need opinions about love letters and silence after very positive IV

[Parmax]

Hi,

I need the opinions of some of the experienced members of the community.

I am an older guy who did a residency in general surgery back in Europe. I wanted a change in my life (midlife transition I guess) and wanted to come to the US. I was pretty fortunate to get IVs from 4 univ. programs two are (very big ones) but most were prelims.

During the IV in a pretty good program the PD told me that I was the best candidate he has seen this year and I should keep in touch whatever happened. with the asc. pd we talked half an hour on gastric cancers (my favorite topic) and he told me that it would be unfair to give me a prelim position so he will be requesting a cat. position after the IV (in the meeting). The PD called me to remind me to keep in touch after the IV. it was a pretty good day. I have sent them thank you letters and received no response and I think this is normal. last week I sent them an other email asking politely if they would have any advice regarding the match and ranking process and I just got a one line message "your enthusiasm and ambition is appreciated, lets wait for ERAS procedures".

the second program a mid level univ. program asc. pd was very interested in gastric prosthesis that are in used in europe and after the IVs he said " I just cant believe you are applying for a first year position, we probably will give you an off cycle match" up to date I got no responses to my thank you letters and a letter of intend.

so far all the programs I have had IVs are in total silence like the towns under german attack in the WWII.

I do not know how to interpret the situation and I would greatly appreciate your experiences on the matter. I have been reading some of the threads and it seems that some specialties are sending out love letters to some of their applicants (like anesthesia), although my rank order list is ready and would not be affected by any love letter it would be a little bit reassuring getting a slight clue of the things going on.

Thank you for your help.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Parmax]

Hi,

I need the opinions of some of the experienced members of the community.

I am an older guy who did a residency in general surgery back in Europe. I wanted a change in my life (midlife transition I guess) and wanted to come to the US. I was pretty fortunate to get IVs from 4 univ. programs two are (very big ones) but most were prelims.

During the IV in a pretty good program the PD told me that I was the best candidate he has seen this year and I should keep in touch whatever happened. with the asc. pd we talked half an hour on gastric cancers (my favorite topic) and he told me that it would be unfair to give me a prelim position so he will be requesting a cat. position after the IV (in the meeting). The PD called me to remind me to keep in touch after the IV. it was a pretty good day. I have sent them thank you letters and received no response and I think this is normal. last week I sent them an other email asking politely if they would have any advice regarding the match and ranking process and I just got a one line message "your enthusiasm and ambition is appreciated, lets wait for ERAS procedures".

the second program a mid level univ. program asc. pd was very interested in gastric prosthesis that are in used in europe and after the IVs he said " I just cant believe you are applying for a first year position, we probably will give you an off cycle match" up to date I got no responses to my thank you letters and a letter of intend.

so far all the programs I have had IVs are in total silence like the towns under german attack in the WWII.

I do not know how to interpret the situation and I would greatly appreciate your experiences on the matter. I have been reading some of the threads and it seems that some specialties are sending out love letters to some of their applicants (like anesthesia), although my rank order list is ready and would not be affected by any love letter it would be a little bit reassuring getting a slight clue of the things going on.

Thank you for your help.

 

[SLUser11]

Hi,

I need the opinions of some of the experienced members of the community.

I am an older guy who did a residency in general surgery back in Europe. I wanted a change in my life (midlife transition I guess) and wanted to come to the US. I was pretty fortunate to get IVs from 4 univ. programs two are (very big ones) but most were prelims.

During the IV in a pretty good program the PD told me that I was the best candidate he has seen this year and I should keep in touch whatever happened. with the asc. pd we talked half an hour on gastric cancers (my favorite topic) and he told me that it would be unfair to give me a prelim position so he will be requesting a cat. position after the IV (in the meeting). The PD called me to remind me to keep in touch after the IV. it was a pretty good day. I have sent them thank you letters and received no response and I think this is normal. last week I sent them an other email asking politely if they would have any advice regarding the match and ranking process and I just got a one line message "your enthusiasm and ambition is appreciated, lets wait for ERAS procedures".

the second program a mid level univ. program asc. pd was very interested in gastric prosthesis that are in used in europe and after the IVs he said " I just cant believe you are applying for a first year position, we probably will give you an off cycle match" up to date I got no responses to my thank you letters and a letter of intend.

so far all the programs I have had IVs are in total silence like the towns under german attack in the WWII.

I do not know how to interpret the situation and I would greatly appreciate your experiences on the matter. I have been reading some of the threads and it seems that some specialties are sending out love letters to some of their applicants (like anesthesia), although my rank order list is ready and would not be affected by any love letter it would be a little bit reassuring getting a slight clue of the things going on.

Thank you for your help.

This may be a situation where the programs are afraid to rank you because you seem "overqualified," and they assume there's something wrong with you that they haven't seen.

Either way, for them to show that much enthusiasm initially, and then to say something along the lines of "let's just wait to see how the match goes" is an overall bad sign. It doesn't mean that they don't respect your accomplishments and talents, but it may mean they're reconsidering their statements.

Now, if you were a traditional applicant in the same situation, I'd tell you not to worry, because a lot of programs don't give any feedback, and may still rank you pretty high. However, your situation is unique, and they seemed to want some post-interview interaction initially.

Either way, is it going to change how you set up your ROL? Probably not. Just make sure to include some prelims on there.

 

[hope79]

My impression is that, in surgery especially, programs like hearing that you are interested in them and will rank them first (not just 'highly'), but tend not to respond because of fear of violating the NRMP match rules.

If you've already let the programs in your top 4 choices know that you would like to go there, you've done your part and just need to wait.

 

[Buzz Me]

Duplicate threads merged.