Match Mishaps

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Well I had to wake up early for some mandatory bull and I hate waking up early, so I was tired and mad about that. I pumped a lot of caffeine into my system, which makes you irritable and has anxiogenic properties.

Then I see all these amazingly successful and happy people, and contrast that with my past failures and my anger at waking up early, and I feel terrible. 🙁

The Redbulls are wearing off now so I'll probably sleep soon.

But I'm afraid I won't survive residency, I hate the morning too much...

Did those med students not complete the courses that you're taking now? Do you think that their trek through 4 years was like running through a bunch of daisies with Honors being thrown at them like rose petals? I'll tell you right now it isn't.

If you let your basic science performance in 1st year impact you mentally with the years you have yet to complete, your problems will only snowball. That's nothing a pill will solve.

Medical school, Residency, and beyond is full of adversity (AS IS LIFE, and in any career). In fact that's one of the things all residencies ask for is HOW you dealt with adversity, bc NO ONE in life goes without adversity. You are not expected to be perfect or walk on water.
 
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Well I had to wake up early for some mandatory bull and I hate waking up early, so I was tired and mad about that....
But I'm afraid I won't survive residency, I hate the morning too much...

Sounds like you need to check out your sleep hygiene.

Try multiples of 90 minutes...6 hours...7.5 hours...

If I am in a crunch night before an exam, I go down to 4.5 hours. Wake up feeling not as bad as one would imagine...not something I would want to do repeatedly though.
 
So I went to Match Day, but I left early because seeing happy and successful people depresses me, and I felt bad for those who didn't match.

Even if they were deluded enough to think they could get into Derm when they clearly couldn't.

Dude what the hell
 
Oh, and some good news, I heard that some of the people who didn't match "soaped" successfully, though I'm not quite sure what a "soap" is.

SOAP = supplemental offer and acceptance program, or something like that. It's a more organized version of the scramble, if you know what that is. Essentially, everyone who didn't match gets a chance to apply to the programs that didn't fill and go through 3 or 4 rounds of torture to see if they can get one of those spots. Usually it's not a spot in the specialty you originally wanted to match in.
 
Well I had to wake up early for some mandatory bull and I hate waking up early, so I was tired and mad about that. I pumped a lot of caffeine into my system, which makes you irritable and has anxiogenic properties.

Then I see all these amazingly successful and happy people, and contrast that with my past failures and my anger at waking up early, and I feel terrible. 🙁

The Redbulls are wearing off now so I'll probably sleep soon.

But I'm afraid I won't survive residency, I hate the morning too much...

You have problems. I mean, I'm not a doctor or anything, but you have problems.
 
So I'm at a mid-tier US Allo school. This year, we had 11 people out of about 145 go unmatched. I thought this was rather high. I asked some of my fourth year friends why this happened. I thought it was because we had a lot of failing or marginal students.

But my fourth year friends said that wasn't the case. They said that a lot of the people going unmatched had poorly constructed their lists, putting too many high-tier hospitals. Others tried to aim for specialties their scores/grades weren't competitive for. The fourth years also said Orthopaedic Surgery was abnormally competitive this year.

Are my friends right? Why are so many people going unmatched?


I heard stony brook also had similar #s of students unmatched this year. Not sure if its true.
 
You have problems. I mean, I'm not a doctor or anything, but you have problems.

You're not the first person to tell me that, and you certainly won't be the last. Yes, I have problems. But my biggest problem right now is making it to MS-2 and setting myself up to pass STEP-1. So let's solve that issue before we focus on other, less proximate things.
 
You're not the first person to tell me that, and you certainly won't be the last. Yes, I have problems. But my biggest problem right now is making it to MS-2 and setting myself up to pass STEP-1. So let's solve that issue before we focus on other, less proximate things.

There's nothing wrong with what you felt. Ignore what ppl are saying. Everyone has insecurities, and MANY ppl feel upset when seeing successful ppl. just look at all the protests we are having against the top 1%.

But obviously it's probably not the best feeling to have lol
 
There's nothing wrong with what you felt. Ignore what ppl are saying. Everyone has insecurities, and MANY ppl feel upset when seeing successful ppl. just look at all the protests we are having against the top 1%.

But obviously it's probably not the best feeling to have lol

I'm pretty sure it's nothing substantive besides me being angry about waking up early for something I don't want to do (watch a boring clinical presentation).

Fortunately, I was able to put my time to good use, completely ignore the presented material, and crank out a lot of practice questions on Neuro/Psych.
 
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I heard stony brook also had similar #s of students unmatched this year. Not sure if its true.

isn't stony brook a well-known, super malignant program?

or am i high again
 
This is true. However, if you are aiming for IM, for example, and you have a ~240/240 for your USMLE, and you interview with:

Hopkins, Penn, UChicago, Cook County Hospital, UCLA-Harbor, Lenox Hill Hosp, MassGen, Loyola University Medical Ctr, Stanford University Hosp, Stamford (CT) Hospital, North Shore University Hospital, UTSW, Brown/Rhode Island Hospital, Vanderbilt, University of Florida, Washington Hospital Center, and WashU, but then your ROL looks like this:

1. MassGen
2. Stanford
3. Hopkins
4. Penn
5. UTSW
6. UChicago
7. WashU
8. Vanderbilt
9. Brown/RI Hospital

but you don't include the community programs like Loyola, UCLA-Harbor, Lenox Hill, NorthShore, even at the bottom of your ROL, then you aren't doing yourself any favors at all. You're being over-confident with the ROL, and the match can only be done "in favor of the applicant" to the extent to the total # of programs that will rank the applicant. "In favor of the applicant" just means that you will get placed to the highest priority program on your ROL that has also ranked you. So, if, according to the above sample ROL, at the very least Brown has not ranked you, then the other programs won't even be able to recruit you because of their exclusion from your ROL, even if they were your last choice programs.

Wait, I'm confused. So, why don't people rank every program they interviewed at?
 
Wait, I'm confused. So, why don't people rank every program they interviewed at?
If you go somewhere and hate it, then you don't rank it--some people would rather not match than be stuck at a place they hate, or they don't feel like they will drop that far down their list that it will matter if they leave 1 or 2 programs off the bottom.

Same goes for the programs--if they don't like you they don't rank you.
 
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isn't stony brook a well-known, super malignant program?

or am i high again

Stony brook medical school? what? it's a pretty good medical school

Wait, I'm confused. So, why don't people rank every program they interviewed at?

some ppl aren't as smart as you think lol... unless they really think they can do better by going through the match again.
 
If you go somewhere and hate it, then you don't rank it--some people would rather not match than be stuck at a place they hate, or they don't feel like they will drop that far down their list that it will matter if they leave 1 or 2 programs off the bottom.

Same goes for the programs--if they don't like you they don't rank you.
I wonder what that's like, to interview at a program and hate it so much that you think you would rather be unemployed with no marketable skills and in debt up to your eyeballs than do a residency there.

And then not match, and think to yourself "you know, working there for a few years might not have been so bad after all..."
 
You're not the first person to tell me that, and you certainly won't be the last. Yes, I have problems. But my biggest problem right now is making it to MS-2 and setting myself up to pass STEP-1. So let's solve that issue before we focus on other, less proximate things.
Hang in there man, med school's rough and a roller coaster of emotions but you'll get through it.
 
You're not the first person to tell me that, and you certainly won't be the last. Yes, I have problems. But my biggest problem right now is making it to MS-2 and setting myself up to pass STEP-1. So let's solve that issue before we focus on other, less proximate things.

famous last words
 
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You're not the first person to tell me that, and you certainly won't be the last. Yes, I have problems. But my biggest problem right now is making it to MS-2 and setting myself up to pass STEP-1. So let's solve that issue before we focus on other, less proximate things.

The way you're inherently perceiving and taking in things IS a proximate thing that will create problems for you esp. when you hit clinical rotations. More than you realize.
 
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You're not the first person to tell me that, and you certainly won't be the last. Yes, I have problems. But my biggest problem right now is making it to MS-2 and setting myself up to pass STEP-1. So let's solve that issue before we focus on other, less proximate things.
You need a set of those horse blinders.

horse_with_blinders_1792214.jpg
 
I'm pretty sure it's nothing substantive besides me being angry about waking up early for something I don't want to do (watch a boring clinical presentation).

Wait till you hit clinical rotations such as your Surgery rotation when you'll be waking up ridiculously early for something you don't want to do, you'll be craving the days you only have to sit and listen to a boring clinical presentation.
 
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I wonder what that's like, to interview at a program and hate it so much that you think you would rather be unemployed with no marketable skills and in debt up to your eyeballs than do a residency there.

And then not match, and think to yourself "you know, working there for a few years might not have been so bad after all..."

If you look at some of the residency programs that are pure IMG mills, this very well might be the case.
 
famous last words

Haters gonna hate, yolo.

The way you're inherently perceiving and taking in things IS a proximate thing that will create problems for you esp. when you hit clinical rotations. More than you realize.

I'm not sure I understand.

Wait till you hit clinical rotations such as your Surgery rotation when you'll be waking up ridiculously early for something you don't want to do.

Yeah, at our school surgery is known as the most horrible, abusive, and "malignant" (not quite sure what it has to do with cancer though) rotation by far. I'm afraid...


You need a set of those horse blinders.

I don't know what you're trying to say, but I have no doubt that you seek to insult me yet again. So be it.
 
Haters gonna hate, yolo.



I'm not sure I understand.



Yeah, at our school surgery is known as the most horrible, abusive, and "malignant" (not quite sure what it has to do with cancer though) rotation by far. I'm afraid...




I don't know what you're trying to say, but I have no doubt that you seek to insult me yet again. So be it.

Malignant does not mean "cancer" in this context. It's talking about mistreatment and abuse towards a person, whether that be attending to resident, attending to student, resident to intern, resident to medical student, or intern to student. That being said, in general, medical students are not always the best judges of "malignancy", esp. since many take any legitimate criticism whatsoever, no matter how constructive, and are quick to label it as that person being "malignant".

These days, many students label having to wake up before 6 AM for a rotation as being "malignant", which then delegitimizes real cases of faculty or programs being malignant.
 
Malignant does not mean "cancer" in this context. It's talking about mistreatment and abuse towards a person, whether that be attending to resident, attending to student, resident to intern, resident to medical student, or intern to student. That being said, in general, medical students are not always the best judges of "malignancy", esp. since many take any legitimate criticism whatsoever, no matter how constructive, and are quick to label it as that person being "malignant".

These days, many students label having to wake up before 6 AM for a rotation as being "malignant", which then delegitimizes real cases of faculty or programs being malignant.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. No, actually, I am sure how I feel about that. Not a morning person by any means whatsoever.
 
Haters gonna hate, yolo.



I'm not sure I understand.



Yeah, at our school surgery is known as the most horrible, abusive, and "malignant" (not quite sure what it has to do with cancer though) rotation by far. I'm afraid...




I don't know what you're trying to say, but I have no doubt that you seek to insult me yet again. So be it.

get off sdn and study

or you seriously won't make it to M2
 
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I had to be in the hospital between 4:30 and 5am during much of my surgery rotation.
And the intern is usually there before the med students--so baked beans is in even bigger trouble once (s)he becomes an intern.

Just something to look forward to 😉
 
I'm not sure how I feel about that. No, actually, I am sure how I feel about that. Not a morning person by any means whatsoever.

I should probably be more accurate and say that for Surgery, you'll have to BE IN THE HOSPITAL at 4:30 or 5 in the AM.

Once you hit clinical rotations, you no longer get the "protection" of the lecture based didactic classroom in your first 2 years with good night's sleep, exercise everyday, a professor who doesn't yell at you, etc. You will work with interns and residents many of whom are sleep-deprived and the attendings, in which you have no real role to contribute to patient care, but will be evaluated on certain, arguably subjective metrics.

If people think their rank changes greatly during the first 2 years, it definitely changes in the clinical years when the key to getting "Honors" is no longer just filling in multiple choice bubbles on an answer sheet.
 
And the intern is usually there before the med students--so baked beans is in even bigger trouble once (s)he becomes an intern.

Just something to look forward to 😉

Just hope he isn't (and I have no reason to believe bakedbeans is) the oblivious medical student who complains about how "tired" and "sleep-deprived" he/she is to the intern. 😆
 
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Once you hit clinical rotations, you no longer get the "protection" of the lecture based didactic classroom in your first 2 years with good night's sleep, exercise everyday, a professor who doesn't yell at you, etc. You will work with interns and residents many of whom are sleep-deprived and the attendings, in which you have no real role to contribute to patient care, but will be evaluated on certain, arguably subjective metrics.

Actually, during an exam review, one of our Micro professors threatened to "break the necks" of any students who missed one of the easier questions. I'm not sure he was kidding...
 
Actually, during an exam review, one of our Micro professors threatened to "break the necks" of any students who missed one of the easier questions. I'm not sure he was kidding...

LOL! Pretty sure he/she is kidding, as with any PhD professor, only you suffer (i.e. your grade) when you miss test questions, esp. easy ones.

Attendings on the other can get angry, as medical students (even though they are learning) can at the best slow things down or at the worst, f up patient care, if given too long of a leash, esp. in this malpractice environment.
 
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Just hope he isn't (and I have no reason to believe bakedbeans is) the oblivious medical student who complains about how "tired" and "sleep-deprived" he/she is to the intern. 😆

This is the reason I don't complain to anybody besides SDN: because I know that everyone senior to me has also gone through this crap.

But that doesn't make it any more palatable.
 
This is the reason I don't complain to anybody besides SDN: because I know that everyone senior to me has also gone through this crap.

But that doesn't make it any more palatable.

No one ever said going through medical school was a walk in the park (and if they did, they told you wrong). I don't know ANYONE that wishes they could go through medical school again. You're not going to be just "handed" a six-figure paycheck salary with no real responsibility. You have to earn it and push yourself harder than you've had to before. In general, if you want a higher salary, that's going to require more time and effort on your part on the job, (ex. Neurosurgeon vs. Pediatrician). If you want a specialty with more time for family, lifestyle, etc. then you must be willing to accept the concomitant decrease in salary.

They've done studies which have shown that medical school truly changes you from MS-1 to MS-4. For some people it's better, for some it's worse. It's up to you to decide in which direction that is.
 
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No one ever said going through medical school was a walk in the park (and if they did, they told you wrong). I don't know ANYONE that wishes they could go through medical school again. You're not going to be just "handed" a six-figure paycheck salary with no real responsibility. You have to earn it. In general if you want a higher salary, that's going to require more time and effort on your part on the job, (ex. Neurosurgeon vs. Pediatrician). If you want a specialty with more time for family, lifestyle, etc. then you must be willing to accept the concomitant decrease in salary.

They've done studies which have shown that medical school truly changes you from MS-1 to MS-4. For some people it's better, for some it's worse. It's up to you to decide in which direction that is.

I've changed a lot just over MS-1. For one, I gained about 10 pounds of fat and lost some muscle thanks to binge eating. For another, I lost a lot of the cheerfulness and optimism I used to possess.

If I had to talk about positive changes, I have learned how to add structure to my work, set goals and plans, and actually carry them out successfully.


What people told me was that medicine involved a decade of suffering through training in exchange for a happy life as an attending. But from seeing and hearing from doctors, I'm starting to think that medicine is a life of suffering. Or maybe it's just my preceptor, who is one of the most dour women I have ever met. She makes me look like a walking ray of sunshine.


I don't really care about salary for the most part, lifestyle is the most important thing to me.
 
I've changed a lot just over MS-1. For one, I gained about 10 pounds of fat and lost some muscle thanks to binge eating. For another, I lost a lot of the cheerfulness and optimism I used to possess.

If I had to talk about positive changes, I have learned how to add structure to my work, set goals and plans, and actually carry them out successfully.

What people told me was that medicine involved a decade of suffering through training in exchange for a happy life as an attending. But from seeing and hearing from doctors, I'm starting to think that medicine is a life of suffering. Or maybe it's just my preceptor, who is one of the most dour women I have ever met. She makes me look like a walking ray of sunshine.

I don't really care about salary for the most part, lifestyle is the most important thing to me.

Highly depends on the specialty - and not just the ROAD specialties either.

You aren't any different in that respect. The literature has noted a HUGE change in what medical students value now vs. medical students a generation ago. Back then, Internal Medicine and General Surgery were one of the most competitive specialties and students at the top of the class gravitated towards those fields. Surgery applicants who were at the bottom of the class did Ortho. Salary was not a huge consideration back then, bc everyone got paid a lot . Mind you those such as Neurosurgeons, etc. got paid much more but that was expected since they put many more years in residency. Fast forward to now.

I think it's bc med students have a different value set in which they believe that medicine shouldn't encompass their entire lives at the expense of other things vs. previously in which medicine was a "calling" which is utter BS in my opinion. I expect lifestyle considerations to become MUCH more common once reimbursements start heavily declining.
 
Highly depends on the specialty - and not just the ROAD specialties either.

You aren't any different in that respect. The literature has noted a HUGE change in what medical students value now vs. medical students a generation ago. Back then, Internal Medicine and General Surgery were one of the most competitive specialties and students at the top of the class gravitated towards those fields. Surgery applicants who were at the bottom of the class did Ortho. Salary was not a huge consideration back then, bc everyone got paid a lot . Mind you those such as Neurosurgeons, etc. got paid much more but that was expected since they put many more years in residency. Fast forward to now.

I think it's bc med students have a different value set in which they believe that medicine shouldn't encompass their entire lives at the expense of other things vs. previously in which medicine was a "calling" which is utter BS in my opinion. I expect lifestyle considerations to become MUCH more common once reimbursements start heavily declining.

Glad I'm not the only person that thinks this.

Frankly, those who claim medicine as a 'calling' tend to put that sentiment forth sanctimoniously. As if to say that someone who has entered medicine with motivations other than a devotion to humanity, are a lesser quality student and will move on to become a lesser quality of physician. I find solace somewhat in the idea that medical school admissions these days do not give a serious eye to an applicant that appears to flippantly suggest that medicine is what they were destined for, rather than arriving at that decision through a series of experiences and self-reflection.
 
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Glad I'm not the only person that thinks this.

Frankly, those who claim medicine as a 'calling' tend to put that sentiment forth sanctimoniously. As if to say that someone who has entered medicine with motivations other than a devotion to humanity, are a lesser quality student and will move on to become a lesser quality of physician. I find solace somewhat in the idea that medical school admissions these days do not give a serious eye to an applicant that appears to flippantly suggest that medicine is what they were destined for, rather than arriving at that decision through a series of experiences and self-reflection.

Oh, definitely. I was talking to a woman in my class about how we came to medicine. She was a naive save-the-world idealist. I was pretty upfront about the fact that I'm doing this cause of the swag and because it's cool. She's been giving me the silent treatment since.

I remember a few SDNers some time ago deriding anyone who said that lifestyle was a serious issue to them. Yeah, well I got better things to do than throw away my life working 80+ hrs/week as an attending.
 
Oh, definitely. I was talking to a woman in my class about how we came to medicine. She was a naive save-the-world idealist. I was pretty upfront about the fact that I'm doing this cause of the swag and because it's cool. She's been giving me the silent treatment since.

I remember a few SDNers some time ago deriding anyone who said that lifestyle was a serious issue to them. Yeah, well I got better things to do than throw away my life working 80+ hrs/week as an attending.

Likewise my friend, likewise. My inspiration to pursue a career in medicine was born out of a childhood tragedy, so in that sense I've got the superhero syndrome - you know, a hero is born from an event in their past which must be avenged - but I arrived at that decision with considerable latency, and at the end of the day, lifestyle, salary, and status are not insignificant factors to my motivation. By no means are they at the forefront of my influences, but they aren't necessarily an afterthought either. The ability to one day spare my children from graduating college with same crippling debt that I did, is very appealing.
 
Glad I'm not the only person that thinks this.

Frankly, those who claim medicine as a 'calling' tend to put that sentiment forth sanctimoniously. As if to say that someone who has entered medicine with motivations other than a devotion to humanity, are a lesser quality student and will move on to become a lesser quality of physician. I find solace somewhat in the idea that medical school admissions these days do not give a serious eye to an applicant that appears to flippantly suggest that medicine is what they were destined for, rather than arriving at that decision through a series of experiences and self-reflection.

Medicine up to this point has attracted the brain power it has bc of the salary potential. Those who say that medicine is a "calling" at the expense of other things, tend to also burnout the fastest and become unhappy IMHO. It's idiotic esp. since students are forking out nearly 6 figures in loan debt. No one in their right mind would go through premed, the absolute hell of medical school (and I'm not just talking about the studying in the first years), and residency, if medicine didn't pay relatively well.
There's a reason that attendings in lifestyle specialties (not just ROAD, but even outpatient Psych or PM&R), tend to overall be happier, snap less at people, etc. Being more than 1-dimensional is the key: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/health/02resident.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
 
Oh, definitely. I was talking to a woman in my class about how we came to medicine. She was a naive save-the-world idealist. I was pretty upfront about the fact that I'm doing this cause of the swag and because it's cool. She's been giving me the silent treatment since.

I remember a few SDNers some time ago deriding anyone who said that lifestyle was a serious issue to them. Yeah, well I got better things to do than throw away my life working 80+ hrs/week as an attending.

Just wait till by the time she finishes medical school. I guarantee you that save-the-world mentality will disappear, if it hasn't already. The people who are the save-the-world idealist, everyone should have free healthcare AMSA types, are exactly the ones who burnout the fastest and if they do end up finishing residency, will change their tune or in her case probably end up working part-time, on the so-called mommy track (so much for saving the world!)
 
My school went like 15 out of 20 or something in Ortho this year (with some big name programs too, surprisingly). Most of those 5 who didn't match SOAPed into a surgery pre-lim or some other field. Not sure why, but I assume it was going for the higher end Ortho programs (instead of being happy with any Ortho program)

Besides that, we did relatively well too. 4/4 in Ophtho, 5/6 in Uro, 2/2 in Rad Onc, 3/3 in Derm. 4/4 in ENT, etc.
 
My school went like 15 out of 20 or something in Ortho this year (with some big name programs too, surprisingly). Most of those 5 who didn't match SOAPed into a surgery pre-lim or some other field. Not sure why, but I assume it was going for the higher end Ortho programs (instead of being happy with any Ortho program)

Besides that, we did relatively well too. 4/4 in Ophtho, 5/6 in Uro, 2/2 in Rad Onc, 3/3 in Derm. 4/4 in ENT, etc.

Now that is just plain stupid.
 
This year was actually a much better match for my class. Before last year, it was typical to have 1-5 unmatched per class. Last year, we had 15 out of 170ish not match (only 9 of those were able to SOAP, a few more got post-SOAP offers, and a few more did research/dropped off the face of the planet) and were told schools around the nation all saw similar numbers thanks to more med schools being created without new residency spots opening (there's a lovely graph showing the open positions and applicants majorly criss-crossing last year but I'm too lazy to look for it now). We were warned like crazy this year about having backups, ranking many programs, etc. and managed to only have 5-6 unmatched in my class (1 ENT, 1 neurosurg, 1 ortho, 1 EM, and 1 plastics). We matched 3/3 optho, 1/2 neurosurg, 1/1 uro, 3/3 derm, 11/12 ortho, 3/4 ENT, 2/2 rad onc, 1/1 vascular surgery, etc. EM and Ortho just see really high numbers of applications from my school.

Complete side note about the intern being there before the med students on surgery, not usually true at my school. We routinely got there at 4:30 or 5 and had to have the vitals/labs written into the list by the time the intern showed up around 5 or 5:30. Granted, most days, they stayed later than we did (but not always since they don't usually go into cases... especially long ones).
 
Unless of course, you match into derm

Even derm doesn't make as much as you THINK it does (i.e. anesthesia). Surveys can be misleading.
 
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