SOAP Stats Released

[Raryn]

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At least a summary of them was: http://www.nrmp.org/pressreleasepostmatch2013.pdf

Now we have the numbers to say just how much it sucks (though we still dont know how much worse it is than the last few years). Looks like current and prior US MD grads got 662 spots in the SOAP, leaving 528 seniors with no position whatsoever. That's ~4 per school!

Roughly the same number of prior grads were left without a residency if my math is right, coming out to >1000 US MDs with nada.

Additionally, 90 of 658 unmatched DOs found spots, though I think that a significant number of the remainder were/are able to find spots that had gone unmatched in the DO match. If not, we're at >1500 US educated physicians without a residency.

Two other things really stood out to me: 126 Caribbean/foreign grads managed to get spots in the SOAP even when there were that many desperate US students without anything.

Also, it's amazing how few spots were leftover post-SOAP. Only 10 prelim gen surg and no other prelims? 5 FM and 6 IM?

I'll be looking forward to the full report come May.

 

[Stuka23]

Ouch...

 

[Shinken]

Additionally, 90 of 658 unmatched DOs found spots, though I think that a significant number of the remainder were/are able to find spots that had gone unmatched in the DO match.

Yes, you're correct. Many AOA spots fill after SOAP.

 

[qxrt]

"2,076 were U.S. allopathic seniors, 980 of whom were completely unmatched."

This number might include both applicants with only prelim years and those with only advanced residencies, but prelims/TYs are getting increasingly competitive. I met so many applicants who had only applied to around 10 or so of them, yet received surprisingly few interviews from them, and many people fell further down their intern rank list than their advanced rank list. It's time to change the perception that prelim medicine years are easy to get.

 

[IMvrach]

It's 3%, not 4%:
"Overall, 97 percent of U.S. seniors obtained positions in the 2013 Match, compared with 98.5 percent in 2012 when 262 had no position. "

It's likely that some of the AMG seniors who didn't match into their desired specialty, did not want or had no LORs or qualifications to SOAP into Path, IM, FM and Psych, where most IMGs went, so they were not direct competitors. It is meaningless to compare two groups of people applying to different sets of programs. If the statistics were specialty-adjusted, it would make more sense to compare them.

Most IMGs initially apply to the less competitive specialties:.

At least a summary of them was: http://www.nrmp.org/pressreleasepostmatch2013.pdf

Now we have the numbers to say just how much it sucks (though we still dont know how much worse it is than the last few years). Looks like current and prior US MD grads got 662 spots in the SOAP, leaving 528 seniors with no position whatsoever. That's ~4 per school!

Roughly the same number of prior grads were left without a residency if my math is right, coming out to >1000 US MDs with nada.

Additionally, 90 of 658 unmatched DOs found spots, though I think that a significant number of the remainder were/are able to find spots that had gone unmatched in the DO match. If not, we're at >1500 US educated physicians without a residency.

Two other things really stood out to me: 126 Caribbean/foreign grads managed to get spots in the SOAP even when there were that many desperate US students without anything.

Also, it's amazing how few spots were leftover post-SOAP. Only 10 prelim gen surg and no other prelims? 5 FM and 6 IM?

I'll be looking forward to the full report come May.

 

[IamnotFreud]

At least a summary of them was: http://www.nrmp.org/pressreleasepostmatch2013.pdf

Now we have the numbers to say just how much it sucks (though we still dont know how much worse it is than the last few years). Looks like current and prior US MD grads got 662 spots in the SOAP, leaving 528 seniors with no position whatsoever. That's ~4 per school!

Roughly the same number of prior grads were left without a residency if my math is right, coming out to >1000 US MDs with nada.

Additionally, 90 of 658 unmatched DOs found spots, though I think that a significant number of the remainder were/are able to find spots that had gone unmatched in the DO match. If not, we're at >1500 US educated physicians without a residency.

Two other things really stood out to me: 126 Caribbean/foreign grads managed to get spots in the SOAP even when there were that many desperate US students without anything.

Also, it's amazing how few spots were leftover post-SOAP. Only 10 prelim gen surg and no other prelims? 5 FM and 6 IM?

I'll be looking forward to the full report come May.

So about 1000 AMGs ended up with no spot? I think that # has held constant over a number of years if I recall correctly, even with a significantly higher # of AMGs graduating this year. If you think about it, that # represents a handful of people per school, I don'tt hink it's that alarming. If 20 people at a school apply to derm or ortho or rad onc, they can't all get in right? So it makes sense that a # of people per school will be unmatched. Most of those people will re apply and match the next year or throughout the year though.

 

[Textbookversion]

So about 1000 AMGs ended up with no spot? I think that # has held constant over a number of years if I recall correctly, even with a significantly higher # of AMGs graduating this year. If you think about it, that # represents a handful of people per school, I don'tt hink it's that alarming. If 20 people at a school apply to derm or ortho or rad onc, they can't all get in right? So it makes sense that a # of people per school will be unmatched. Most of those people will re apply and match the next year or throughout the year though.

The alarming number is not the number that failed to match, it is the number that failed to secure a residency after the SOAP process. That number is much higher than it was in previous years.

 

[samsoniter]

Could it be all these medical schools popping up are overloading the post grad training system? Should we increase spots for PCP residencies? Decrease med school enrollment? What about the inevitable flood of midlevels already encroaching on much out "our turf?"

 

[drotoman]

Considering our political system, the big problem is it would take at least a few years from now to actually see any increase in residency spots. Brutal reality indeed.

 

[Stuka23]

Read that a bill got introduced to make more spots, but think the spots won't be available until 2016 or later.

 

[survivordo]

It certainly is sad to see that many docs without a position. I think some of it certainly has to be attributed to the lack of funding for additional spots but there is also a large component of people with unrealistic attempts to match into super competitive areas. It is okay to dream, but you gotta have a backup plan as well. Unfortunately I think many people who didn't match into these competitive areas probably found that their backup plans (less competitive specialities) had already been taken by other grads. The days of applying to ortho/plastics etc just to see what happens and then grabbing a spot in gen surg in the scramble/SOAP are probably over.

Survivor DO

 

[Daodejing]

there is also a large component of people with unrealistic attempts to match into super competitive areas. It is okay to dream, but you gotta have a backup plan as well. Unfortunately I think many people who didn't match into these competitive areas probably found that their backup plans (less competitive specialities) had already been taken by other grads.

Along those lines, let's say we have have an applicant who wants to match into one of the competitive fields and has extensive dedication for that field - shown by research, pubs, LORs, etc. - but also ranks a less competitive field as a backup. He/she attends interviews during the season at programs for both the competitive field and the less competitive field.

Wouldn't the programs at the less competitive field essentially know that the applicant is solely applying to the field as a backup after looking at the application? Would this come out at interviews and possibly preclude the applicant from matching even at the less competitive field if he/she had the misfortune of not matching into the first choice competitive field? If yes, then what would be the point in applying to and ranking a backup field at all? Thanks for your insight.

 

[pooh86]

Wouldn't the programs at the less competitive field essentially know that the applicant is solely applying to the field as a backup after looking at the application? Would this come out at interviews and possibly preclude the applicant from matching even at the less competitive field if he/she had the misfortune of not matching into the first choice competitive field? If yes, then what would be the point in applying to and ranking a backup field at all? Thanks for your insight.

Well if you put your effort into both applications to competitive fields and the backup, the backup won't know they are the backup. When you apply, you can write a separate personal statement for each field (or as many PS as you like) and get separately letters of rec for each field. Essecially no one will know whereelse or which other fields you are applying to unless the PDs talk to each other within one institution

 

[thecampuslegend]

Could it be all these medical schools popping up are overloading the post grad training system? Should we increase spots for PCP residencies? Decrease med school enrollment? What about the inevitable flood of midlevels already encroaching on much out "our turf?"

Or could it be that there are educated, yet socially awkward and mildly creepy (to the point of making Tobias from Arrested Development seem like Rico Suave) medical students out there? Just because everyone graduates from medical school, does not mean that every single one of them is going to be an amazing fit to be a doctor. I'm sure there is that kid in your class that you have thought, "how the hell did they get into medical school?"

There have been a handful of medical students that I have come across who are either racist (yes, really!), mean, or in medicine with the wrong intentions ...and you can only fake your way through so much of this process. If they don't get a residency spot - don't try to find an excuse for them; I'm sure program committees do their due diligence in trying to determine whether or not an individual is fit to not only be a good doctor, but whether or not they will be a good fit in their program.

 

[Law2Doc]

The alarming number is not the number that failed to match, it is the number that failed to secure a residency after the SOAP process. That number is much higher than it was in previous years.

There were more US grads this year than prior years. Something like a 93% match rate from a larger pool, so that's more people matched total, even if the percent was slightly lower. And there were more slots in the match thanks to the doing away with many prematch spots, which basically now put all the better non-AMG applicants into the match/soap pool (they otherwise might have pre matched). For all you know some of the 3-4 AMGs per school are folks dead set on ortho who are going to do a year of research and try again. Really tough to draw conclusions.