MD & DO co'21 Residency Panic thread

Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine
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As long as we're sharing anecdotes: Low step 1, lower step 2 (percentage wise) and I ended up getting interviews at all but 1 of the programs I applied to. Only Harvard even waited for my step 2 score to come back before offering the interview. My tests were pretty in line with barely passing my medicine shelf and barely failing my surgery shelf (did decent on the retake out of sheer terror). I'm by no means the rockstar of my med school class, but I've got some pretty unique interests in medicine and I've worked hard to distinguish myself in other ways than on standardized tests. These tests are not the end all and be all. Yes, you have to pass them and, depending on specialty, certain residencies may put more weight on them, but what will distinguish you are the things that you are passionate about and how effectively you can demonstrate a track record of working for those things and explain the impact of what you want to accomplish in medicine.

If you want to feel good though, go back to your step 1 UWorld Qbank after you've been doing the step 2 Qbank for a while. Let's be real - I never made it through any of the Qbanks, but now it feels almost recreational to be able to practice with zero stakes and get to feel smart (at least for a while until intern year steamrolls me).🤣
 
Naruhodo said:
As long as we're sharing anecdotes: Low step 1, lower step 2 (percentage wise) and I ended up getting interviews at all but 1 of the programs I applied to. Only Harvard even waited for my step 2 score to come back before offering the interview. My tests were pretty in line with barely passing my medicine shelf and barely failing my surgery shelf (did decent on the retake out of sheer terror). I'm by no means the rockstar of my med school class, but I've got some pretty unique interests in medicine and I've worked hard to distinguish myself in other ways than on standardized tests. These tests are not the end all and be all. Yes, you have to pass them and, depending on specialty, certain residencies may put more weight on them, but what will distinguish you are the things that you are passionate about and how effectively you can demonstrate a track record of working for those things and explain the impact of what you want to accomplish in medicine.

If you want to feel good though, go back to your step 1 UWorld Qbank after you've been doing the step 2 Qbank for a while. Let's be real - I never made it through any of the Qbanks, but now it feels almost recreational to be able to practice with zero stakes and get to feel smart (at least for a while until intern year steamrolls me).🤣
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Love this 🥰🥰 and so so happy for you!!! I do wish I had more anecdotes available when I applied. Would just see 250 scorers everywhere and wonder if I would even match!!! Amazing
 
Itsarainbow said:
Hey guys

DO student

Step 1 226 Step 2 224

Applied anesthsia broadly and currently at 0 interviews. School director said that I would do fine given the amount of programs I applied (>100) and the fact last years class matched everyone including those with lower board scores. Not sure what the next step is. Any one know how SOAP is gonna this year? Do you think there will be more programs available?
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How did you do on your COMLEX exams? Your Steps aren't stellar but they're not abysmal either.....so something must be explaining your drought. Poor LORs? Any preclinical red flags?
 
From the DO side, are we allowed to take Level 3 during med school? I know Step 3 you can, but I couldn't find out how or if we can on the NBOME website.
 
Lawpy said:
Is this why Step 2 suddenly became way harder? And why Step 3 suddenly became important with bored MS4s already Ankiing their way to Step 3?
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Standardized exams getting “harder” isn’t really a thing. It’s completely moot in a percentile world.
 
angeloflogic said:
From the DO side, are we allowed to take Level 3 during med school? I know Step 3 you can, but I couldn't find out how or if we can on the NBOME website.
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I think you need a letter from the PD. Step 3 doesn’t require that so you can take it between graduation and residency start date
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
I figured the percentiles probably weren’t looked at too much.
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I thought PDs get the score reports? If so it has the score in big bold letters and then the bar graph with the distribution of the test taker so I thought they viewed both
 
underthesun said:
My point is that it doesn’t matter if a standardized exam becomes “harder” because everyone takes essentially equal tests
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Right but if the score goes down because it’s harder, it doesn’t matter if the percentiles stay the same if they don’t look at them.
 
On a rotation and just now had to explain to a PA who's been practicing for 12 years what residency is and how the match works. I was very thorough and even explained the SOAP. When I was done she goes: "oh well if you're not happy with your match just apply for a different hospital!". Just to add to the frustration of mid-level creep, they don't even care to understand what we actually go through.
 
Jack Donaghy said:
On a rotation and just now had to explain to a PA who's been practicing for 12 years what residency is and how the match works. I was very thorough and even explained the SOAP. When I was done she goes: "oh well if you're not happy with your match just apply for a different hospital!". Just to add to the frustration of mid-level creep, they don't even care to understand what we actually go through.
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I know nurses who have been at academic hospitals for 20 years that don't know how that works and don't know that residents take call etc. They think they are just off after 40 hours hahaha.

That's why at night you get paged so much by people who think you only work a few hours at night and are just up like them lol.
 
Jack Donaghy said:
On a rotation and just now had to explain to a PA who's been practicing for 12 years what residency is and how the match works. I was very thorough and even explained the SOAP. When I was done she goes: "oh well if you're not happy with your match just apply for a different hospital!". Just to add to the frustration of mid-level creep, they don't even care to understand what we actually go through.
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I can’t tell you how often I’ve explained this to my parents. My mom was worried a couple weeks ago because I haven’t been accepted anywhere and I just don’t have the energy to keep explaining that it doesn’t work like that.
 
getfat said:
"So did they offer you the job?"
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I applied to 100+ programs w a surgical subspecialty and got 30+ interviews...n someone I know told me that is it? 🥺 then another went on and said he only applied to one position and got the job...I don’t need anyone to rub salt into my wound...this is stressful enough 😭
 
frenchyn said:
I applied to 100+ programs w a surgical subspecialty and got 30+ interviews...n someone I know told me that is it? 🥺 then another went on and said he only applied to one position and got the job...I don’t need anyone to rub salt into my wound...this is stressful enough 😭
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Ortho?
 
frenchyn said:
I applied to 100+ programs w a surgical subspecialty and got 30+ interviews...n someone I know told me that is it? 🥺 then another went on and said he only applied to one position and got the job...I don’t need anyone to rub salt into my wound...this is stressful enough 😭
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Tell me you arent actually DOING 30+ IIs though???
 
redsox93 said:
I mean I guess it’d be nice to take with step 2 info still fresh but I legit would have zero motivation to study rn lol
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I took Step 2 4 months after Step 1. It was nice to still have that Step 1 knowledge all fresh in my mind. It helped a lot....maybe even more for Level 2 because the latter had a bunch of micro on it.
 
I really wish I could just get Level 3 out of the way before residency, but they won't waive stupid PE. (also I don't really fully understand the signup rules like either your residency has to vouch for you or the school has to petition for you?)
 
scrublyfe21 said:
This is weak. Not an expectation that is reasonable and has nothing to do with scope creep.
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My point was more to put scope creep into perspective. As in, when they say they can do everything we can do, it comes from a place of ignorance as they don't even care to know what our training entails, let alone what we actually know and can do.
 
sunshinefl said:
I really wish I could just get Level 3 out of the way before residency, but they won't waive stupid PE. (also I don't really fully understand the signup rules like either your residency has to vouch for you or the school has to petition for you?)
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I wasn't aware there are rules.....I actually hadn't heard a thing about PE since it was announced it would resume April 1st.
 
Oligodinero said:
I wasn't aware there are rules.....I actually hadn't heard a thing about PE since it was announced it would resume April 1st.
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yeah ignoring the PE problems, normally to take level 3 you used to have to be submitted as eligible by your residency, but then they added a mechanism for the school to petition for you if you were an unmatched grad without a program trying to take it to enhance your app.
 
I would also gladly take COMLEX Level 3 in May or June if given the opportunity, unfortunately you are required to graduate before even being allowed to register for it. I wish I could get it out of the way now without the stress of residency weighing on us.
 
MakeLifeHappen13 said:
I would also gladly take COMLEX Level 3 in May or June if given the opportunity, unfortunately you are required to graduate before even being allowed to register for it. I wish I could get it out of the way now without the stress of residency weighing on us.
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If you graduate in May and start residency in July, maybe you can knock it out in the weeks in between? Like buy your Step 3 uworld during the last months of coasting through MS4, take the test in June, and start residency without having to care about it
 
efle said:
If you graduate in May and start residency in July, maybe you can knock it out in the weeks in between? Like buy your Step 3 uworld during the last months of coasting through MS4, take the test in June, and start residency without having to care about it
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I would consider doing this just to reduce stress during intern year, but my issue is that most residencies also will pay for step 3 registration and Uworld. I find it hard to justify ~1500 dollars that I don't need to spend just to reduce stress, especially when I might have moving costs.
 
FindersFee5 said:
I would consider doing this just to reduce stress during intern year, but my issue is that most residencies also will pay for step 3 registration and Uworld. I find it hard to justify ~1500 dollars that I don't need to spend just to reduce stress, especially when I might have moving costs.
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Don’t nbme and a lot of people recommend d taking it toward the back half of intern year anyway?
 
FindersFee5 said:
I would consider doing this just to reduce stress during intern year, but my issue is that most residencies also will pay for step 3 registration and Uworld. I find it hard to justify ~1500 dollars that I don't need to spend just to reduce stress, especially when I might have moving costs.
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I'm rationalizing it as cost-effective if I can skip the cost of CS 😉
From my experience, some programs will still reimburse you for STEP 3 even if you take it early. Although I'm not sure how common it is.
 
Prehealth1011 said:
I'm rationalizing it as cost-effective if I can skip the cost of CS 😉
From my experience, some programs will still reimburse you for STEP 3 even if you take it early. Although I'm not sure how common it is.
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I plan to take mine early because of CS...virtual CS...really? 🤦‍♀️
 
I've heard tho you can't register for step 3 till your med school certified your degree post graduation which usually takes a bit of time. Then actual registration takes some time and with orientations moving up it's hard to fit in actually taking the test in that time frame
 
Oligodinero said:
How did you do on your COMLEX exams? Your Steps aren't stellar but they're not abysmal either.....so something must be explaining your drought. Poor LORs? Any preclinical red flags?
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I'm thinking it was either my PS or LOR. No clinical or preclinical flags at all. My comlexs were average
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Don’t nbme and a lot of people recommend d taking it toward the back half of intern year anyway?
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I think they do, because there are a few clerical note writing and prescribing questions on it that you don't learn until residency. But I've asked residents about it and they say that you could study for that portion in a couple days if you needed to, and other than that it's basically just step 2 knowledge + a little. If you're coming from a strong place on step 2, you could probably study for a week and get a passing score.
 
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