Did Not Match, how to move forward for next year?

[aabs]

Hi guys,

Unfortunately, I did not match this year. I will be working with my mentors to pick out areas of improvement, but I would like the advice of SDN as many of you have been through this process.

Here was my application as of last year:

AMG
USMLE Step 1 245; Step 2: 236; Step 3: 230. CS failed first attempt, passed second.
PGY3 In an upper mid-tier program ( ~40-50s). From similarly ranked med school.
3 non-GI publications from before in top tier journals as a middle author, 1 paper co-first author under review but expect to be accepted soon.
6 posters (4 original research 3 case reports) as FA, 5 as an author, and 1 oral plenary at ACG/DDW
LORs from 2 GI, 1 research mentor 1 clinical, and 2 IM attendings in addition to my PD. Not big names, but by remarks heard on interviews appeared to be good.

Since then I had 1 case report published in a pubmed referenced journal, and am working on 2 publications now which I expect will be submitted by the end of the month/early January.

I applied very broadly to ~120 programs. Had 13 invites, 12 IVs, and ranked 11. Remarks heard at IVs were to be very positive and receptive, as well as post-interview communication. My home program does not favor internal applicants.

My mentors and PD have been wonderful during this process, but it is still quite a heavy blow.

What I am deciding on:

1. what position should I look for to strengthen for next year? My gut feeling is a hospitalist position at an academic center with a GI fellowship.

2. Places to strengthen my application. Unfortunately, it may be impossible to obtain a letter from a nationally renowned name.

3. I know I will have to reevaluate how I interview despite the positive communication and feedback given these results, but any other advice on what I may do to improve my chances?

Thanks.

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[Suprep]

Your best chance is hepatology fellowship, continue to work on your CV. You got good number of IVs, you just need something extra in CV to be ranked in the top 10 in the programs that interview you. Hepatology fellowship might just do that

I dont recommend becoming hospitalist.

 

[AlexTheEvilOne]

Your best chance is hepatology fellowship, continue to work on your CV. You got good number of IVs, you just need something extra in CV to be ranked in the top 10 in the programs that interview you. Hepatology fellowship might just do that

I dont recommend becoming hospitalist.

Thanks for the info. Can I ask why a hep fellowship? From reading these forums it appears to be a dead end or closed way into fellowship, and per their websites they don't seem to match at the home program as well.

 

[Suprep]

Thanks for the info. Can I ask why a hep fellowship? From reading these forums it appears to be a dead end or closed way into fellowship, and per their websites they don't seem to match at the home program as well.

it helps ppl with already decent CV to begin with. Most ppl who dont match after non accredited GI are IMGs needing visa

 

[GastriqueGraffin]

Hi guys,

Unfortunately, I did not match this year. I will be working with my mentors to pick out areas of improvement, but I would like the advice of SDN as many of you have been through this process.

Here was my application as of last year:

AMG
USMLE Step 1 245; Step 2: 236; Step 3: 230. CS failed first attempt, passed second.
PGY3 In an upper mid-tier program ( ~40-50s). From similarly ranked med school.
3 non-GI publications from before in top tier journals as a middle author, 1 paper co-first author under review but expect to be accepted soon.
6 posters (4 original research 3 case reports) as FA, 5 as an author, and 1 oral plenary at ACG/DDW
LORs from 2 GI, 1 research mentor 1 clinical, and 2 IM attendings in addition to my PD. Not big names, but by remarks heard on interviews appeared to be good.

Since then I had 1 case report published in a pubmed referenced journal, and am working on 2 publications now which I expect will be submitted by the end of the month/early January.

I applied very broadly to ~120 programs. Had 13 invites, 12 IVs, and ranked 11. Remarks heard at IVs were to be very positive and receptive, as well as post-interview communication. My home program does not favor internal applicants.

My mentors and PD have been wonderful during this process, but it is still quite a heavy blow.

What I am deciding on:

1. what position should I look for to strengthen for next year? My gut feeling is a hospitalist position at an academic center with a GI fellowship.

2. Places to strengthen my application. Unfortunately, it may be impossible to obtain a letter from a nationally renowned name.

3. I know I will have to reevaluate how I interview despite the positive communication and feedback given these results, but any other advice on what I may do to improve my chances?

Thanks.

You should have matched. It may have been a matter of poor interview skills and worth asking your own program why they didn’t take you. Stay academic and be friendly with your GI department.

 

[ShiShiMD]

Thanks for the info. Can I ask why a hep fellowship? From reading these forums it appears to be a dead end or closed way into fellowship, and per their websites they don't seem to match at the home program as well.

from 4 people who I know in Hep fellowship 3/4 matched and one took a Hepatologist job.

Hepatology trained with no GI fellowship at my University make 350-500K depending on how much they work. But they do not work to be burnt out. Like less than 60 hours.

Do Hep, chief or Motility.

 

[Lccjblu]

Hmm that is baffling that you didn’t match. Your only red flag is the second attempt on CS. As opposed to above posters pointing towards interview skills, etc. It makes me wonder if there are other red flags on your application. 120 apps and only 14 interview invites for an AMG with good scores and a decent number of research projects from a middle tier residency seems a bit off.
maybe the CS was enough to get you screened out?Seems unlikely.
I would look for something else on your app this is preventing you from getting invites. Is there a marginal letter in there? Subpar personal statement? Do you have legal action against you?

 

[aabs]

Hmm that is baffling that you didn’t match. Your only red flag is the second attempt on CS. As opposed to above posters pointing towards interview skills, etc. It makes me wonder if there are other red flags on your application. 120 apps and only 14 interview invites for an AMG with good scores and a decent number of research projects from a middle tier residency seems a bit off.
maybe the CS was enough to get you screened out?Seems unlikely.
I would look for something else on your app this is preventing you from getting invites. Is there a marginal letter in there? Subpar personal statement? Do you have legal action against you?

No legal action, thankfully. From what I have seen at my program previous applicants have gotten about 10% of applied programs interviewing them, so I am there.

I am concerned CS caused me to be screened out at places, and I am concerned that many lower-tier or community places overlooked me as they believed I would not consider them seriously. I had almost no interviews at non-academic places.

Definitely concerned about the letters, and I will have to figure out how to either obtain new ones or buff up ones that may be lacking. Several people commented on how good specific letters were, but I was unable to get an understanding if all of them were. One was from junior faculty which may be hurting me.

My personal statement was very personal (with myself as the patient) and for that reason was memorable and I believe a big hit given how many people wanted to talk about it.

And I do agree, it is very baffling. It is going to take a lot to tease out what happened. I may have just plain run out of luck and very slimly missed spots.

 

[ShiShiMD]

No legal action, thankfully. From what I have seen at my program previous applicants have gotten about 10% of applied programs interviewing them, so I am there.

I am concerned CS caused me to be screened out at places, and I am concerned that many lower-tier or community places overlooked me as they believed I would not consider them seriously. I had almost no interviews at non-academic places.

Definitely concerned about the letters, and I will have to figure out how to either obtain new ones or buff up ones that may be lacking. Several people commented on how good specific letters were, but I was unable to get an understanding if all of them were. One was from junior faculty which may be hurting me.

My personal statement was very personal (with myself as the patient) and for that reason was memorable and I believe a big hit given how many people wanted to talk about it.

And I do agree, it is very baffling. It is going to take a lot to tease out what happened. I may have just plain run out of luck and very slimly missed spots.

I highly recommend to contact the programs you interviewed at and request a feedback.

this is strange but is the match anything can happen.

it might be your interview skills also.

do a Hep or motility year or just apply again but make sure you get feedback from the programs.

 

[aabs]

Tmes are tough now with the pandemic, but I wanted to say thanks again for your advice. In the end I could not find a motility or hep year that had a spot or worked well for my family.

Under the advice of my mentors I went for an academic hospitalist job with much bigger and better name recognition than my residency. I plan on being there for 2 years before reapplying so I can build connections (essentially treating it as a research fellowship as much as I can).

Any last thoughts on this plan?

Hope you are staying safe, and that we'll all get through this.

 

[JP2740]

not sure about the personal statement using you as a patient. Some people are really insensitive and see a chronic condition as a weakness. Not sure if this applies to you. An easily forgotten PS usually does much better

 

[aabs]

not sure about the personal statement using you as a patient. Some people are really insensitive and see a chronic condition as a weakness. Not sure if this applies to you. An easily forgotten PS usually does much better

Thankfully I'm lucky to have nothing other than a good story out of it, but it's a good point that I'll make sure to have it end with a "healthy as a horse" vibe.

Interesting what you had said about an easily forgotten PS does better. I found mine was a great conversation starter and ice breaker for interviews, and I figure something that may make me memorable in an interesting but not negative way would be helpful. Something I'll have ask around more about, thanks for the input.

 

[JP2740]

Yea I guess in the end I interviewed well enough and PS was standard enough where there were no red flags and really the points on me were all on paper which was good. I don’t think I ever wowed in an interview or personal statement. I don’t know what the right answer even is just sharing a personal anecdote