**Graduating Late Emergency Please Help***

[BigBank]

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just found out due to a technicality in requirements for my school i will not have all the required rotations done to finish at the beginning of may. I will have all the requirements for degree finished by 6/14 and will have my degree granted however my the university only "confers" degrees 3 times a year; may, august and january. thus I will not have my diploma printed until august. this raises the issue of licensing, will i be able to acquire my license in time to start july since I have finished my graduation requirements or do i need it to be conferred?
i am incredibly scared and have no idea what to do; I am applying for anesthesia and have been pretty successful so far (14 interviews). has anyone heard of anyone in a similar circumstance, how should i proceed?
do you guys think that residencies will allow me to start in august; i really don't want to have to apply again as it will severely hurt my chances to be a re-applicant.

 

[IlDestriero]

No degree=not an MD=no start residency.

 

[IlDestriero]

You should probably tell all the places you interviewed for residency. They have a right to know that you can't start on time. They could work with you if they want. You could orient, get ACLS, etc. assuming you were not still in class in your medical school.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Participating in the match will depend on verification of your graduation date from your medical school. Thus, the question becomes what do they consider your graduation date: the day you complete requirements or only on one of three dates per year (which sounds like for you would be August 2014)?

If they do not verify that you will graduate prior to July 1, 2014 you'll be automatically removed from the match in accordance with NRMP policy. Please check with your school as to what they will be verifying to NRMP. You do not have enough information at this point to contact programs.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Speak with your dean and ask for their advice ASAP; no one on here can realistically tell you what this means since we don't know the ins-and-outs of how/when degrees are conferred at your school. Your school, in general, should be rather invested in your success, so I suspect while they are being very stern, you may likely be able to work something out with them.

 

[Killer T Cell]

I graduated from a British Medical School. We completed all our course requirements by beginning of May and all our marks were ratified and finalized by mid June. However our graduation and degree conferral date was around mid-July. This was the case in almost every UK medical school because post-graduate training there doesn't start until beginning of August. But I started planning and asking for help way ahead of time - around Nov-Dec! Worked my way up from the dean of the medical school to the chancellor of the entire University and was able to get an exemption (first time they have ever done such a thing!). They were able to issue a special warrant and print off an official degree for me around mid-June. The end result was that I was able to start residency on time without any hiccups. The whole process involved exchanging a million emails and a lot of pleading, but if you are persistent + determined you can move mountains. People are very understanding and accommodating when careers are at stake. I am sure that things will work out for you. Best of luck.

And you definitely need a diploma in hand, not just 'completion of requirements' to get state license. You might be able to get away with a few weeks or up to a month without a license if your residency program allows you to do something like a research month for the first block. But I'm not sure about that.

P.S. I wouldn't let programs know and jeopardise your position on rank lists until you have heard back from your medical school and university officials about the possibility of a special exemption.

 

[group_theory]

As soon as you find out where you will be doing your intern year, contact your PD and chief resident right away. You may not be able to get a license or training license until you graduate from medical school but your program may be able to help by scheduling non-clinical duties in July and August (ie research, vacation). Depending on the field (and how demanding intern year is), you may be able to mitigate the amount of time loss.

However, I don't know if HR will allow you to register as a resident/PGY1 without a license or confirmed medical school graduation date. And how fast your state board of medicine will be in granting a training license (once they confirm that you graduated from med school) is also another variable.

 

[shopsteward]

The first thing you should be looking at is whether there is some way to complete the technical requirements for your degree any earlier. You have about five months left before the May degree-conferring ceremony. Can you change any electives? Compress them by working additional hours? Forgo any leave you are due? Work additional days over Christmas/New Year/Easter/public holidays? Start talking now to whoever is in charge of your scheduling this year to try to work something out. Aim for the May ceremony, but even if that is not possible, aim to compress everything as much as possible.

At the same time, in case you can't get everything done for the May ceremony, follow Killer T's advice to talk to the powers that be at your medical school about getting a special dispensation to have your degree conferred in advance of the August ceremony.

Next, check your ERAS/NRMP eligibility. You don't want to get ruled out of the Match on a technicality. If there is any doubt about your eligibility, your medical school needs to be on to this as soon as possible. Your match/residency adviser at your medical school is the person to talk to here.

As long as you remain technically eligible for the Match, I don't think you have any need to contact programs before you find out where you have matched, and if you do it could be injurious to your chances - in a large field of competitive candidates, not being able to start on time could be used to lower your ranking with the program or take you out of matching altogether. But as soon as you match, if there is any question about your med school requirements being finished late or you not having your degree, you need to be in contact with your program to let them know what is going on. There is a lot of paperwork to get through before you start residency, and there is a critical path to getting it all completed in time. You need to give the residency admin as much notice as possible of potential problems, so that they can line everything up for you to start as soon as possible.

There should be a way through all this for you. As GoSpurs says, your medical school has an investment in your future success, so your immediate job is to get in contact with the people at your school who are in a position to help you sort this problem out. Good luck.

 

[BigBank]

Thanks for everyone responses. just to clarify a few more things, the registrar at my school and the dean are aware, they are the ones that informed me of the situation. unfortunately there is no way for me to finish by doing rotations during breaks and holidays, I am currently scheduled to do so and despite that i am still on track for jun 14th at the earliest. When i met with the registrar she never mentioned anything about me not being able to participate in the match, she told me it was my responsibility to inform places that I was interviewing at about my situation. I also did not ask because it slipped my mind at the time.

Now I am in a situation where I don't really whether to bring the issue up to her or hope she just verifies my nrmp application. Also I spoke to the university registrar and she told me that the degree would be granted the day the paperwork is filed but the diploma can not be given earlier they are very firm in that they only print the diplomas in may, august and january.

Also would my situation be any different if I only rank advanced programs, I will 100% have my degree by then and from my understanding since I am a D.O. its very easy to find an open traditional rotating intern year, I have been told that these programs are used to dealing with students in my situation and it should not be difficult to find a spot outside the match.

Thanks a lot, I truly appreciate everyones help

 

[p30doc]

Having the paper diploma is not important, my school didn't mail ours out until July, I didn't get mine from my parents until August. What matters is the degree conferral date which in your case sounds like it will be June 14th or so. Triple confirm that with your school. Since I didn't have my physical diploma before my start date my residency required a letter from my school stating the conferral date.

 

[Elisabeth Kate]

I'm pretty sure that if your degree is conferred on June 14th, you're fine. You just need to have your degree by then. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

As to whether or not you should only rank advanced programs, it's up to you, but be aware the ACGME is considering requiring everyone to do an ACGME internship/residency to be eligible for ACGME fellowships.

 

[Killer T Cell]

Now thinking about it p30doc is right, it is not the diploma what matters as much as the degree conferral date. For most people since both of them happen at the same time, they go hand in hand. From what I understand, your degree will be granted/conferred on June 14, but the diploma won't be issued until August? If that is the case, I would cold call a few state medical boards (states you are interested in) and just tell them your first name and no personal identifier details just to be safe. Then ask whether they could hypothetically provide someone a trainee license without having the diploma and just a degree conferral date and a letter from your medical school proving that. Their responses will help guide you as to whether the diploma is unimportant if your degree has already been conferred.

If your medical school will neither confer your degree nor grant you a diploma on June 14, find out who is higher than your dean on the chain of command and send them an email.

 

[IM2GI]

You paid this school ~$150,000 for your degree. If you have met the requirements, I would keep escalating this until someone will give you the darn thing in time to start your residency on time.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

The physical diploma does not matter. As long as you have a transcript that states that you have been given a degree, you are fine.

WS's advice above is right on the money. The NRMP will confirm the graduation status of all students on the day rank lists are due. You need to know if your school will state that you will be eligible to start training on July 1. If they confer a degree on 6/14, then you should be fine. If they do not (and confer the degree in August), then they will disqualify you from the match.

If you do match and then can't start (because your school certified you in error), you will NOT be able to start AT ALL at most programs. You will not be able to be hired without a degree, and not allowed to participate in any program activities including vacation, orientation, etc. If the program has unofficial activities (i.e. a picnic), you could go to that. However, if you cannot start on July 1 the program may simply ask to waive your match, and they can pick someone else. If you matched into my program and then couldn't start on time and you knew it before ROLs were due and didn't tell me, I'd be incredibly angry, waive your match, and send you packing.

So, bottom line:
1. Confirm with your school that they will certify you for the match
2. Assuming that, you have nothing to worry about.
3. Failing that, you then need a plan B (or push admin at your school to fix the problem).
4. "Not checking" always yields a bad outcome. Either A) everything is fine but you worry until rank lists are due; B) They withdraw you from the match and you haven't prepared a plan B; or C) they don't withdraw you, you match, and then can't start on time, and your program may be increibly angry.