Scramble confusion

[Magnus2010]

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I am a bit confused about the scramble (showing my neuroticism here) : do people scramble before or after match day? Do we find out IF we matched, and then find out WHERE we matched on another day?

It seems a person can start scrambling March 16?

 

[opb]

We find out if we matched on March 15 (but not where). Scramble occurs the following day on March 16. We find out where we matched on March 18.

 

[HIJay]

yes. you dont find out where you matched until thursday, but you find out if you matched on monday.
its a stupid process

 

[Seville]

I am a bit confused about the scramble (showing my neuroticism here) : do people scramble before or after match day? Do we find out IF we matched, and then find out WHERE we matched on another day?

It seems a person can start scrambling March 16?

Plus, this way you can still participate in your school's Match Day ceremony. Our school will still put an envelope in with everyone else's and you come up to the stage to read where you are going, even though you already found out when you scrambled into a spot (hopefully).

 

[JeffLebowski]

yes. you dont find out where you matched until thursday, but you find out if you matched on monday.
its a stupid process

Why is it stupid?

 

[medsRus]

Why is it stupid?

Because, that means they not only know but are certain (after their battery of verifications/tests) where you will match, but they deliberately don't tell where you until some days later.

 

[thedrjojo]

Because, that means they not only know but are certain (after their battery of verifications/tests) where you will match, but they deliberately don't tell where you until some days later.

Right... they could let everyone know where they are at the monday, and then when scrambling occurs after everyone already knows. The issue with this, and I think why it occurs this way historically, is that match day is somewhat of a celebration, and being all altruistic that we are in medicine, to let someone know they didn't match on a day of celebration is kinda f'd up. Atleast with the current system, if you did scramble into a place (and prior to the past few years, AMG's in particular could almost always scramble into something, and the match was designed for AMG's) you could atleast celebrate with your classmates knowing your future wasn't in limbo. I know next year (a lot of good that does for us current 4th years) they are reorganizing how they are doing the scramble, and while I don't know exactly how they are doing it, hopefully it is in a way that is more controlled and more organized and allows both sides (programs and applicants) to make more deliberated and educated decisions... maybe imposing a different time frame (ie, all applying to open programs has to be done in a uniform way (submitting your ERAS to the programs of your choice [make some sort of limit] from 12-1pm, programs screen applicants from 1pm-3pm (screening would probably involve Step Score filters, school filters, a bunch of people looking over LOR's, maybe with some phone interviews mixed in during this and the next time blocks), programs interested in a canidate signal interest somehow (either email or signal through ERAS), and then a second set of ROL of programs that are interested in a candidate due from both ends at like 5pm, a second run of the match software, which from what I have heard actually takes like 45-90 minutes to run (and with a much smaller applicant pool and programs, would probably be quicker) and then annoucement of "Congrats you matched" vs "You did not match" with results shared with everyone on Thursday, and then if somehow there are still unfilled programs, do it all again the next day or just go back to the old formula the next day...

 

[shift_roro]

Do we get an email from NRMP at 12 noon on Monday, or do we have to sign into the website to find out if we matched?

 

[medsRus]

Do we get an email from NRMP at 12 noon on Monday, or do we have to sign into the website to find out if we matched?

We all got a message from NRMP. It appears that we are getting the message by email and the web.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Plus, this way you can still participate in your school's Match Day ceremony. Our school will still put an envelope in with everyone else's and you come up to the stage to read where you are going, even though you already found out when you scrambled into a spot (hopefully).

If I have to scramble, I will definitely not be partaking in my school's match day ceremony. I will be in too much of a crummy emotional place to effectively partake and would not feel comfortable coming up on stage and announcing my scramble spot.

 

[Law2Doc]

If I have to scramble, I will definitely not be partaking in my school's match day ceremony. I will be in too much of a crummy emotional place to effectively partake and would not feel comfortable coming up on stage and announcing my scramble spot.

Nobody has to know you scrambled except you and the school administration. You find out on the 15th if you didn't match. Then on the 16th, you meet with the school administration when the list comes out and start making phone calls/emails/faxes along with their help. Once you line something up, they put that program info into a match letter envelope, which you would receive on match day, just like everybody who matched would receive. So when you open your letter nobody but you necessarily knows that you had to scramble and that what you ended up with wasn't something you simply matched into. Of course it would be anticlimactic because you already would know where you were going a few days before match day, but at least you could celebrate along with your classmates. I suspect that if you successfully scrambled into something halfway decent you would have a sense of relief/gratification at least as significant as if you matched into something in the first place, so it would certainly still be a cause for celebration. Maybe more so. FWIW, match day is a pretty fun event and part of the med school experience, even if you are mostly celebrating your classmates successes rather than your own.

 

[shift_roro]

Do we get an email from NRMP at 12 noon on Monday, or do we have to sign into the website to find out if we matched?

NRMP just sent out an email that explicitly answers my own question:

"All applicants will receive their Did I Match? information on the Web and by email at noon on Monday, March 15th, letting them know whether, but not where, they matched."

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Nobody has to know you scrambled except you and the school administration. You find out on the 15th if you didn't match. Then on the 16th, you meet with the school administration when the list comes out and start making phone calls/emails/faxes along with their help. Once you line something up, they put that program info into a match letter envelope, which you would receive on match day, just like everybody who matched would receive. So when you open your letter nobody but you necessarily knows that you had to scramble and that what you ended up with wasn't something you simply matched into.

I know all this. I'm just saying - if I have to go through the scramble, I know myself - I'm not going to be in a place to put on a shiny happy face and pretend to be happy for myself and my classmates. I'll take myself out of the game and skip the festivities at that point.

 

[ResidentMD]

I know all this. I'm just saying - if I have to go through the scramble, I know myself - I'm not going to be in a place to put on a shiny happy face and pretend to be happy for myself and my classmates. I'll take myself out of the game and skip the festivities at that point.

I hope you dont have to go through scramble, but the way people describe it, if you end up going to scramble and coming out a winner, you will probably be the happiest person in the entire class.

 

[Law2Doc]

I hope you dont have to go through scramble, but the way people describe it, if you end up going to scramble and coming out a winner, you will probably be the happiest person in the entire class.

I would think you certainly would appreciate it more because you had to work harder for it.