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Anybody who has not gotten love letters from NW & Duke? Feeling a little left out, or maybe mine is on the way...
love letters from NW & Duke?
- Thread starter drphysicianMD
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What love letters? I haven't heard anything from Duke...
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DON'T WORRY. I matched last year and spent lots of time and energy worrying about lack of love letters, mostly because people on this board talk a lot about it. I got no unsolicited love letters (I did get positive feedback from the program where I matched, but I also told that program I was ranking them first). After match day, I got letters from both Duke and NW, among others, saying that I would have matched there if I had wanted to. (Lots of programs send out surveys trying to figure out why the people they liked chose not to rank them first.) So stop fretting and live life. You won't have so much time to do so next year. 🙂
thank you note from PD at NW after my interview.
email from one of my interviewers at Duke after the interview
both said something to the effect of "we'd love to have you here"
But haven't gotten anything from Duke PD and nothing since immediately after my interview.....
email from one of my interviewers at Duke after the interview
both said something to the effect of "we'd love to have you here"
But haven't gotten anything from Duke PD and nothing since immediately after my interview.....
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I certainly remember the anxiety-provoking nature of the match process. I felt like I didn't know where I stood with regards to several programs, whereas others were very forthcoming about sending "we want you" letters. Looking back on it now though, I realize that this isn't really a legitimate concern from the standpoint of the match itself. Sure, it's enough to drive you crazy when you're going through it, and for that reason it really sucks, but if you properly understand the match algorhythm then it really shouldn't matter at all in the grand scheme of things.
The way the match works, there's NEVER a reason to order your rank list based on anything but your own personal preference. Even if you think you have only a snowball's chance in hell of matching at your dream program, you should still rank it #1 if it's clearly your top preference. Whether or not they send you a love letter shouldn't make a shred of a difference, because the match algorhythm favors YOU, the applicant, in that way. If they don't rank you at all then you won't match there, but this also won't hurt your chances of matching into your #2 program. That's why you should only order your list in terms of where you'd most like to go, regardless of anything you think they implied, or said in a letter. Please please please don't read into these letters...they mean nothing! The only thing that matters is where you rank them, and subsequently where they rank you. Don't fall into the trap of re-ordering your list based on communications from programs...there's a reason why they're not allowed to say much per the NRMP rules, and it's because of this very problem that the rules were developed. Otherwise the process could become unfair, and would defeat the whole purpose of the match.
Just relax and enjoy the remainder of 4th year, because you'll never have a schedule this great again!
The way the match works, there's NEVER a reason to order your rank list based on anything but your own personal preference. Even if you think you have only a snowball's chance in hell of matching at your dream program, you should still rank it #1 if it's clearly your top preference. Whether or not they send you a love letter shouldn't make a shred of a difference, because the match algorhythm favors YOU, the applicant, in that way. If they don't rank you at all then you won't match there, but this also won't hurt your chances of matching into your #2 program. That's why you should only order your list in terms of where you'd most like to go, regardless of anything you think they implied, or said in a letter. Please please please don't read into these letters...they mean nothing! The only thing that matters is where you rank them, and subsequently where they rank you. Don't fall into the trap of re-ordering your list based on communications from programs...there's a reason why they're not allowed to say much per the NRMP rules, and it's because of this very problem that the rules were developed. Otherwise the process could become unfair, and would defeat the whole purpose of the match.
Just relax and enjoy the remainder of 4th year, because you'll never have a schedule this great again!
i received snail mail from both programs a couple weeks after each interview. they were both personal, especially the one from the associate PD at Duke. nothing like "ranked to match" though.
my friends who have matched at duke in past years never did receive such mail, so it may be something new they are doing this year, given the problems with the scramble last year...?
my friends who have matched at duke in past years never did receive such mail, so it may be something new they are doing this year, given the problems with the scramble last year...?
