I think most have migrated to reddit for this, which is a shame as I received a lot of helpful messages here when I went through the soap.
Maybe not, but I had my eyes over there as well as here during match week and the reddit soap threads were booming. Thousands of messages per day, while over here was crickets.
What are you on about?! Reddit is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Far more toxic than anything I've seen on sdn, which I've been around for more than a minute.
Perhaps all that is true, but the reputation precedes everything and people’s perception of this site means they never experience the good that SDN can offer.
It's a perception we're aware of, and overall it's something we've tried to work on over the past several years. I think it's gotten better. I agree with @ThoracicGuy that there is a line between "getting torn down" and people crying foul just for getting advice they don't like. We do our best to strike a reasonable balance.
Exactly. And just joined on Sunday. 🤔
The internet clearly isn't for everyone. And neither is medicine.
Interesting that you matched a TY and not peds...TY are usually fairly popular and competitive since it’s generally advance specialty applicants that go for them...
I'm so sorry to hear this happened 🙁
Yea i dont blame you for not wanting to go through match again, but do your best at your TY program, reach out to the peds PD, express your interest, losing 1 year is a small price to pay. Maximize your chances of next year by applying to peds and perhaps some advanced or Reserved for physician positions like anesthesia, radiology, etc
I got 10 peds interviews this year
I applied to 30 got 10 interviews that’s what I was told to do
Yeah... I'm not sure what to tell you. It seems like you did everything right, maybe something was off at the interview stage, but by any reasonable metric I would think you should have matched. This sucks.
Idk I was thinking I took the step 2 late like a week before rank order list was due I got my score, but then I didn’t match the first round in the SOAP. I don’t think I’m weird or anything my interviews seemed to go well. I’m a AA single mom of a child with special needs and that was my talking point of why I wanted to do peds. I feel like I’m not rude or anything. I’m not sure why no one liked me really I have plenty of friends from diverse backgrounds. I’m not sure anymore. We do a mock interview before ERAS opens told I did great. I guess it’s done no need to sit around wondering. My advisor said he is doing research and will find out. Have appointment with dean tomorrow so she may tell me.
I wish I had something useful to offer you. The one silver lining, potentially, is that I do think if you apply more broadly you're very likely to match next year. 20 years from now this will be a distant memory.
i recall it was about 20 unfilled peds positions and like 50 TY positions available during SOAP. Idk maybe I just suck compared to everyone else. I’ve always got compliments on my interviewing skills in the past, but maybe zoom isn’t for me. I went over this a thousand times what is it about me that no one liked? Was it this or that? Should I have not shared that I’m a single mom? should I have not shared that the reason I wanted to become a doctor is my son has special needs? Should i have not worn braids? I talked to my dean and my dean said she did some investigating at my home program. The attendings that work there all of them loved me, but when pushed one of them said I maybe to authentic. Also that some of the residents didn’t care for me do to some unfavorable conversations. I never had a issue with anyone or a professionalism problem. All my comments and feedback they said to my face and on my evals were good. I’m not an brown noser, but I’ve never been rude or nasty to anyone residents or attendings. If anything, I didn’t have many conversations with the peds residents cause they were all in their own world. I would just ask a question about my patients if I had one. I did my internship after I had to submit my ERAS and only worked with med-peds residents the whole month who were more friendly and acted like they loved me. My ideology was I’m here for my patients and all my patients and their families loved me. She suggested coaching. I asked her about my step scores. she told me they were great. I just don’t get it, but that doesn’t explain everything why didn’t the other programs like me. Regardless, it won’t change the outcome. Talking to my dean yesterday just brought back trauma of not feeling good enough or not sucking up enough or not just being enough that I thought I was over. In my mind I thought I was great! I was confident and had a high self-esteem now I feel lower than nothing. I feel like they broke me. My spirit is gone.
Sorry, without seeing the interviews it’s hard to know. I mean, where you fall on the rank list is based on a series of things, but I’ve found the interview to be the most dynamic changer after the process is over. Great interviewers move up, poor interviewers move down. I’m not suggesting where you fall in that, just informing of the process. Nothing specifically you mentioned seems like a red flag. However, I will say a negative conversation with the residents could hamper your application at your home institute since PDs will usually ask for resident feedback on candidates. I don’t know what “too authentic” means. That sounds like code words for something else. What that else is I don’t know, but it’s weird feedback.
A few years ago, there were only like 20 peds spots available nationally, and everyone who doesn't match tries for any open spot. I haven't heard much about the data since because I'm removed from resident selection, but... it's tough.
The program I’m at is like a dual program. It’s a community hospital but linked to the academic hospital which has a peds program. Which is my home program 😢 where supposedly residents had negative conversations with me. As for the feedback, I didn’t know how to receive it. Being “too authentic” doesn’t help me. But beating myself up about my character is not good for my mental health. I know who I am and I know what I can do. I’m not a perfect person but I’m a decent person. All I can do is do better next time. I only applied in the South so if I had to move I’d be close , so I’ll apply more broadly and apply peds, med/peds, PMR, and anesthesia all around the country. because I can work with kids in all those specialities. I can do IM alone also. I just want the chance to be a doctor. I’ll apply to all of them and try my best that all I can do.
This really stinks. It's a real pity that being "too authentic" is seen as a negative.
From here on out. I will just leave the part about my son out. I won’t even mention that I have a kid. Sad that I have to do this but I have to do what I have to do. I will take it out of my personal statement also. TY for this advice
I decided to leave out that I have a kid next time let alone a kid with special needs. I didn’t think it was a big deal but from the other comment it seems like it is as it could cause bias. I will try this approach tell my dean how I took her info and what I’m going to do next time.
It is 150% bulls*** that you have to "hide" that part of you. It's honestly a part of your experience, history and personal knowledge (forget your book knowledge which is obviously good enough to graduate med school) that will make you a great physician.
Clinical grades mostly B’s, 1C in surgery 1 A in neurology. Made a B in peds my internship went well IMO. But my internship was long after my ERAS application was submitted so comments weren’t included. It was because of COVID this happened.
I wouldn't expect you to, unless you have some experience in hiring/HR in the real world. But I would hope that your advisors might have at least been able to see the risks. But as @Apollyon likes to say about physicians in academics, "some animals have to live in the zoo because they can't survive in the wild".
Missed this part earlier.
Your point is well taken, and if the percentage is only 90% that means that there are 10 people out of 100 out there who fail to match. It sucks when that's you, and that's why people tend to be even more conservative on their ranks.
This may also explain the issue. Although I can't see your application, I can see MSPE's from your school so know what the grade distributions in the clerkships are. 90% of students got an A in Neuro. In general for most of the other clerkships, it was 50/50 A/B with a few C's and lower -- exception being Psych were it was 80/20. The C in surgery is the bottom 3%. So if you have all B's except for the A in Neuro and the C in Surgery, your performance is in the bottom quartile of your class. Your school doesn't call out quartiles directly, but it's easy to assess based upon your grades.
My statement of medicine being conservative was not a political one...medicine is slow to move and still is very male centric with the idea that men have spouses that will take care of the family and the resident can focus on their job as being a trainee...your statement here shows that to be true... if you mentioned you are married with children during your interview, it would have been seen as a positive... stable and reliable because you have a family...it’s not so for women... because it’s still seen that women are still responsible for the family and it will divide her attention from training.
