Do not participate in the SOAP

[yukonho]

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Hi everyone,

I just wanted to tell you about my disastrous outcome with the SOAP. I had decent grades and excellent step scores (240s), and applied for a competitive specialty. I did not match. The worst thing about this is that i was unable to find a position in the SOAP. I applied to a ton of prelim spots and heard nothing. Right now there is a good possibility that I will graduate without a job.

Here is my advice: DO NOT SOAP!

If you are applying to a competitive specialty, please, please, PLEASE, apply to a few transitional/pre-lim spots as well. I wish my Dean's office would have told me to do that. I have heard that many foreign grads participated in the SOAP, but did not participate in the match. Than means that they can stay at home in mexico/india/china and wait for a phone call during match week,never having to do a formal in-person interview. They are diluting the applicant pool. The SOAP was a disaster, and I know of several great applicants that were left high and dry. Some got into derm/optho/rad-onc, and they don't have an internship to do!

Don't SOAP! Have a backup and MATCH into that backup if you have to.

 

[Dral]

I think what you speak of is indeed a difficult situation for anyone applying to competitive categorical positions. Although, in that case if you did apply to first year only spots (if allowed), you would have to lie or explain to the prelim programs why you are applying to them as well as categorical residency positions. This is a unique problem I hadn't considered before. The situation is much easier for those already applying for an advanced position and intern year separately:
The way to match to at least a first year position can be 'built in' if one is applying to an advanced only program (opposed to those applying to categorical programs only):

Your rank list if you apply to Rads (for example) looks like this:

Rads A (Supplemental list of intern year positions A)
Rads B (Supplemental list of intern year positions B
Rads C (Supp. list of intern year positions A)
Rads D (Supp. list of intern year positions C)
Rads E (Supp list of intern year positions A)
Academic prelim A
Academic prelim B
Academic prelim C
Transition year A
Transition year B


If you put your intern year programs at the end of your main list (in addition to using them on your supplemental lists), you will match into one automatically if you fail to match into your advanced position. That way you are secured a first year position at least.

If you don't match in your advanced position, the algorithm does not automatically match to your supplemental lists. The algorithm only goes there if you match into the advanced position on your main rank list that it is connected to.

If you construct your list this way, the only way you will remain totally unmatched is if you do not match to any of your advanced programs nor any of your prelim/intern year programs (which the algorithm gets to eventually as it works down your MAIN list).

I can't really comment on the second point about people only using SOAP and not ranking programs for the match.

 

[VenusinFurs]

I think if you're applying to competitive programs it's important to have backups (I'd even say it's better to apply to a few programs in a whole different less competitive specialty) but I wouldn't say you shouldn't SOAP if even that falls through. SOAPing is better than doing nothing if you don't match. You have nothing to lose at that point.

 

[link2swim06]

I'd be interested to hear how many programs you applied to and got interviews at.

If you attended 15+ interviews and ranked all of them its hard to believe you didn't match. If you didn't get that many interviews then why would you apply to more transitional programs during late November/December as a backup?

 

[rodmichael82]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to tell you about my disastrous outcome with the SOAP. I had decent grades and excellent step scores (240s), and applied for a competitive specialty. I did not match. The worst thing about this is that i was unable to find a position in the SOAP. I applied to a ton of prelim spots and heard nothing. Right now there is a good possibility that I will graduate without a job.

Here is my advice: DO NOT SOAP!

If you are applying to a competitive specialty, please, please, PLEASE, apply to a few transitional/pre-lim spots as well. I wish my Dean's office would have told me to do that. I have heard that many foreign grads participated in the SOAP, but did not participate in the match. Than means that they can stay at home in mexico/india/china and wait for a phone call during match week,never having to do a formal in-person interview. They are diluting the applicant pool. The SOAP was a disaster, and I know of several great applicants that were left high and dry. Some got into derm/optho/rad-onc, and they don't have an internship to do!

Don't SOAP! Have a backup and MATCH into that backup if you have to.

wow

 

[yukonho]

I think I may not have chosen my words carefully, so I want to clarify. If you have to SOAP, obviously do that. I'm just saying that everyone should consider ranking some backups and avoid SOAPing at all costs. Pay the extra money to interview at some prelim spots, or even categorical backups.

 

[evilbooyaa]

You didn't put in backups to your extremely competitive specialty application? Fail.

If you're OK with taking a backup in the SOAP (like your #1 specialty isn't something you'd be willing to take a year off and do research or otherwise improve your application), then make damn sure you rank some of those backups.

 

[je355804]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to tell you about my disastrous outcome with the SOAP. I had decent grades and excellent step scores (240s), and applied for a competitive specialty. I did not match. The worst thing about this is that i was unable to find a position in the SOAP. I applied to a ton of prelim spots and heard nothing. Right now there is a good possibility that I will graduate without a job.

Here is my advice: DO NOT SOAP!

If you are applying to a competitive specialty, please, please, PLEASE, apply to a few transitional/pre-lim spots as well. I wish my Dean's office would have told me to do that. I have heard that many foreign grads participated in the SOAP, but did not participate in the match. Than means that they can stay at home in mexico/india/china and wait for a phone call during match week,never having to do a formal in-person interview. They are diluting the applicant pool. The SOAP was a disaster, and I know of several great applicants that were left high and dry. Some got into derm/optho/rad-onc, and they don't have an internship to do!

Don't SOAP! Have a backup and MATCH into that backup if you have to.

As far as I know you can't participate in SOAP without participating in the match.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

I think I may not have chosen my words carefully, so I want to clarify. If you have to SOAP, obviously do that. I'm just saying that everyone should consider ranking some backups and avoid SOAPing at all costs. Pay the extra money to interview at some prelim spots, or even categorical backups.

Well...yeah. The people I knew trying to match into competitive stuff almost always put a prelim spot as their last rank just to have a backup. Somebody gave you some bad advice.

 

[LossForWords]

As far as I know you can't participate in SOAP without participating in the match.

True. That's one of the improvements over the "scramble" system of previous years. Tons of IMGs would fill out an ERAS, then not apply to any programs. Then when the scramble started they would bum-rush programs with phone calls, faxes, and e-mails. It caused a problem for other candidates as they felt they were drowned out in the fray.

 

[VenusinFurs]

Oh yeah, OP, obviously you should try to avoid SOAPing at all costs. Stuff's become so competitive that it's dumb not to have a backup if you're going for something super competitive. The SOAP kinda screwed a lot of smart people over this year from what I can see.

 

[ManBroDude]

Yukonho: did you have any red flags? What specialty (was it the only one)? How many did you rank?

 

[Raryn]

As far as I know you can't participate in SOAP without participating in the match.

You can't participate in the SOAP without *registering* for the match. You can most certainly participate if you simply paid your $50 (or $100) before Feb 20 (i.e. during the main match) and then didn't bother ranking a single program. The NRMP doesn't care if you participated in the main match as long as you registered.

 

[yoyostring]

You're right. You have to submit a rank order list to be SOAP eligible. That doesn't mean you have to interview. You just have to pick some random program and rank them. They won't even know you exist but you'll be SOAP eligible.

 

[Gut Shot]

You're right. You have to submit a rank order list to be SOAP eligible. That doesn't mean you have to interview. You just have to pick some random program and rank them. They won't even know you exist but you'll be SOAP eligible.

Unless things have changed since my day, you can only rank programs where you interviewed.

 

[survivordo]

Well...yeah. The people I knew trying to match into competitive stuff almost always put a prelim spot as their last rank just to have a backup. Somebody gave you some bad advice.

Agreed. Your backup plan should NOT be "I will just SOAP into a spot in a less competitive specialty/prelim year". As the OP found out, these spots have already been taken by applicants who created their rank order lists a little more strategically. Putting backups on your rank list in NO way can hurt you, it can only help you avoid the disastrous outcome of the OP.

Survivor DO

 

[msk86]

Unless things have changed since my day, you can only rank programs where you interviewed.

not true

 

[Raryn]

Unless things have changed since my day, you can only rank programs where you interviewed.

You can rank anything you want. Hell, if you wanted to pay the exorbitant fees, you could rank all 4000 programs across however many specialties.

Mind you, they wouldn't rank you back.

(Note: You don't have to rank anything at all to be SOAP eligible. You could submit a blank rank list or even just register for the NRMP and not submit a list at all. You'd still be eligible to SOAP)

 

[Gut Shot]

You can rank anything you want. Hell, if you wanted to pay the exorbitant fees, you could rank all 4000 programs across however many specialties.

I guess it has changed, then. Thanks for the update.

 

[Stuka23]

I have to agree with the OP because I had a similar experience. Got an advanced spot, but no prelim/transitional year. And there we're 9 other people in my boat. After SOAP, there were still 4 people without a PGY1 spot. I go to a top 20 American med school, and this was a record for non-match. And its not a fluke for us or other schools....this is a continuing trend.

To add....start thinking about prelim/transition years as competitive. They're cutting down spots, and the scramble is about as fun as a roll through broken glass (ala Iggy Pop). Having to call and get rejection after rejection....the upside was that I like to talk to people and boy did I talk to a lot of people on the phone. It was murder to find a spot.

Friends don't let friends SOAP.

 

[ManBroDude]

I have to agree with the OP because I had a similar experience. Got an advanced spot, but no prelim/transitional year. And there we're 9 other people in my boat. After SOAP, there were still 4 people without a PGY1 spot. I go to a top 20 American med school, and this was a record for non-match. And its not a fluke for us or other schools....this is a continuing trend.

To add....start thinking about prelim/transition years as competitive. They're cutting down spots, and the scramble is about as fun as a roll through broken glass (ala Iggy Pop). Having to call and get rejection after rejection....the upside was that I like to talk to people and boy did I talk to a lot of people on the phone. It was murder to find a spot.

Friends don't let friends SOAP.

Why do I get the feeling that you're not really telling the whole story? Like OP, you don't end up as one of the 4 people in your class that goes unmatched unless (with all due respect) you did something wrong.

 

[BlaseFaire]

Yes, we need more details.

 

[IGotGas]

Why do I get the feeling that you're not really telling the whole story? Like OP, you don't end up as one of the 4 people in your class that goes unmatched unless (with all due respect) you did something wrong.

About 15 students in my class had to SOAP, of whom 2 or 3 including myself found a categorical residency, and 2 or 3 others got a prelim. Not sure how many of us were SOAPing because of not matching in a prelim vs not matching at all.

In any case, at the end of the SOAP there were about 10 people, or more than 5% of the class who remained unmatched, and they were not the bottom 5% of the class. They may well have made mistakes in their original application strategy such as not applying to or ranking enough programs and not applying to a backup specialty, or they may have just been unlucky, but the point is that once they got to the SOAP it was very difficult to find a position.

 

[VenusinFurs]

I think the bottom 5% of our class/ a lot of people with red flags didn't end up SOAPing because they applied to programs where they had a really good shot. The ones who ended up SOAPing applied to competitive programs without enough backups, or ended up ranking too few programs. They were good students who (in many cases) probably should have tried to interview at more programs or apply to some far less competitive programs. But I think no one was fully prepared for how much more competitive this year was going to be compared to last year. I was told I only needed to rank a certain number of programs, but I ranked every program I had applied to. If I'd ranked the number of programs I was told to rank, I wouldn't have matched.