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What a gigachad holy god; hope my #1 ain’t in their top 5😅
MD & DO co'21 Residency Panic thread
Started by kraskadva
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What a gigachad holy god; hope my #1 ain’t in their top 5😅
Question about next Monday: do we get an email if we match and a different email if we need to SOAP? Or just get an email if we need to SOAP?
Applicants will be presented with one of the following messages on Monday of Match Week:
1. Congratulations, you have matched!
This message will be displayed for applicants who
- matched to a categorical, primary, or reserved (physician only) program.
- matched to a PGY-1 preliminary and PGY-2 advanced program.
This message will be displayed for any applicant who
- matched to a PGY-2 advanced position.
3. Congratulations, you have matched to a one year position.
This message will be displayed for any applicant who
- matched to a PGY-1 preliminary position.
4. We are sorry, you did not match to any position.
This message will be displayed for any applicant who did not match to any program. For applicants participating as a partner of a couple, this statement also may be displayed if the applicant listed the 999999999 program code on the primary rank order list to indicate ‘”No Match”. Applicants who receive this message and who are deemed eligible to enter GME on July 1 in the year of the Main Residency Match will have access to the List of Unfilled Programs and will be eligible to participate in SOAP for any category of unfilled positions.
5. You are not matched because you did not rank any programs.
This message will be displayed for any applicant who certified a rank order list with no programs. Applicants who receive this message and who are deemed eligible to enter GME on July 1 in the year of the Main Residency Match will have access to the List of Unfilled Programs and will be eligible to participate in SOAP for any category of unfilled positions.
Source: How will I know if I have matched to a program? - The Match, National Resident Matching Program
Edit: for clarity, those who applied to prelim + advanced, you are hoping for #1 as it basically states the applicant "fully matched". #2 and #3 are for those applicants who matched one but not the other. Finally, #4 and #5 are for those who did not match.
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I didn't get anything either. But I ain't stressed. The algorithm works
*for 19/20 people.
Anyone Oscilating between feeling high at the thought of matching at your number one program , and the low of living in a van by the river? Im not sure if there is DSM code for this.
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I feel I will match. It’s a matter of where.
since ROL deadline, I have felt:
-am I too good for my #1?
-why does my #1 hate me?
-should I have switched 4 and 5?
-should I have ranked my core site higher since there is mutual affection (but didn’t because they’re not the right curriculum for me)?
-should I have ranked my core site lower to have a chance at some other new places/experiences (I don’t think I could not match there, effectively cutting off any program below them)?
-Did I put too much or not enough emphasis on university programs?
-Did I put too much or not enough emphasis on instate programs?
-Wondering again why I couldn’t get into MD schools 4 years ago
My thought process is very simple - Why doesn't my #1 program love me?
Most of mines been “ why did you say that during the interview you *****?”
Yeah for me unfortunately I peaked on my lowest ranked program interviews (seemed to be more December interviews) and for my higher ranked programs I was either not warmed up to interviewing yet (November) or burnt out and rust after holiday hiatus from interviews (January). My worst interview performance was with my #1 because it was the first one after the holiday hiatus AND the day after my Step 2 so I was in a weird brain state.
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AnatomyGrey12
I ended up ranking based on personal fit and not straight up academic before community like I had originally planned before apps went out. I second guess that decision all the time, even though I felt really good about it for two weeks before the deadline lol.
Guess I'm just feeling lucky
This is how I ranked as well, though I think I made the right choice by doing it this way
My thoughts mostly revolve around how I could have doctored my photo better.
Same broski
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throwaway199
Full Member
Had you used Dr. Toboggan pic you would've been gucci
Every day is going by soooo000oooooo sslloooo000000ooowwwwwww
Maybe my late sub-I wasn’t such a bad idea after all, because I am not feeling this lol.
Anyone else wake up in the middle of the night every night and the first thought to pop into their head is something about the match? Just me?
Big pit in your stomach everytime your family/friends asks you “so where do you think youll end up?” “So when do you find out” etc?
Big pit in your stomach everytime your family/friends asks you “so where do you think youll end up?” “So when do you find out” etc?
Had a dream last night that I went back to my first audition (bottom of my list) and begged them to take me. The PD was like “sure I’ll rank you to match, oh wait, I already submitted my list, GTFO”
It was a stressful dream lol
It was a stressful dream lol
Got one “ranking you highly” email from a TY and a goodie bag from a PM&R program with a personalized letter before ROL submission.
Wishing I could just fast forward a week or two. I’ve had dreams/nightmares of match day. One time I matched to a program that doesn’t even exist lol
Wishing I could just fast forward a week or two. I’ve had dreams/nightmares of match day. One time I matched to a program that doesn’t even exist lol
Do these swag / goodie bags really make any difference? We ended up sending them this year, but honestly seems likely that they will just end up in the trash stream. Is there anything you found actually helpful / useful? And anything completely useless?
It was a nice surprise . Left a more positive impression in my mind about the program and how thoughtful they are about residents /applicants . I was going to rank this program number one anyway, but small gestures like that really solidified the position for me .
I think the one thing that really touched me is when an interviewer sent a post interview personalized email that was not generic . Made me think that this person cares about trainees . I thought about that email for months afterwards. I didn’t rank that program highly because they were lacking in moonlighting that is important to me . Otherwise it would have been a lot higher .
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I have never had this level of anxiety before , maybe before step one . But definitely went to sleep and woke up with a knot in my stomach .
Yes and no. Program-branded items like travel mugs and drawstring bags will certainly end up in the trash, save for the program I actually end up at. Personalized emails and hand-written postcards = definitely had an impact on my rank list.
To put it another way, my 5 bottom ranks didn't send anything and had no post-interview communication with me. Which makes me think they don't care whether I rank them high or not, hence me ranking them low.
I suppose looking at the data of previous years it’s interesting to see that 50 % of us mds matched their number one rank and a total of 75% of US mds matched their top 3.
it would be interesting to see if this relationship holds for people with shorter ROLs and if there is a correlation between longer ROLs and likelihood of matching at your first choice , although I think I read on one of the reports that this does not hold true for Longer ROLs.
I don’t think the data talks about step one score being an independent variable surrounding match , that is independent of rol length .
it would be interesting to see if this relationship holds for people with shorter ROLs and if there is a correlation between longer ROLs and likelihood of matching at your first choice , although I think I read on one of the reports that this does not hold true for Longer ROLs.
I don’t think the data talks about step one score being an independent variable surrounding match , that is independent of rol length .
they didnt make me rank any one program higher than another. Two interviews I got power packs which are very useful if you need to charge your phone. Mugs not as useful.
Personalized stuff about the location made me revisit some stuff I hadn’t thought about since October/November. One program sent us a box of locally made chocolates that made my spouse and child eager to learn more about the area. Which is a bigger deal this year.
I think it may have been the tie-breaker between two programs that seem otherwise equivalent even though it seems silly.
Like others have said,
personalized emails or letters after the interview=impact.
Packages with local merchandise (coffee, candy, honey, etc)=impact, excitement for area that I couldn’t visit.
Anything that seemed thoughtful at all, even if generic (like Christmas card with photo from program, UberEats giftcard)=impact, thoughtfulness.
Completely obvious generic emails, calls, texts in 48 hours before ROL deadline=eye roll worthy.
Branded merchandise= meh, it’s something but it’s going in the trash.
I'm being a jerk about this lol.
If you send me something like a pen or mug then I'm donating it somewhere or throwing it away. I hate branded stuff like that. I went to a popular undergrad and I don't even wear their gear because that's just not who I am.
BUT!!!! if you don't send me something I'm definitely judging you hard because you didn't wine and dine us and probably didn't even update your ****ty website or preemptively answer basic questions EVERYONE will have due to not traveling to the area/hospital. That's weak as hell given how much money was saved. And it's also nice to use the same tactics programs use on applicants against themselves.
Applicants have defacto requirements just because some random tryhard medstudent did something and programs noticed. Well, now it's your turn baby. It's time to send me a pen that I don't need just because this is the stupid game we are playing now and I want my payback.
But yeah, truly I could not give two ****s about any swag from a non-harvard program. I just think it's says a lot about the department that you won't even mail me a piece of ****, off brand pen before giving me a useless interview experience where we both know nothing got really answered. Luckily, I'm applying to the specialty with probably the least variability among programs.
Hell yeah, back to drinking beer now and chilling.
We got this my friends 🙂
If you send me something like a pen or mug then I'm donating it somewhere or throwing it away. I hate branded stuff like that. I went to a popular undergrad and I don't even wear their gear because that's just not who I am.
BUT!!!! if you don't send me something I'm definitely judging you hard because you didn't wine and dine us and probably didn't even update your ****ty website or preemptively answer basic questions EVERYONE will have due to not traveling to the area/hospital. That's weak as hell given how much money was saved. And it's also nice to use the same tactics programs use on applicants against themselves.
Applicants have defacto requirements just because some random tryhard medstudent did something and programs noticed. Well, now it's your turn baby. It's time to send me a pen that I don't need just because this is the stupid game we are playing now and I want my payback.
But yeah, truly I could not give two ****s about any swag from a non-harvard program. I just think it's says a lot about the department that you won't even mail me a piece of ****, off brand pen before giving me a useless interview experience where we both know nothing got really answered. Luckily, I'm applying to the specialty with probably the least variability among programs.
Hell yeah, back to drinking beer now and chilling.
We got this my friends 🙂
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I think perception is the name of the game every year, but especially more so this year. Useful things in general are things that show a lot of thought or desire to help applicants understand the program more holistically. Not so useful things are generic, doesn't add information, or requires no thought from the program.
Completely useless
- Info packets about your program - there's no reason not to send these electronically and save some trees. I do appreciate if the info came in the form of a USB I can reuse later, but I've heard the mail sorting machine hates the USBs and many of them got lost in transit.
- Magazines/travel guides about the city - same issue with paper usage. Many of us consume travel and living information online now. It also doesn't show me much about the residents' experience. I am more interested in what THEY can realistically do in their city with their available time and how they have enjoyed the experience.
Neutral
- Food: can go either way. A good selection helps immensely and a bad selection hurts a lot. One program sent me a Hershey's chocolate bar. I don't know what that was supposed to communicate and made me feel the program felt obligated to do something but didn't think too hard. Another sent local coffee or spices - those were excellent and sparked conversations during interviews about the area.
- Meal gift cards/credit - Like any medical student, I appreciate free food a lot. This would mimic the pre-interview dinner aspect but without the rest of the resident interactions, unfortunately, it doesn't move the needle for me either way because I'm not learning anything new about the program.
- Branded swag: I appreciate these and end up finding a use for most of them. Pens, mugs, drawstring backpacks - I don't throw them away but I'm not terribly impressed by them and it once again doesn't help me glean any insight into the program. I do judge the quality of pens though - a bad pen is a bad look - one program sent a Pilot G2 and I was very impressed by how "in-touch" they were about the scribbling experience.
Strangely positive
- Creative miscellaneous items: got a stuffed animal along with a handwritten note by the PD. The stuffed animal was of excellent quality and the handwritten note communicated that the PD cares enough - at least about recruitment but hopefully that extends to the residency too.
- High quality pens: these stay around forever. I have ones still from med school interviews...
Super duper important to me that no other goodies can beat
*** Genuine post-interview communication at least 1-2 weeks before the deadline. I know the general sentiment is rank according to the applicant's preferences and don't get swayed by what programs tell you. The thing is, most people I know end up feeling that several programs are pretty close or indistinguishable in terms of rank, and we end up making a semi-arbitrary decision anyways.
At the end of the day, I'd rather be at a program that really wants me there than be the lowest person to match on a program's list if all other things are equal. I want a program to be as excited about me as I am about them. Applicants are encouraged to send only 1 email to their #1 program. I honestly think programs should feel comfortable sending rank-to-match emails to their first however many spots as well. Applicants feel compelled to hedge their bets because they feel like they can't trust or read into post-interview communications from programs. I wonder how much better everyone would feel if programs are more honest with the applicants and applicants can stop responding to the uncertainty by throwing more vague words into the email-sphere.
Idk people like to think they are above being gamed by small trinkets . But the literature about prescribing practices and small gifts would say otherwise. It would be interesting to study this from a programs perspective .
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deleted645092
There wasn’t anything in them that really affected my ranklist, but nothing ended up in the trash. As for most useful;
-Local magazines advertising the local businesses and other recreation stuff.
-Products from local businesses.
-I got a beer coozie from one which was pretty cool.
-Useful chotskis like a set of trauma shears, a portable charger, and pens.
-Handwritten thank you cards.
Useless:
-Hospital-specific travel mugs and cups. I know this is probably controversial but I’d feel weird bringing another hospital’s thermos with me to work if I didn’t train there previously.
-Slip of paper that implied ranked highly but was obviously copy-pasted 20 times and cut from the same sheet of paper.
I’m totally into branded pens; was one of my favorite parts of interviewing for med school was collecting them; didn’t realize I was in the minority on this!
The one program that sent me stuff this year (both for their TY & their radiology) def made a positive impression on me cause not many programs did it. There was one program that sent me $20 credit to postmates too that I thought was a cool way to show they cared about the pre-interview dinner & were sorry we couldn’t go. Def made a positive impression as well. Both were programs near the middle/bottom of my list but when it cam down to splitting hairs it bumped them up a bit cause I felt like they cared about the people they interviewed & likely also cared about their residents.
The one program that sent me stuff this year (both for their TY & their radiology) def made a positive impression on me cause not many programs did it. There was one program that sent me $20 credit to postmates too that I thought was a cool way to show they cared about the pre-interview dinner & were sorry we couldn’t go. Def made a positive impression as well. Both were programs near the middle/bottom of my list but when it cam down to splitting hairs it bumped them up a bit cause I felt like they cared about the people they interviewed & likely also cared about their residents.
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AnatomyGrey12
My spouse really appreciated the food package one program sent me along with all of the travel packets. I disagree that they are useless, maybe if you don’t have a SO moving with you but my spouse read all of the items that were sent front to cover.
For me the goodie bags just showed they actually cared about how they came across to applicants. I thought they were a nice gesture. I also appreciated the programs that straight up said they don’t do any PIC at all and that if they didn’t send us anything or reach out it was because they didn’t do it to anyone. It was honest and you knew what the expectation was.
I also really appreciated the programs that sent out the power point they showed us on interview day, as a lot of that info wasn’t on websites and was a good reminder for things I had forgotten since the interview.
For me the goodie bags just showed they actually cared about how they came across to applicants. I thought they were a nice gesture. I also appreciated the programs that straight up said they don’t do any PIC at all and that if they didn’t send us anything or reach out it was because they didn’t do it to anyone. It was honest and you knew what the expectation was.
I also really appreciated the programs that sent out the power point they showed us on interview day, as a lot of that info wasn’t on websites and was a good reminder for things I had forgotten since the interview.
Give it away to a friend who matched there? Shred it in despair and sadness? Repurpose it to hold your keys on your entry way table?
Wow I didn't even think about how much money programs saved on dinner and hotel expenses. Makes you look reeeaaallll sketch if you can't even do a $20 grubhub and POS goodie bag.
Definitely true. This reflects in all aspects of life, society is constantly discriminating against obese and unattractive people. Keep in mind that society also conditions us to think of ethnic minorities as unattractive.
Idk . Applicants saved a boatload of money as well. The programs are not expecting us to spend our savings on something related to interviewing.
I don’t think in the world of virtual interviewing the programs owe us anything other than setting up time etc .
I saved at least 5 k in airfare and hotels . I’d much prefer to save that money and spend it how I want to rather than go interview and get some overpriced diner or terrible boxed lunch/ buffet .
This, my SO (and I) definitely appreciated programs that sent interview packets (electronically), videos of residents, virtual tours of the hospital/city, specific information about fellowship matches/research opportunities (the info session/orientation the day of is honestly too fast and it's impossible to write it all down). At some programs the interns and residents made videos themselves - this made the most difference in terms of giving a feel for the program this year.
Speaking only for myself, but I wanted to be wined and dined. Plenty of upperclassmen told me how the pre-interview dinner was both an awesome good time AND the most important aspect of decision making regarding rank lists. And we got shafted out of that entirely. So give me my godd**n goodie bag and let me sulk in useless crap that I'll probably throw away lol
Yeah I would rather save 10k and wine and dine myself .
My friends last year said toward the end of the season it got exhausting and expensive interviewing, and that after a while everything started to sound the same. Honestly, I'm kinda thankful I am 10k closer to paying off my loans. I'm sure whatever program I am at next will wine and dine me plenty.
To each their own. I was not ever going to spend anywhere near $10,000 on interviews so maybe that's why I feel a little more passionately about it than you all. The 30 places I applied to are all 5 hours or less from my house lol. Maybe a couple hundred but certainly not enough to feel like my loan burden is lightened.
Anyway, enjoy all those Benjamin's I guess!
Anyway, enjoy all those Benjamin's I guess!
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At the same time, this year, I feel like I was not able to get a good sense of the program's culture...
There's just something about being able to see the interactions - when residents walk into morning report, are they greeting each other and chatting about life outside of work? How are the faculty-resident interactions? How worn out do they look? Over Zoom, everyone looked pretty happy, but I wouldn't know if the program just recruited their happiest residents to do these sessions.
I was ranking a lot of programs without ever having visited the city and it has caused more anxiety than I would have liked.
There's just something about being able to see the interactions - when residents walk into morning report, are they greeting each other and chatting about life outside of work? How are the faculty-resident interactions? How worn out do they look? Over Zoom, everyone looked pretty happy, but I wouldn't know if the program just recruited their happiest residents to do these sessions.
I was ranking a lot of programs without ever having visited the city and it has caused more anxiety than I would have liked.
You won't regret it when you have more operative experience and most likely better work culture
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deleted697308
Most programs can get you to any fellowship unless it's like peds which even with 2 years of research and goin to an academic program has a 66% match rate. No thanks.
I picked programs based on location instead of rank and sometimes I worry about making the right decision but my happiness matters!
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deleted697308
agreed i was ok with the virtual format. i think they should continue it. i think in the future though after my interviews i would personally go visit programs.
Dont underestimate this. Residency is hard. It’s harder in a place you hate.
