SOAP 2020 Thread

[ThoracicGuy]

Do you think doing a prelim surgery or transitional year would help for reapplying next year for FM?

A transitional year would probably be more helpful, but some clinical experience is better than no clinical experience.

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[Braveheart1985]

Do you think doing a prelim surgery or transitional year would help for reapplying next year for FM?

Transitional year /prelim IM year are harder to get than FM. Not sure how competitive is the prelim surgery.
Those programs get many applicants that are interested in certain advanced residency training (Neuro/ Dermatology/Ophthalmo...etc).
If you are interested in family medicine, then do any kind of rotations at community hospital that has family medicine program. Search for observerships or so. Those don't count as clinical experience, but would help the programs to know you better.
Would be better to search for residency programs in advance, look at the residents' profiles and their schools of graduation. This would give you a general idea about what kind of applicants are likely to be considered. There is no point in doing observership or externship at a program that has 100% graduates of american medical schools.

 

[mickeydoc]

I have a few research project available. Message me if you can help (authorship credit will be given, unpaid)

I just saw your post..please let me know if there are still opportunities to get involved! Thank you!

 

[Gen3ricDO]

I'm talking about if I end up getting an offer to do a year of prelim surgery or something before reapplying next year in Sept. Would that be better than doing an externship/clinical experience, and research? I am an american medical student..

I did a transitional year after not matching my first round and matched ortho my second time. It’s about the connections you make in whatever you do. Clinical experience is helpful as long as your getting an opportunity to be in front of the people who will make decisions or write letters and make phone calls for you

 

[NotAProgDirector]

There isn't a "right" answer. A prelim surgery year would get you clinical experience, which would be good. And it won't create any funding problems, since you'd get 5 years of full funding after starting a prelim GS program. So that's all good.

But, a prelim GS program isn't going to have much free time in it. Getting enough time to go on interviews will be complicated. Residency, unlike medical school, is a job you're paid to do. You can't just take whatever time off you want. You might find that they insist that you use your vacation time to interview, and you might have trouble fitting enough interviews into the time you have. Plus, the critical issue if you do start an internship is that you do well -- is that going to happen in GS? Last, assuming the application timeline holds (which is anyone's guess at this point), you'll be submitting on Sept 15th which means all of your letters should be in by end August. That means that you'll have completed 1-2 blocks, at most, of your internship. It will be difficult to get any letter other than "heartonic started here and so far is doing fine".

But there are downsides to a non clinical year also.

 

[Lossrx]

Does anyone think any more surgery prelim or any positions will open up? I will be an AG next month

 

[Lossrx]

There isn't a "right" answer. A prelim surgery year would get you clinical experience, which would be good. And it won't create any funding problems, since you'd get 5 years of full funding after starting a prelim GS program. So that's all good.

But, a prelim GS program isn't going to have much free time in it. Getting enough time to go on interviews will be complicated. Residency, unlike medical school, is a job you're paid to do. You can't just take whatever time off you want. You might find that they insist that you use your vacation time to interview, and you might have trouble fitting enough interviews into the time you have. Plus, the critical issue if you do start an internship is that you do well -- is that going to happen in GS? Last, assuming the application timeline holds (which is anyone's guess at this point), you'll be submitting on Sept 15th which means all of your letters should be in by end August. That means that you'll have completed 1-2 blocks, at most, of your internship. It will be difficult to get any letter other than "heartonic started here and so far is doing fine".

But there are downsides to a non clinical year also.

Do you think any more openings Will
Occur

 

[LovelyNutella]

Do you think any more openings Will
Occur

Many programs seem to be deferring program expansion/opening to 2021 due to COVID-19 (difficulty with interview, funding redirected to COVID-19 response)

 

[Flowerpower98]

So like what is the average timeframe for a program to respond to you if they are interested?

 

[sana.hkhan1994]

I posted this last year too and a lot of people contacting me saying they found this reassuring:

Anyone who didn't match, do not be discouraged! My husband did not match last year, and also did not find a program in SOAP. But he fortunately found a program 2 week after match. There are still a lot of positions and programs that will open up over the next few months before June. Be positive and don't give up! You have to be diligent and keep an active look out for programs. He would check eras EVERY SINGLE DAY for new programs that showed up and also signed up for and would check freida, needaresident.com, residencyswap and whatever else he could find. He eventually found an FM position that worked out and started in June just like he wanted. DO NOT GIVE UP! You made it this far, keep pushing forward.

This is great! Could I PM you and get more information on this?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Hasn't logged in for 9 months, unlikely to answer. The advice remains solid -- if you don't match, best to be on the look out for new programs opening, or programs where someone is unable to start. There's no one place to find that information, you just have to hunt around.

 

[sana.hkhan1994]

Hasn't logged in for 9 months, unlikely to answer. The advice remains solid -- if you don't match, best to be on the look out for new programs opening, or programs where someone is unable to start. There's no one place to find that information, you just have to hunt around.

By hunt around do you mean constantly emailing programs? And also using findaresident? and lastly also searching for new programs?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I wouldn't recommend constantly emailing programs. That's a good way to end up with a cease-and-desist order. As that poster recommended, you can:

1. Check ERAS regularly to see if new programs to possibly apply to have registered.
2. Check FREIDA regularly looking for new programs. They might show up here before ERAS.
3. Multiple websites were listed. I can't speak to any of them. Most of them cost money to search.
4. If you have any connections with a program / area, keeping in touch with them in a polite way is an option. This assumes that you would be competitive for the program. If you're a weaker candidate, connections at Hopkins are not going to help much.
5. Often discussed on these threads is attending PD meetings. This seems specifically useful for FM. I have never seen it done at IM meetings. Getting to meet PD's and introduce yourself might help.

 

[Lemondrop20124513]

I posted this last year too and a lot of people contacting me saying they found this reassuring:

Anyone who didn't match, do not be discouraged! My husband did not match last year, and also did not find a program in SOAP. But he fortunately found a program 2 week after match. There are still a lot of positions and programs that will open up over the next few months before June. Be positive and don't give up! You have to be diligent and keep an active look out for programs. He would check eras EVERY SINGLE DAY for new programs that showed up and also signed up for and would check freida, needaresident.com, residencyswap and whatever else he could find. He eventually found an FM position that worked out and started in June just like he wanted. DO NOT GIVE UP! You made it this far, keep pushing forward.

Thank you!

 

[sana.hkhan1994]

I wouldn't recommend constantly emailing programs. That's a good way to end up with a cease-and-desist order. As that poster recommended, you can:

1. Check ERAS regularly to see if new programs to possibly apply to have registered.
2. Check FREIDA regularly looking for new programs. They might show up here before ERAS.
3. Multiple websites were listed. I can't speak to any of them. Most of them cost money to search.
4. If you have any connections with a program / area, keeping in touch with them in a polite way is an option. This assumes that you would be competitive for the program. If you're a weaker candidate, connections at Hopkins are not going to help much.
5. Often discussed on these threads is attending PD meetings. This seems specifically useful for FM. I have never seen it done at IM meetings. Getting to meet PD's and introduce yourself might help.

thanks for taking the time out to reply! i appreciate the advice!