Residency Match tips for future applicants from current matched 4th year

[mrbreakfast]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Even if the odds are in your favor, the relief of knowing you’ve matched is huge.

Fair. I should note that my home program told me I was ranked to match, and I still had the usual anxieties over having forgotten to submit this or that. That being said, I personally barely slept before Friday. It was as stressful for me as the night before Step 1.

 

[differentiating]

Fair. I should note that my home program told me I was ranked to match, and I still had the usual anxieties over having forgotten to submit this or that. That being said, I personally barely slept before Friday. It was as stressful for me as the night before Step 1.

Yeah, I think the difference isn’t that you were in a non-competitive specialty, but that you had that “ranked to match” reassurance. I barely slept Sunday night and Thursday night from anxiety, because both felt like big deals to me.

 

[Osteoth]

So, timeline.

Apply to programs you like.

Email select programs you like when applications are submitted to inform them of your intention.

Troll SDN to see when programs release interviews. Wait 1 week, then email program about interest. Also talk to faculty if you haven't received an interview from institutions they have associations with.

Wait 1 more week, call programs of interest.

After this your chamber is pretty much dry right? You've done all the emailing and calling you can do in order to squeeze every last interview out, right?

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

So, timeline.

Apply to programs you like.

Email select programs you like when applications are submitted to inform them of your intention.

Troll SDN to see when programs release interviews. Wait 1 week, then email program about interest. Also talk to faculty if you haven't received an interview from institutions they have associations with.

Wait 1 more week, call programs of interest.

After this your chamber is pretty much dry right? You've done all the emailing and calling you can do in order to squeeze every last interview out, right?

From my experience yes, that would be about it.

Honestly even this would seem heavy handed to me, I would make my first contact the day the first interviews come out. Then yes, have faculty and a letter of interest ready for select places.

Be aware - too much reaching out can 1) annoy programs or 2) get you a pity invite. Yes, they do happen, more often if faculty reach out for you and the program wants to do the faculty member a favor - I had an acquaintance who was literally told in his interview this is what was going on.

Don’t mean to induce stress, but just a reminder that yes playing the game is one thing but even if you just put your best foot forward and apply, assuming you have done the work in Med school and apply smartly, the system will work out most of the time for most places.

*this is a perspective pertaining to larger specialties - no idea how the game works for like surgical subspecialties*

 

[Snoopy2006]

One piece of advice: figure out how good you'll be on an away by using your M3 performance as a guide.

What do I mean by that? I agree with the OP's main point: aways are worthless if you can't impress/fit in with/get along with the residents. People who are humble and hard working and have decent to good social skills tend to do the best. People who come off as arrogant, uninterested, or awkward tend to do the worst. Most people fall somewhere in the middle.

If you consistently impressed your home residents on your core M3 rotations, you have a good shot at impressing your away rotation residents - the core qualities that got you that performance will apply. But if you failed to stand out, or worse - were actively disliked by the residents - probably best to limit your aways.

It's a month long interview and not everyone interviews well. If you're in doubt, ask (honest) fellow classmates or ask your M3 rotation residents yourself.

(From a former resident's perspective - we really looked closely at our med student rotaters and tended to favor them as long as they impressed us. They didn't have to be AOA-stars academically, but we wanted kind, humble, hard-working potential residents. It amazed us how many students came off as disinterested or condescending. Most of those students probably didn't realize just how off-putting their personalities were, and would have been helped by getting some honest feedback earlier in their lives).

Also: another mistake M4s make is when selecting aways, they tend to focus only on where they want to go, and they don't spend enough time researching the program. E.g. "I go to school in Nevada but want to return to Boston for residency" --> well that program you just applied to might have a track record of not favoring away rotaters, or not offering IIs to a large number of away rotaters. If so, you just wasted a lot of time/money/effort.