did I royally screw myself? PDs of SDN, please help me....

[Nahom]

I'd love it if one of the PDs could answer these for me, but of course, any input from anyone is greatly appreciated.

Long story short, for whatever reason, my usmle transcripts were never assigned to some schools. This might be because I did it from my phone. Maybe the page didn't load properly or I had a poor connection. I should have double checked after assigning them.

I assigned them the minute I realized the error (this morning), and ERAS says all schools have received them. This probably explains why I have had only a single interview invite, even with an immaculate MSPE, step scores significantly above average (for psych), and apparently really excellent letters and many things in my CV that shows I genuinely deeply love psych. I know I'm not the most stellar applicant, but I have been told that for psych I am really solid.

1) Have I screwed myself? Will I still get enough interviews to match? I love psych so much, at this point I can't imagine going into anything else and having the same excitement and satisfaction everyday...

2) My councilor (MD) at school told me I should email the programs that didn't have my USMLE transcripts until now to let them know of the error and ask if the transcript has gone through, essentially to put myself back on their radar. Does this sound reasonable? (don't worry, I won't even mention the word "interview")

3) I think what I've heard is that most schools will filter ERAS apps each day by USMLE score. Does that mean I should magically "pop up" now? Or is it possible some programs have simply discarded my application?

4) I've applied to 40 schools. Should I apply to 10-20 more after this mistake I've made?

Thank you guys so much. I can't believe after trying my best for so many years to get to this point in my life, I've made such a dumb error.

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[Horners]

I'd love it if one of the PDs could answer these for me, but of course, any input from anyone is greatly appreciated.

Long story short, for whatever reason, my usmle transcripts were never assigned to any schools. This might be because I did it from my phone. Maybe the page didn't load properly or I had a poor connection. I should have double checked after assigning them.

I assigned them the minute I realized the error, and ERAS says all schools have received them. This probably explains why I have had only a single interview invite, even with an immaculate MSPE, step scores significantly above average (for psych), from a respected top 20 (but not top 10) east coast school, and apparently really excellent letters and many things in my CV that shows I genuinely deeply love psych. I know I'm not the most stellar applicant, but I have been told that for psych I am really solid.

1) Have I screwed myself? Will I still get enough interviews to match? I love psych so much, at this point I can't imagine going into anything else and having the same excitement and satisfaction everyday...

2) My councilor (MD) at school told me I should email the programs that didn't have my USMLE transcripts until now to let them know of the error and ask if the transcript has gone through, essentially to put myself back on their radar. Does this sound reasonable? (don't worry, I won't even mention the word "interview")

3) I think what I've heard is that most schools will filter ERAS apps each day by USMLE score. Does that mean I should magically "pop up" now? Or is it possible some programs have simply discarded my application?

4) I've applied to 40 schools. Should I apply to 10-20 more after this mistake I've made?

Thank you guys so much. I can't believe after trying my best for so many years to get to this point in my life, I've made such a dumb error.

The fact that you got an interview invite without USMLE scores is amazing. You must have amazing letters and evaluations.


Just a lowly Med student, but I think you’re going to be fine... I think the stress of the error is just freaking you out a little bit, which is totally understandable.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Nahom]

The fact that you got an interview invite without USMLE scores is amazing. You must have amazing letters and evaluations.


Just a lowly Med student, but I think you’re going to be fine... I think the stress of the error is just freaking you out a little bit, which is totally understandable.

thanks for the reply. I have been formally diagnosed with ERAS-induced MSAS (medical student anxiety syndrome). I've been told the only cure is to finish medical school.

 

[tortuga87]

Youll be fine. You will probably get too many interviews to schedule within 3 months. Dont worry too much, or you might turn into a dermatologist

 

[FlowRate]

It is reasonable to email residency programs to let them know that your USMLE transcripts were uploaded IMO. My limited understanding is that programs may not re-download or examine for updates all that frequently. Maybe a PD will provide more accurate (and potentially contradictory) info.

 

[whopper]

Despite my comments that some students over-worry it's not a bad idea to apply to more programs then you might need. It's not a bad problem to have too many interviews. You simply could tell the program you can't due to your schedule. It's a way way way worse problem to have not enough interviews.

Agree with Flowrate. Also in alerting the program be very respectful and non-intrusive. As I mentioned, intrusive callers can tick off the program coordinator leading to your application being tossed out.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Despite my comments that some students over-worry it's not a bad idea to apply to more programs then you might need. It's not a bad problem to have too many interviews. You simply could tell the program you can't due to your schedule. It's a way way way worse problem to have not enough interviews.

Agree with Flowrate. Also in alerting the program be very respectful and non-intrusive. As I mentioned, intrusive callers can tick off the program coordinator leading to your application being tossed out.

Obviously not anywhere as serious as the OP. But should I email all or some programs that I have received a passing score on my final board exam the COMLEX PE?

 

[whopper]

Don't they get told anyways if you applied to the program?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Don't they get told anyways if you applied to the program?

That's honestly what I assumed.

 

[psychattending]

Scores flow automatically to us; so please do not tell us about new results. Nothing good can come from such an email.

To the OP as some programs might have already placed your app into a rejection pile (and won't go back to it to see the scores), I think it is ok to email the programs in question and just let them know about the error and that you corrected it.

 

[texpsys]

Scores flow automatically to us; so please do not tell us about new results. Nothing good can come from such an email.

To the OP as some programs might have already placed your app into a rejection pile (and won't go back to it to see the scores), I think it is ok to email the programs in question and just let them know about the error and that you corrected it.

As an AMSenior, the student affairs office at my school is telling me to send a letter stating that a fail is now a pass.

 

[Crayola227]

There are few exceptions.

In my case, my Step 2 CK was not in at the time of interviewing. Many programs specifically said to email when the score came in, so I did. Following direct instructions is always OK. It's OK to reference, "As requested during my interview, I wanted to inform you...."

If you had a failed a Step and then retaken and passed, I think that might be a different story, but I don't know exactly the condition when to do a mass inform of your score.

 

[Nahom]

thanks for all the resposes. As an update, mostly for people years down the road that encounter a similar situation and need reassurance and search and find this thread, in the past week I have gotten 3 new interviews scheduled and one waitlist. Things are slowly but surely picking up. 2 have been from programs I applied to on Sept 15 (the ones that didn't have my USMLE transcript until a week ago) and 1 interview and 1 waitlist for some new programs I applied to after freaking out over this situation a week ago.

 

[ridethecliche]

Glad things are working out for you!

I do have a feeling that there's going to be a wave of sdn applicants sending in apps now that you've mentioned getting interviews from places you applied to a week ago.