New SOAP guidelines and telephone interviews

[joecole]

With regards to SOAP coming in place for the Scramble next year, does anyone know how telephone interviews work? Do you have to have an US telephone/cell number or be physically in the states?

I figured with SOAP dealing exclusively online now with the offers and acceptances as part of its program and the fact that now you can't call/fax/email programs anymore that one wouldnt have to do much beyond logging in and selecting which unfilled programs to apply to. However I just found out that programs also have telephone interviews with applicants.

Any idea if programs call international for these interviews? I wasn't planning to be in the States during match week, and especially since the Scramble was done with I thought it wouldn't need to be. However, I might need to change my plans.

Any help is much appreciated - Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I don't think anyone really knows what will happen next year. Until now, we have done telephone interviews for the regular scramble already. Most people had a US phone number as a contact number, but often the phone contact was initiated by the applicant.

Next year, I might use Skype to video chat with people. Or I will be calling people to interview over the phone. It's unlikely that I would be excited about calling overseas (excepting Canada, not that it's "overseas" in any way). If you're serious about participating in SOAP (or the scramble), I would highly recommend being in the states when it happens. At a minimum you need to make it very easy for PD's to contact you. I don't know if you can get an incoming US phone number for skype, and then use the internet to accept phone calls -- but then you are dependent on everything working.

 

[Neuro or Derm]

.I don't know if you can get an incoming US phone number for skype, and then use the internet to accept phone calls -- but then you are dependent on everything working.

I like your idea about using Skype for video chat interviews: it's free for both parties.

People can easily pay for a "skypeIn" number which works pretty well...but like you said, when everything is working. There are also US numbers with Gmail, Vonage, MagicJack or any VOIP service but they all use the internet, so if s/he gets stuck with a bad internet connection (or no electricity) then they're out of luck.

Or one can pay their cellphone company the extra cash for an international calling plan and at least be able to rely (somewhat) on the cell service.

 

[joecole]

Thanks for the response!

I just found out you can use a device called BlackJack to get a US number and accept phone calls through the internet...I've been told its highly reliable.

The other option would be to use a friend in the states as a proxy and have the friend let the PD know that you will call them back right away.

As a PD, do you think those two options would be suitable? Would using both those options together be a safe combination or that I should I still seriously reconsider being in the states during match week?

Thanks again

 

[McGillGrad]

I will mirror what was said above with Skype and their US number you can use.

 

[Shoushu]

As a PD, do you think those two options would be suitable? Would using both those options together be a safe combination or that I should I still seriously reconsider being in the states during match week?

Thanks again

I'm interested in the question too. Because , gasp, if things don't go perfectly, I may need to scramble one day. I don't know how the process works yet, but I'm not M1 yet.

Plan to start med school in big city in China in sept. I hope I can get a residency 5 years down the road (I'm enrolling in a 5yr med program at a Top10 med school in China). I intend to get great USMLE scores.

If I'm in China with future scramble, i really hope Skype etc would be widely used then.

 

[818Barbie]

Is it necessary to get a phone interview to match in soap? I haven't received any communications yet and wonder if that means zero offers on round one...

Please help

 

[MedicalMoose]

Is it necessary to get a phone interview to match in soap? I haven't received any communications yet and wonder if that means zero offers on round one...

Please help

You still have all day today (Tuesday) to get phone calls. The very first offer isn't extended until tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12pm eastern time.
Schedule: http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/faq/io_pd_faq.html#18B

I just said this in another thread... but I'll repeat it here...
Theoretically, a program could offer a spot to someone in one of the eight SOAP rounds without even making contact to an applicant. BUT, I imagine the odds of that are a lot like the general match interview & rank phase, in which candidates are very unlikely to match at a place they didn't interview at. And there are so many candidates per position in the SOAP that I can't imagine someone getting an offer without getting contacted.

With that being said, if I had ended up in this awful SOAP phase, I would have taken the entire week off to deal with it. What if Friday rolls around and a program didn't get someone they thought they were going to get in round 7, for whatever reason, and they need to make an immediate call to the next person in line? That person could be you, on Friday, and if you're not around to talk to them, they will move on to the next possible applicant. Until the last SOAP round of offers is extended on Friday (last offer made at 3pm eastern time, closes at 5pm), I think it's a good idea to be available to talk with programs.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I think it's fair to say that no program is going to extend an offer to someone they haven't spoken to. That would be crazy.

 

[punch]

so until when should we expect to hear from the program over phone/email? Am i assuming correctly that most programs will interview on Wed morning and then certify their rank list and seal the deal.

 

[RooRooBears]

so until when should we expect to hear from the program over phone/email? Am i assuming correctly that most programs will interview on Wed morning and then certify their rank list and seal the deal.

I certainly hope so. If that's true... us West Coast people better wake up at 5 AM and be ready to roll