MD & DO co'21 Residency Panic thread

Started by kraskadva
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What do you guys think of programs not offering a food stipend or otherwise free food for residents?

It seems like almost all of the programs where I interviewed offer something so you're not spending money on food while working. However, there are a few that don't. It may seem superficial, but it's kind of off putting.
 
Lu_Xun said:
What do you guys think of programs not offering a food stipend or otherwise free food for residents?

It seems like almost all of the programs where I interviewed offer something so you're not spending money on food while working. However, there are a few that don't. It may seem superficial, but it's kind of off putting.
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I've been told that free food/parking CAN matter, but it also isn't the end all be all. Like its not terribly hard to pack a quick lunch and parking issues can be slightly mitigated by biking, living close, etc. I'm kinda taking that into account but not too much. Its similar to health insurance where some technically "pay" for these things, but your overall salary is less so it ends up in the wash
 
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OverlyRomantic said:
Had an interview day that was less than an hour long. Can’t tell if I love this program because of their brevity or am weirded out by it.
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Short, sweet, and to the point is how it should be. These programs usually go up on my list lol. Sitting in front of a computer for 5+ hours in an uncomfortable suit and tie and back spasms is not my ideal way to spend a day.
 
Chibucks15 said:
I've been told that free food/parking CAN matter, but it also isn't the end all be all. Like its not terribly hard to pack a quick lunch and parking issues can be slightly mitigated by biking, living close, etc. I'm kinda taking that into account but not too much. Its similar to health insurance where some technically "pay" for these things, but your overall salary is less so it ends up in the wash
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Health insurance can be a massive swing. At some places it’s free, while at others it costs 5k/yr or more, possibly 10k/year if you have a spouse/dependents. IMO it is probably the most important of all the amenities
 
underthesun said:
Health insurance can be a massive swing. At some places it’s free, while at others it costs 5k/yr or more, possibly 10k/year if you have a spouse/dependents. IMO it is probably the most important of all the amenities
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I ask this at each program even after finding the policy on the university website specifically to people with kids because they will tell you if it sucks.
 
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Just had literally my worst interview. It was for a TY and we just had to interview with the PD. Problem being that like 10 of us log on at 9am and the PD just interviews us 1 at a time in alphabetical order. There is no scheduled time for when your interview starts. So everyone just sits there asking questions to the resident for HOURS until their interview starts. I personally had to wait 2 hours for my interview. I know some will wait over 4 hours. I have never experienced such blatant disrespect for my time since preclinical wellness lectures.

Then I am finally graced with the presence of the PD and of course he says “What questions do you have for me?” That’s it. And off the answers I really tried to maybe tell a joke or insert an interjection to try to make things more conversational. But nothing worked. He would just chuckle and say “What other questions do you have for me?”

I gave up after 10 minutes out of sheer frustration.
 
Ho0v-man said:
Just had literally my worst interview. It was for a TY and we just had to interview with the PD. Problem being that like 10 of us log on at 9am and the PD just interviews us 1 at a time in alphabetical order. There is no scheduled time for when your interview starts. So everyone just sits there asking questions to the resident for HOURS until their interview starts. I personally had to wait 2 hours for my interview. I know some will wait over 4 hours. I have never experienced such blatant disrespect for my time since preclinical wellness lectures.

Then I am finally graced with the presence of the PD and of course he says “What questions do you have for me?” That’s it. And off the answers I really tried to maybe tell a joke or insert an interjection to try to make things more conversational. But nothing worked. He would just chuckle and say “What other questions do you have for me?”

I gave up after 10 minutes out of sheer frustration.
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The absolute worst. The whole, leave all the applicants in a breakout room while we interview them one by one is mind numbing. I had one like that and I was the very last applicant. Ran out of questions after the first three hours. The final hour before my interview was spent literally just chatting with the two residents about restaurants and the weather and how bad the college football team is this year
 
Ho0v-man said:
Just had literally my worst interview. It was for a TY and we just had to interview with the PD. Problem being that like 10 of us log on at 9am and the PD just interviews us 1 at a time in alphabetical order. There is no scheduled time for when your interview starts. So everyone just sits there asking questions to the resident for HOURS until their interview starts. I personally had to wait 2 hours for my interview. I know some will wait over 4 hours. I have never experienced such blatant disrespect for my time since preclinical wellness lectures.

Then I am finally graced with the presence of the PD and of course he says “What questions do you have for me?” That’s it. And off the answers I really tried to maybe tell a joke or insert an interjection to try to make things more conversational. But nothing worked. He would just chuckle and say “What other questions do you have for me?”

I gave up after 10 minutes out of sheer frustration.
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And they'll probably still fill with 250+ AOA folks. TYs are such a seller's market
 
efle said:
And they'll probably still fill with 250+ AOA folks. TYs are such a seller's market
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Yeah, this is the reason I didn't even apply. My one interviewer was asking why not go this route and make life easier. Then he changed his mind and was like, "No, no you want to be boarded in X, but your second residency you don't really need all that training. You know, back in my day when it came to endo the fellowship PD basically just let me tag along for 6 months and then decided I was ready to sit for boards. It worked out great. See if you can negotiate your training down to 6 months." Ummm..... Similar to another prof here who said I should ask the residency program if, despite not having a prelim program here, they'd make an exception and let me do a prelim year. I did ask and got a swift no to that one. It boggles my mind how these people (who admittedly are way more senior than me) think I can just negotiate these things. Personally I can't imagine that doing this would remotely reflect positively on me (or do anything other than get me booted from the program's ROL).

I got a nice email from one of my letter writers asking how my home program interview went. This person's well-known in the field and given I had not worked super closely with them it was a pleasant surprise that they agreed to write a letter. I said I thought it went OK and mentioned that I'd gotten an interview invite to my #1 program. They said congrats and that's where they'd gone to residency, though they'd like to keep me here... In my head I'm like, "Yeah, of course I know you went there, and your letter is probably like 50% of the reason (if not more) that they invited me..." Hopefully they don't regret writing me the letter 😆
 
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Neopolymath said:
It's kind of irritating because it's not like they don't have the data or the extra day or two to put it together and it still affects several specialties.
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Something might be wonky the more I look at it. They state only 325 people applied for 981 TY spots, and yet had a 70% matchrate?

Unless the vast majority of TY programs are SOAPing, the data must be getting messed up by people mixing prelim and TY ranks together. E.g. someone who ranks TY1, TY2, Prelim 1, TY3, TY4 would be marked down as "2 contiguous ranks"
 
Hey sorry if this has been discussed before, just have a quick question on the Doximity rankings for programs (specifically radiology.) What all goes into those rankings?

I interviewed at an academic program recently & really liked it.. seems like they have a great radiology program aside from their call schedule... but they are ranked below the 50th percentile for programs (they are like T130ish or something)... Is call factored into this ranking at all? It is really the only thing I think is maybe "bad" about the program. They have a tremendous amount of research, brand new hospital, well-known med school (mid-tier), moonlighting, etc. so I just don't get why they are ranked so low.

In a similar light, there is a hybrid program I interviewed at who has similar resources (probably less actually 'cause it is associated with a much smaller medical school), the difference is that the hybrid program has a ridiculously cushy lifestyle, but their ranking on Doximity is almost T50 for radiology.
 
NecrotizingFasciitis said:
Hey sorry if this has been discussed before, just have a quick question on the Doximity rankings for programs (specifically radiology.) What all goes into those rankings?

I interviewed at an academic program recently & really liked it.. seems like they have a great radiology program aside from their call schedule... but they are ranked below the 50th percentile for programs (they are like T130ish or something)... Is call factored into this ranking at all? It is really the only thing I think is maybe "bad" about the program. They have a tremendous amount of research, brand new hospital, well-known med school (mid-tier), moonlighting, etc. so I just don't get why they are ranked so low.

In a similar light, there is a hybrid program I interviewed at who has similar resources (probably less actually 'cause it is associated with a much smaller medical school), the difference is that the hybrid program has a ridiculously cushy lifestyle, but their ranking on Doximity is almost T50 for radiology.
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I personally would not care about anything outside the first couple dozen names on Doximity. Their method is to survey the peeps in that specialty to name their personal "Top 5 Rads Programs" and then it creates the rank list based on who was named most frequently. It's helpful for seeing who the widely known biggest names are, but I wouldn't let 50th vs 100th influence your rank list at all
 
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Lu_Xun said:
What do you guys think of programs not offering a food stipend or otherwise free food for residents?

It seems like almost all of the programs where I interviewed offer something so you're not spending money on food while working. However, there are a few that don't. It may seem superficial, but it's kind of off putting.
Click to expand...
We get free parking, free lunches, and on-call money... but our cafe sucks lol
 
Espressso said:
I was wondering how psych was going to be this year. It seems like the specialities that were getting more and more competitive each year in the prior few years are getting blasted this go around (looking at Obgyn)
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what do you mean by "getting blasted" as in more competitive?
 
bigindian4891 said:
That and the MCAT thread... good times
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SurgDoc95 said:
This year blows (obvi), but its pretty cool we're about 3 months from the match and 5.5 months from graduating. Remember seeing some of y'all on here back when we were all applying in 2016 and its been a heck of a ride
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2017 Underdogs thread → 2018 Step 1 thread → 2019 Step 2 thread → ERAS Panic Thread 2021.

Quite a ride boys and girls.

is there a residency panic thread? When are we allowed to start that?
 
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getfat said:
2017 Underdogs thread → 2018 Step 1 thread → 2019 Step 2 thread → ERAS Panic Thread 2021.

Quite a ride boys and girls.

is there a residency panic thread? When are we allowed to start that?
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Last year’s class just turned their eras panic thread into a residency panic thread lol.
 
Espressso said:
I'm sorry to hear that. My friend who is also applying Ob shared this on twitter:

I thought those comments at the end were very thoughtful, as well as the potential recommendations
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I am so over with interviews and match process...I can't wait to get to March...but then March seems to be a bloodbath...so I am trying to force myself to enjoy the current state even though it is stressful as hell...because I feel like it will only get worse. 2020 sucks...COVID sucks!!!!
 
Lmao @ application caps. I’m not a fan of hoarding and have given up plenty of interviews myself this year but I hope all these people realize they’re advocating for a tiered system. Where it’s not even worth it for a person like me to spend the $20 to shoot their shot and apply to upper-tier programs and have to be pigeonholed into specific programs just because of my school.

There are plenty of “low-tier” applicants who are lacking in certain aspects of their applications but have plenty of interviews; The whole argument falls apart about all the interviews only going to superstars when you have people on here, the spreadsheet, and Reddit allegedly being “240+ and AOA w pubs and leadership” sitting at 5-6 interviews.
 
scrublyfe21 said:
Lmao @ application caps. I’m not a fan of hoarding and have given up plenty of interviews myself this year but I hope all these people realize they’re advocating for a tiered system. Where it’s not even worth it for a person like me to spend the $20 to shoot their shot and apply to upper-tier programs and have to be pigeonholed into specific programs just because of my school.

There are plenty of “low-tier” applicants who are lacking in certain aspects of their applications but have plenty of interviews; The whole argument falls apart about all the interviews only going to superstars when you have people on here, the spreadsheet, and Reddit allegedly being “240+ and AOA w pubs and leadership” sitting at 5-6 interviews.
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you are assuming that reddit, sdn = real life...people lie on forums all the time.
 
scrublyfe21 said:
Lmao @ application caps. I’m not a fan of hoarding and have given up plenty of interviews myself this year but I hope all these people realize they’re advocating for a tiered system. Where it’s not even worth it for a person like me to spend the $20 to shoot their shot and apply to upper-tier programs and have to be pigeonholed into specific programs just because of my school.

There are plenty of “low-tier” applicants who are lacking in certain aspects of their applications but have plenty of interviews; The whole argument falls apart about all the interviews only going to superstars when you have people on here, the spreadsheet, and Reddit allegedly being “240+ and AOA w pubs and leadership” sitting at 5-6 interviews.
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Also not a fan of application caps. Application caps would have changed my entire interview season. I wound up getting a number of interviews at reach programs that I would not have applied to if applications were capped simply because I would have assumed they were not going to offer me an interview. Places that I thought were safeties and some places I thought I was right on target for did not offer me an interview. I think it's difficult to judge how competitive you are and which programs will offer you interviews and which ones will not.
 
scrublyfe21 said:
Lmao @ application caps. I’m not a fan of hoarding and have given up plenty of interviews myself this year but I hope all these people realize they’re advocating for a tiered system. Where it’s not even worth it for a person like me to spend the $20 to shoot their shot and apply to upper-tier programs and have to be pigeonholed into specific programs just because of my school.

There are plenty of “low-tier” applicants who are lacking in certain aspects of their applications but have plenty of interviews; The whole argument falls apart about all the interviews only going to superstars when you have people on here, the spreadsheet, and Reddit allegedly being “240+ and AOA w pubs and leadership” sitting at 5-6 interviews.
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Yeah I agree with you. I think most people are actually arguing for interview caps though. You can apply as many places as you want, and like ortho does, interview invites would all be sent out at the same time and you have a limited number you can attend. No having to worry about only applying to programs you think might interview you, having it timed that way means you don’t have to worry about filling up your spots before getting a reach interview, and no one can hoard.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Yeah I agree with you. I think most people are actually arguing for interview caps though. You can apply as many places as you want, and like ortho does, interview invites would all be sent out at the same time and you have a limited number you can attend. No having to worry about only applying to programs you think might interview you, having it timed that way means you don’t have to worry about filling up your spots before getting a reach interview, and no one can hoard.
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Interview caps makes sense. Put it at like 3 over the "99% matching" thing the data puts out. If you get one at a reach program you're able to drop a lower one. Although I think that the problem is amplified this year more than most, as every other year travel and money serve as de facto caps
 
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