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- Mar 31, 2019
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So I want to give back to this forum as it gave a lot to me, and this is the time to do it. I have a couple points I want to make and I think that my story is educational. My main purpose is to describe what can happen, and what the timeline of SOAP is really like so people can be prepared.
Background: Last year I was a fourth year medical student who had 14 interviews and didn’t end up matching. I applied primarily to psych with a few FM as backup and thought I was safe going into the match. I did have one red/yellow flag in that I had taken a LOA for non medical/non psych reasons but otherwise was a pretty average candidate without repeated courses/semesters and with all COMLEXs passed on first attempt including PE and all above 500. I did not take step. I applied to approximately 75 total programs. I thought this was reasonable based on commentary on this forum and based on my interview yield it seemed appropriate. I did not engage in a lot of post interview communication, but one of the programs I rotated at I decided to rank #1. I told the resident I worked with about it and he told me he recommended me personally to his PD and coordinator. I have no reason to believe he deceived me. I also sent a letter of intent to the chair who replied that I had made a great impression and that was reflective of my rank. At this point I thought it was a done deal, but as the many spreadsheets will tell you THAL, and it’s the truth.
So match day came and at 9am EST like everyone else I opened the email expecting to match. It was pretty weird to see it say I hadn’t. I mean I had worried about that possibility for so long, and then to have it actually happen I couldn’t believe it. I had actually calculated out the odds of me matching and it was greater than 95%. But that doesn’t matter, cause someone is in the 5% and it was me.
The only good thing about the situation is I had backup letters for IM that I had gotten prior. And my last rotation prior to SOAP was in IM, so I got my preceptor to write me a letter from that. Bless that preceptor cause she did it in 3 hours.
The other thing I immediately did was call my friend in 3rd year to help me edit the FM personal statement to make it IM. I had decided a couple weeks before match day that if I didn’t get in I was going IM. I also called my DO school to try and get an IM chair letter, but the IM chair told me she was ‘really busy in clinic and couldn’t do it till later.’ This was par for the course for my school and I knew I wouldn’t have a chair letter when the apps dropped at 3 pm EST.
ERAS reopened at either 11 or 12 and I got to see how many programs were available. In psych there were only like 8 unmatched programs with like 14 ish slots. I remember one was in Puerto Rico and Spanish speaking requirement and another was the rural track in NY that had some weird commitment. One program had just gotten accreditation. I applied to 6 of them but I kind of knew I wasn’t going to get those slots, they were undoubtedly looking for people settling for psych from more competitive specialties. Ironically the one program I turned down an interview from because of their terrible interactions with me and terrible reputation was in the SOAP. If I had just went we could be together, lol.
From reading previous threads here I knew that I should go all in on the first round, so I used the remaining 39 apps on IM. I only applied to categorical cause I didn’t want to be on this particular merry-go-round again.
So after selecting my programs I uploaded all my stuff, prayed and let it rip.
I really had no idea what to expect, but within 30 minutes I had my first call. It was an IM program that was associated with my school, they talked about having had my schools grads in the past etc. An hour later I got another call. And it just kept rolling in. Most of the places would ask me for a time to schedule an interview and some were cutthroat, you would email or call and slots would be gone quick. It was a mini version of interview season without the wining and dining and much faster. Luckily no one was really using zoom for this so I didn’t have to be presentable but I was still dressed up. I got calls as early as 8am and as late as 930pm (although I had some warning on that one). I actually booked a hotel for 2 nights so I could have a more presentable background, but it turned out to be unnecessary in my case. The next two days really flew by, most PDs would say things like ‘you will be ranked really high’ even tho that wasn’t how the SOAP works. Some pressured me about commitment but I didn’t experience any blatant violations. But there were definite differences in how some programs treated me. Interestingly, my crummy DO school was kind of an asset as many of the SOAP programs had some of my schools alumni there already.
On the final tally I had more than 10 interviews from SOAP which were all IM and I had 3 offers when they finally dropped at 1200pm on Wednesday. It was really interesting, because probably 7 programs said they would offer, but only 1 that had told me they would did, and 2 others that had been favorable but not really explicit offered as well. I accepted within 2 minutes and matched to the one program that had told me they would offer and did.
Advice/Takeaways:
1) My first point, don’t waste a lot of time on #1 letters, and certainly don’t read into post interview communication. THAL is the truth and quite frankly many PDs are FOS. This was demonstrated in both the main match and it’s more revealing cousin the SOAP for me.
2) Have a SOAP backup plan. SOAP is controlled chaos, especially if your applying to something that doesn’t have a lot of slots in SOAP (I.e. not primary care) then you need to have your favorite primary care or path app ready. You don’t get a lot of time to get ready.
3) pay attention to how the PDs interact with you. If they are very professional and courteous with you it’s probably someone you want to work with. Use your judgement here, but my PD is currently a gem, and it showed from the onset.
4) if you are a DO student, for the love of all that is holy, don’t depend on your school for anything. I was given literally almost no support during match, if I had scheduled a rotation that would let me off I wouldn’t have been off. That chair letter I asked for? They dropped it on Tuesday night, when most of my interviews were done and all my apps were released. I didn’t get to use it at all.
5) Have lots of questions written for your interviews. Some of these places have slots because they don’t interview well, get ready for a lot of ‘do you have any questions for me?’ Also have a closing question, this should be one that really puts you in a good light. I don’t want to get more specific here cause it needs to be your own. Also asking the not for profit vs for profit is important. In my experience about half the slots were from for profit programs.
6) SOAP is a great time to switch specialties. It’s a good idea to have a rotation in something backup wise during your 4th year. If I had done all psych my 4th year like I enjoyed it would have been much harder to talk about IM and how I decided to switch.
7) decide on categorical or 1 year residency ahead of time. I am being general above cause it could be transition year, a prelim or w/e. People absolutely do an intern year then apply again. Will it work? Maybe, but decide what you want ahead of time. I went full categorical cause I viewed prelims and transitions as dead ends. Now that I am in residency I can see that some of them aren’t if your at a good program. You can try again.
8) When you get an offer in SOAP you have 60 minutes to decide. I would try to be a bit quick here so programs can call their next choice if you reject, but absolutely take as much time as you need to make this choice.
9) if your reading this and are a third year or currently interviewing, go for 20 interviews. Ignore the people telling you to do less or to feel bad for others you are ‘taking’ the interviews from, this is your life, don’t end up in the 5% cause of internet stranger guilting. Also apply to over 100 programs if you aren’t a superstar. This isn’t the time to cheap out. Also take STEP.
Conclusion: If you are an average DO without Visa issues and somehow end up in SOAP it will probably be alright. Most of the programs in the SOAP already have a higher proportion of DOs so they will likely be less biased towards you. It sucks but you can make it.
Brief timeline of SOAP:
Monday(EST)
9am (now 1030 or 11 if your school doesn’t notify): You get rejected
11 am or 12 pm: ERAs reveals your options
3pm: applications drop, calls from programs to you can start.
Tuesday:
Interview calls at all times of day. Keep Phone on at all times, charged, and never go somewhere that doesn’t have reception. This is not the time to goof.
Wednesday: (updated)
12pm first round of offers
2nd round 3 pm
Thursday(updated)
9am: round 3
12pm: final
Free for all time basically starts an hour later cause SOAP is done. Now you can call programs first.
For my own follow up: I am okay at my program. I still wish I got into psych, but the place I am at is at least decent to me and the leadership is good. Yes it’s just a job at this point, but the system doesn’t care about passion.
Background: Last year I was a fourth year medical student who had 14 interviews and didn’t end up matching. I applied primarily to psych with a few FM as backup and thought I was safe going into the match. I did have one red/yellow flag in that I had taken a LOA for non medical/non psych reasons but otherwise was a pretty average candidate without repeated courses/semesters and with all COMLEXs passed on first attempt including PE and all above 500. I did not take step. I applied to approximately 75 total programs. I thought this was reasonable based on commentary on this forum and based on my interview yield it seemed appropriate. I did not engage in a lot of post interview communication, but one of the programs I rotated at I decided to rank #1. I told the resident I worked with about it and he told me he recommended me personally to his PD and coordinator. I have no reason to believe he deceived me. I also sent a letter of intent to the chair who replied that I had made a great impression and that was reflective of my rank. At this point I thought it was a done deal, but as the many spreadsheets will tell you THAL, and it’s the truth.
So match day came and at 9am EST like everyone else I opened the email expecting to match. It was pretty weird to see it say I hadn’t. I mean I had worried about that possibility for so long, and then to have it actually happen I couldn’t believe it. I had actually calculated out the odds of me matching and it was greater than 95%. But that doesn’t matter, cause someone is in the 5% and it was me.
The only good thing about the situation is I had backup letters for IM that I had gotten prior. And my last rotation prior to SOAP was in IM, so I got my preceptor to write me a letter from that. Bless that preceptor cause she did it in 3 hours.
The other thing I immediately did was call my friend in 3rd year to help me edit the FM personal statement to make it IM. I had decided a couple weeks before match day that if I didn’t get in I was going IM. I also called my DO school to try and get an IM chair letter, but the IM chair told me she was ‘really busy in clinic and couldn’t do it till later.’ This was par for the course for my school and I knew I wouldn’t have a chair letter when the apps dropped at 3 pm EST.
ERAS reopened at either 11 or 12 and I got to see how many programs were available. In psych there were only like 8 unmatched programs with like 14 ish slots. I remember one was in Puerto Rico and Spanish speaking requirement and another was the rural track in NY that had some weird commitment. One program had just gotten accreditation. I applied to 6 of them but I kind of knew I wasn’t going to get those slots, they were undoubtedly looking for people settling for psych from more competitive specialties. Ironically the one program I turned down an interview from because of their terrible interactions with me and terrible reputation was in the SOAP. If I had just went we could be together, lol.
From reading previous threads here I knew that I should go all in on the first round, so I used the remaining 39 apps on IM. I only applied to categorical cause I didn’t want to be on this particular merry-go-round again.
So after selecting my programs I uploaded all my stuff, prayed and let it rip.
I really had no idea what to expect, but within 30 minutes I had my first call. It was an IM program that was associated with my school, they talked about having had my schools grads in the past etc. An hour later I got another call. And it just kept rolling in. Most of the places would ask me for a time to schedule an interview and some were cutthroat, you would email or call and slots would be gone quick. It was a mini version of interview season without the wining and dining and much faster. Luckily no one was really using zoom for this so I didn’t have to be presentable but I was still dressed up. I got calls as early as 8am and as late as 930pm (although I had some warning on that one). I actually booked a hotel for 2 nights so I could have a more presentable background, but it turned out to be unnecessary in my case. The next two days really flew by, most PDs would say things like ‘you will be ranked really high’ even tho that wasn’t how the SOAP works. Some pressured me about commitment but I didn’t experience any blatant violations. But there were definite differences in how some programs treated me. Interestingly, my crummy DO school was kind of an asset as many of the SOAP programs had some of my schools alumni there already.
On the final tally I had more than 10 interviews from SOAP which were all IM and I had 3 offers when they finally dropped at 1200pm on Wednesday. It was really interesting, because probably 7 programs said they would offer, but only 1 that had told me they would did, and 2 others that had been favorable but not really explicit offered as well. I accepted within 2 minutes and matched to the one program that had told me they would offer and did.
Advice/Takeaways:
1) My first point, don’t waste a lot of time on #1 letters, and certainly don’t read into post interview communication. THAL is the truth and quite frankly many PDs are FOS. This was demonstrated in both the main match and it’s more revealing cousin the SOAP for me.
2) Have a SOAP backup plan. SOAP is controlled chaos, especially if your applying to something that doesn’t have a lot of slots in SOAP (I.e. not primary care) then you need to have your favorite primary care or path app ready. You don’t get a lot of time to get ready.
3) pay attention to how the PDs interact with you. If they are very professional and courteous with you it’s probably someone you want to work with. Use your judgement here, but my PD is currently a gem, and it showed from the onset.
4) if you are a DO student, for the love of all that is holy, don’t depend on your school for anything. I was given literally almost no support during match, if I had scheduled a rotation that would let me off I wouldn’t have been off. That chair letter I asked for? They dropped it on Tuesday night, when most of my interviews were done and all my apps were released. I didn’t get to use it at all.
5) Have lots of questions written for your interviews. Some of these places have slots because they don’t interview well, get ready for a lot of ‘do you have any questions for me?’ Also have a closing question, this should be one that really puts you in a good light. I don’t want to get more specific here cause it needs to be your own. Also asking the not for profit vs for profit is important. In my experience about half the slots were from for profit programs.
6) SOAP is a great time to switch specialties. It’s a good idea to have a rotation in something backup wise during your 4th year. If I had done all psych my 4th year like I enjoyed it would have been much harder to talk about IM and how I decided to switch.
7) decide on categorical or 1 year residency ahead of time. I am being general above cause it could be transition year, a prelim or w/e. People absolutely do an intern year then apply again. Will it work? Maybe, but decide what you want ahead of time. I went full categorical cause I viewed prelims and transitions as dead ends. Now that I am in residency I can see that some of them aren’t if your at a good program. You can try again.
8) When you get an offer in SOAP you have 60 minutes to decide. I would try to be a bit quick here so programs can call their next choice if you reject, but absolutely take as much time as you need to make this choice.
9) if your reading this and are a third year or currently interviewing, go for 20 interviews. Ignore the people telling you to do less or to feel bad for others you are ‘taking’ the interviews from, this is your life, don’t end up in the 5% cause of internet stranger guilting. Also apply to over 100 programs if you aren’t a superstar. This isn’t the time to cheap out. Also take STEP.
Conclusion: If you are an average DO without Visa issues and somehow end up in SOAP it will probably be alright. Most of the programs in the SOAP already have a higher proportion of DOs so they will likely be less biased towards you. It sucks but you can make it.
Brief timeline of SOAP:
Monday(EST)
9am (now 1030 or 11 if your school doesn’t notify): You get rejected
11 am or 12 pm: ERAs reveals your options
3pm: applications drop, calls from programs to you can start.
Tuesday:
Interview calls at all times of day. Keep Phone on at all times, charged, and never go somewhere that doesn’t have reception. This is not the time to goof.
Wednesday: (updated)
12pm first round of offers
2nd round 3 pm
Thursday(updated)
9am: round 3
12pm: final
Free for all time basically starts an hour later cause SOAP is done. Now you can call programs first.
For my own follow up: I am okay at my program. I still wish I got into psych, but the place I am at is at least decent to me and the leadership is good. Yes it’s just a job at this point, but the system doesn’t care about passion.
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