MD & DO co'21 Residency Panic thread

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I was thinking about sending LOIs to a couple of my top programs after about the 2 week mark (11/04/20) but only to programs that have sent out a round or two of interviews to people with similar stats to mine (according to the Reddit spreadsheet.)

I think the general format @libertyyne used above is excellent; short/sweet & informative.
 
RamsFan&FutureDO said:
Seems you’re just as irritating as your name would suggest
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haha good one. Doesn’t take much to set you off apparently. I didn’t get my first II until the end of October last year with the season opening in September. Sending a few LOI got me responses in November and helped secure a few additional ones. Didn’t do anything when I sent them a few weeks before that. But if you want to send a LOI a week after the cycle opens when programs are bombarded with far more applications than usual, by all means go for it dude😉
 
Small Cell Carcinoma said:
haha good one. Doesn’t take much to set you off apparently. I didn’t get my first II until the end of October last year with the season opening in September. Sending a few LOI got me responses in November and helped secure a few additional ones. Didn’t do anything when I sent them a few weeks before that. But if you want to send a LOI a week after the cycle opens when programs are bombarded with far more applications than usual, by all means go for it dude😉
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1. The average # of applications/program isn’t actually that much higher. There’s preliminary ERAS data available showing at most 10% increase in apps.
2. Different specialties operate on different timelines of interviews. For example, derm gives them out very quickly while for IM it might be slower. Especially with this cycle there will be significant differences. I think waiting until programs give out a significant portion of interviews but NOT ALL OF THEM is a good strategy. That might be earlier than you think
 
When y'all talk about PDs going for regional people etc., are they basing that region based on your med school or wherever you list your home address/hometown?? This thread gives me anxiety and I'm only a third year lol
 
fldoctorgirl said:
When y'all talk about PDs going for regional people etc., are they basing that region based on your med school or wherever you list your home address/hometown?? This thread gives me anxiety and I'm only a third year lol
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It depends on the program but I have heard a couple PD's say that they consider an applicant by region by either med school or hometown.
 
fldoctorgirl said:
When y'all talk about PDs going for regional people etc., are they basing that region based on your med school or wherever you list your home address/hometown?? This thread gives me anxiety and I'm only a third year lol
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To be fair to that PD, I had lived my whole life in a single state up until residency. It could certainly look like I was dedicated to the region or had strong reasons to stay when really it was mostly financial reasons I was staying in my low COL state with scholarships.
 
LutGholein said:
Regionalism blows, I wonder if certain specialties are more impacted by this than others?
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Yeah and thats something they don’t tell you when applying to medical school. Everyone says it doesn’t matter where you go. And for most people it’s not like they get a choice
 
Oedipa Maas said:
To be fair to that PD, I had lived my whole life in a single state up until residency. It could certainly look like I was dedicated to the region or had strong reasons to stay when really it was mostly financial reasons I was staying in my low COL state with scholarships.
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I have literally moved regions every four years or so.Any one looking at my application with some insight will realize that. The PDs are still going to treat my medical school location as some sacred bond i have to that region. It sucks, but it is what it is.
 
efle said:
^ About to come in very handy to have lived on both coasts and the midwest. Can tell everybody everywhere that I can't wait to live in their big/small and east/midwest/west coast setting again with a straight face
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Im willing to drop tiers to obtain residency in texas. I just want to leave this tundra behind and buy a 10 gallon hat.
 
efle said:
^ About to come in very handy to have lived on both coasts and the midwest. Can tell everybody everywhere that I can't wait to live in their big/small and east/midwest/west coast setting again with a straight face
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I’ll just tell them my girlfriend lives in the area. If they ask why I said that to all the other programs I’ll say I have 30 girlfriends.
 
ERAS Statistics Found this and want to share it because after looking at the data, I was able to calm down a bit. Seeing the chat on Reddit and here, I freaked out when there were discussions about programs seeing a 200% increase in applications or the number of applicants double from last year. Based on the data from AAMC, there is nowhere close to this level of increase as reported in these chats. As a matter of fact, for FM and Psych, the average number of applications per program has gone down from last year.
 
RTKMD said:
ERAS Statistics Found this and want to share it because after looking at the data, I was able to calm down a bit. Seeing the chat on Reddit and here, I freaked out when there were discussions about programs seeing a 200% increase in applications or the number of applicants double from last year. Based on the data from AAMC, there is nowhere close to this level of increase as reported in these chats. As a matter of fact, for FM and Psych, the average number of applications per program has gone down from last year.
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But does this account for the fact that applicants may have applied for more programs this year compared to previous years?
 
Look at the "Residency AVG Apps" tab, the difference between ERAS 2020 and ERAS 2021 is minimal, certainly not like going from 40 apps last year to like people talking about 75+ apps this year.
 
RTKMD said:
Look at the "Residency AVG Apps" tab, the difference between ERAS 2020 and ERAS 2021 is minimal, certainly not like going from 40 apps last year to like people talking about 75+ apps this year.
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That’s great to hear, thank you. Where in the world did that 200% increase number come from? Lol
 
This could be for medical school you’re right. I was just trying to find the average applicant stat that someone mentioned earlier
 
My guess is lower tier programs got a lot more apps (people expanding to include more “safeties”), higher tier programs got a lot fewer apps (fears over not being strong enough due to board scheduling issues, no auditions, maybe weaker LORs without having auditions), and a lot of programs had so what of an increase, that may have been expected with the typically increasing average number of apps anyway. Who knows how any of it will play out?
 
RTKMD said:
ERAS Statistics Found this and want to share it because after looking at the data, I was able to calm down a bit. Seeing the chat on Reddit and here, I freaked out when there were discussions about programs seeing a 200% increase in applications or the number of applicants double from last year. Based on the data from AAMC, there is nowhere close to this level of increase as reported in these chats. As a matter of fact, for FM and Psych, the average number of applications per program has gone down from last year.
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Where did you find this data?
 
Huggy said:
For interview setup is anyone using an external USB microphone? I just got the Blue Yeti and don’t know if I have to do anything fancy to calibrate it.
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I got an all in one web cam/microphone/ring light for $55 on Amazon. Still need to plug it in and test.

although I have no interviews so maybe it’s a moot point... 🙁 🙁
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Is it bad form that I just plan on using my earbuds?
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I was going to use earphones and drape them behind my ears, I was also going to buy a cheap lav mic.
Initially i was going to go all out and buy an expensive mirrorless camera , but then i opted just to improve lighting with some softboxes.
 
Huggy said:
For interview setup is anyone using an external USB microphone? I just got the Blue Yeti and don’t know if I have to do anything fancy to calibrate it.
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I am using the same mic it is really good. I used garage band since I am on a mac to calibrate the levels. I would also do a few zoom calls to your friends and make sure all is good.
 
12jas said:
Nobody cares about how many premeds are trying to get into medical school... that ship has long since sailed for all of us.
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I’m wondering where all these extra premeds came from in the first place. Is there just a stockpile of premeds somewhere just waiting for COVID to hit so they can apply at once?
 
Huggy said:
Where do you have the mic positioned? Directly in front of you? Off to the side? Is it in view through the webcam?
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I have a blue yeti. If you put it on the desk in front of you, they won’t see it and it’ll pick up your audio great.
 
Does anyone believe the AAMC data? Might be confirmation bias, but feels like everyone I've talked to in real life has been applying to more programs as well and then there's all the wild 200% increase that ppl are throwing around.
 
jackinabox1 said:
Does anyone believe the AAMC data? Might be confirmation bias, but feels like everyone I've talked to in real life has been applying to more programs as well and then there's all the wild 200% increase that ppl are throwing around.
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I don't see any reasons as to why they will be untrue about the data. What motivation is there for them to lie? On the contrary, I see motivation for them to "doctor" the numbers (for malicious reasons). If they show high application numbers => cause panic with the applicants => applicants add more programs to their application => more money for AAMC. I don't see why they would under-report the numbers. Thoughts?
 
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