Hi everyone! I was hoping for some advice as a reapplicant. I applied EM last year but did not get any interviews. I think that my problems were: (1) having below average SLOEs and (2) never taking step 2 ck. I've decided to delay graduation to 2020 to do more away rotations and reapply next year. I've received multiple away offers, and I'm trying to decide how many to take vs. how much time to devote to getting letters of recommendation for applications in another specialty.
I can do aways basically June through September (for SLOEs) and on into next year if I so choose, but I'm not sure how beneficial that would be. My gut tells me to take a million aways just for the fun of traveling around the country doing EM rotations and improving my knowledge and skills. But I'm on private loans now and if I don't match next year, it could be difficult to repay these long term. Do I need a backup specialty for next cycle?
-Step 1: 250-260
-Step 2 cs: passed; ck: haven't taken - practice tests at 250
-Awards in MS1 and MS2 for academic performance
-Mediocre MS3
-No red flags other than as listed above
Thanks for your time - any advice you can provide is appreciated!
I'm confused, are you saying you still haven't passed Step 2CK yet? I mean I get not taking it by the time applications go live, but you should have taken it by now. That being said, it wasn't CK, I assure you. Programs don't avoid interviewing a candidate because they hadn't taken Step 2 yet. It was 100% your SLOEs. There's major red flags in there if you got zero interviews. That tells me you need to scrap all of them and start over and get all new SLOEs if you want a chance to match EM this year. The only way it wasn't the SLOEs is if there is another huge red flag you aren't mentioning (which you said there isn't). People who get one or sometimes two low 1/3 SLOEs still often get at least some interviews and still can match. So the fact that you got none tells me there is some really damning statements in last years SLOEs and possibly a DNR SLOE or two.
Before anything else, you need to get insight into what is going wrong. How did you get decent board scores and academic awards in M1-2, then get all mediocre grades in M3 and presumably terrible SLOEs. Whatever is going wrong with your clinical performance isn't a knowledge issue. You have to figure this out, first and foremost, and fix it. You need someone you've rotated with who maybe graded you poorly to give you as much brutally honest insight as possible. Is it a confidence thing? A personality thing? Inappropriate behavior? Too overbearing? Poor organization? You need to figure this part out, ASAP. The fact that you applied last year implies you did EM rotations last year, and those places chose not to interview you. To me, that would be a great place to start by asking for feedback about what it was that made you undesirable as an applicant.
Once you know what to work on, if you want to reapply EM, you'll need 2-3 new SLOEs. Since USUALLY people get interviews where they rotate, I'd make sure these are at some less competitive places. That way, they are going to give you your best shot at making an impression and matching.
As for a backup, yes you should have one. You never want to risk not matching a second year. This isn't a case where you got 15 interviews and didn't match. You had zero interviews. Your chances of matching EM typically go down as a re-applicant, and you were at 0% chance last year since you didn't have interviews. You absolutely need a backup plan.
All of this doesn't mean you can't match in EM. You actually could because I presume you had disasterous SLOEs in an otherwise good application. You have the opportunity to basically start completely over again and re-do a few AI rotations and get all new SLOEs. So the opportunity is there, its more learning from what went wrong by getting brutally honest feedback and insight, and trying to fix it. Because you have more than enough time to do 2-3 EM rotations, you should also have enough time to do 1-2 FP or IM rotations for a backup as well.
