would match. It's really concerning this year to end up with only 7 interviews and only 4 are within state (Texas has a ton of programs! Idk how I missed on interviewing with so many...).

My biggest concern is I have enough interviews to match in the first round, but I'm going to match at my 1 low tier program (they only interview 36 people for 4 positions, so the odds are huge compared to the other programs). Then, everyone else is going to SOAP in to mid-tier programs who botched their interview invites...

 

[aaronrodgers]

MS3 here lurking on this thread and living vicariously through you all! Quick question from anyone who may have done this or know anyone else that did this for their residency apps: I was offered a very strong LOR from my 3rd year IM rotation by the chief resident (who was serving in the role of an attending for our wards team) and he said this will be co-signed by our IM program director, is this fine to do? thank you!

 

[efle]

MS3 here lurking on this thread and living vicariously through you all! Quick question from anyone who may have done this or know anyone else that did this for their residency apps: I was offered a very strong LOR from my 3rd year IM rotation by the chief resident (who was serving in the role of an attending for our wards team) and he said this will be co-signed by our IM program director, is this fine to do? thank you!

Yes definitely have him contribute/write a couple paragraphs and forward those to the actual PD. Then PD uses what they want. I did this too. If they filled out one of your evals the PD was probably going to use whatever good things they said about you anyways.

 

[aaronrodgers]

Yes definitely have him contribute/write a couple paragraphs and forward those to the actual PD. Then PD uses what they want. I did this too. If they filled out one of your evals the PD was probably going to use whatever good things they said about you anyways.

That's great! Did your letter have both the chief and the PD's name on it? I think that's what mine will be. But it sounds like it is okay and is a common practice

 

[Jack Donaghy]

That's great! Did your letter have both the chief and the PD's name on it? I think that's what mine will be. But it sounds like it is okay and is a common practice

Contrary to what people told me, I got a letter from a chief resident. It has consistently been quoted as one of the strongest parts of my application during this interview season.

 

[efle]

That's great! Did your letter have both the chief and the PD's name on it? I think that's what mine will be. But it sounds like it is okay and is a common practice

Totally ok to have an extra name along with the PD's and a super strong letter from those two is def better than getting a weaker attending-only one.

 

[frenchyn]

4/7 are really terrific. Top for sure. Other 2 I'd say are mid and 1 is low.

Since you get solid programs I doubt it is your app. I learn one thing from last cycle (from my classmate) and this cycle (my own experience)...is this whole process despite step scores/research numbers etc...match algorithm...is very random.

 

[NotAnotherPreMed]

Rads and IR:
Applied 36, got 30 IIs, going on 19.
30 percent lower yield on TYs and prelims.

 

[underthesun]

Rads and IR:
Applied 36, got 30 IIs, going on 19.
30 percent lower yield on TYs and prelims.

How many IR programs/DR programs?

 

[NotAnotherPreMed]

How many IR programs/DR programs?

28 ir&dr, 2 dr.
Basically I knew I had a strong application but in small fields I think there is an all or none phenomenon and if you're strong you can sweep. A couple of the rejections were t20s, the rest were yield protection/out of geographic region.

 

[efle]

I think there is an all or none phenomenon and if you're strong you can sweep.

Definitely have seen this among people in my class this year

 

[getfat]

How many interviews did you guys do in total?

Applying IM went on 21 (2 more left). Canceled 14.

It definitely felt like school and scores played a huge role in interviews this year. Most interviews had residents that graduated from my school.

 

[KoalaT]

Since you get solid programs I doubt it is your app. I learn one thing from last cycle (from my classmate) and this cycle (my own experience)...is this whole process despite step scores/research numbers etc...match algorithm...is very random.

Ya, match has always been like that I guess, I was never really afraid it was my application holding me back. I just can't help but think if this wasn't the COVID match era, I would have had a lot more interviews and not have to worry at all (but who knows...). It just stinks I worked so hard to escape the uncertainty of that match algorithm, but now it seems I've been thrown back into it anyway. But, I should consider myself fortunate I guess and try not to worry so much.

 

[Jack Donaghy]

Rads and IR:
Applied 36, got 30 IIs, going on 19.
30 percent lower yield on TYs and prelims.

Amazing yield. Congrats!

 

[Mr. D.O.five]

Applying EM. 11 II, 5 waitlists (2 turned into invites). Honestly decently happy with my list. I applied to 52 programs initially (then panic added 15 more in December) mainly based on location and prestige, but as the season moved forward, I realized I couldn't give a **** about prestige and I cared more about location and fit.
I had strong step scores, but one of my SLOE's was less-than-stellar which may have hurt me in the running for the more competitive programs that I applied to. My MSPE was literally average, but I heard EM programs don't put much stock into it.
Really want to stay in my home state, and the majority of my interviews are from there, which I'm happy about. I also got 2 of left field invites from top programs, and some post-LOI invites. Hopefully I get 1 or 2 more invites so I can be safe for matching, but I'm pretty content right now.