Students who do not match?

[jtimmer1]

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So, this question is getting way ahead of myself, but I am curious. ~97% US MD students match, the number is a little less for DO, and substantially less for Caribbean MD. What happens to the minority who do no match? Do they just do research, are they stuck in limbo for a year? I can't really think of anything else they could do without a residency to go to after graduation.

Thanks as always

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

I am moderately knowledgeable about this due to a friend of a friend type situation.

If you don't match, there's something called "the scamble" which is basically that you call every program that you know of, maybe you'd interviewed there but not picked it as a top choice or whatever, on match day to see if you can get in elsewhere. Possibloy a less desireable place in the country.

Or often there's a chance to do a "transitional" year, like a general surgery 1 yr program prior to trying to match again the following year for a full surgery residency.

 

[Catalystik]

A friend of mine took off a year after med school to have a baby, then matched successfully the following year.

 

[Gabby]

So, this question is getting way ahead of myself, but I am curious. ~97% US MD students match, the number is a little less for DO, and substantially less for Caribbean MD. What happens to the minority who do no match? Do they just do research, are they stuck in limbo for a year? I can't really think of anything else they could do without a residency to go to after graduation.

Thanks as always

Actually, this year the match rate was only 93% for US MD. The numbers for DO aren't accurate either because DOs have their own match that's held in February so DOs who were signed up for the DO match and the MD match and ended up matching DO in Feb. were automatically withdrawn from the MD match so they're counted as unmatched for MD even though they do have a residency through the DO match.

 

[Law2Doc]

So, this question is getting way ahead of myself, but I am curious. ~97% US MD students match, the number is a little less for DO, and substantially less for Caribbean MD. What happens to the minority who do no match? Do they just do research, are they stuck in limbo for a year? I can't really think of anything else they could do without a residency to go to after graduation.

Thanks as always

Here's the way it usually works. Match is usually sometime around March 19. 93% of US seniors matched this March. On eg the 16th, three days earlier, students who didn't match were told that they didn't. Then on March 17-18 there is what is known as the "scramble". What that entails is that on March 17, the NBME releases a list of all the programs that didn't fill and starting at noon that day, the students, usually with the help of faculty and deans, furiously make calls and faxes to programs with open slots hoping to snag one of those remaining places. A good percentage of the US students who didn't match get a spot in this way -- the number of residency slots currently outnumbers US applicants -- they just don't always get the specialty they desire or may have to take a one year prelim slot. Non US med students tend to do much worse in the scramble -- it's harder to get through if you don't have a faculty member helping you and able to use a private line or get someone to take their call. So many people reportedly simply spend two days on voicemail and faxing stuff with no results.

The remainder of folks who don't snag a position usually line up a research year to improve their application for next year, or otherwise try to obtain a spot that opens up later during the year (people sometimes drop out due to pregnancy, family issues and folks jump in and snag their spots.)

 

[Law2Doc]

...
Or often there's a chance to do a "transitional" year, like a general surgery 1 yr program prior to trying to match again the following year for a full surgery residency.

A "transitional year" means something different than you are saying -- it's a year where you spend doing a variety of non-surgical specialties. They often tend to be regarded as cushy one year stints, and so they tend to be grabbed up by the ROAD specialties and rad onc types. When people do a year of general surgery (or medicine) as you describe, it is known as a "preliminary year".

 

[phospho]

A "transitional year" means something different than you are saying -- it's a year where you spend doing a variety of non-surgical specialties. They often tend to be regarded as cushy one year stints, and so they tend to be grabbed up by the ROAD specialties and rad onc types. When people do a year of general surgery (or medicine) as you describe, it is known as a "preliminary year".

what does the transitional year count for? why do people do it?

 

[Ashers]

what does the transitional year count for? why do people do it?

Generally, it's a more laid back year than a straight up medicine or surgery prelim. You have more electives, and end up doing more specialties (medicine & surgery). They can be catered more towards the specialty in which you'll be going.

Anesthesia, Ophtho, Rads, Derm, PM&R ,and possibly a few others, all accept them.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

what does the transitional year count for? why do people do it?

Since it counts as a internship it's a cushier way to get a medical license, provided your specialty allows you to do a transitional year.

 

[Law2Doc]

what does the transitional year count for? why do people do it?

People who are going into a ROAD specialty, rad onc, neuro, PM&R all NEED to do either a preliminary year or transition year first before they can start these "advanced" programs. The theory is that these fields want folks who already have a solid internship experience first before they subspecialize, so it's mandatory. So they apply for a prelim or transitional year as their PGY-1 year (and in the same match apply for the specialty they are really going into for PGY-2+ as an "advanced" program). As mentioned, since the transitional years tend to be easier than the prelim years, and since none of these folks really care so much about that year and just want to make it as painless as possible, there is a lot of competition for the cushier transitional years. Which is unfortunate because those transitional years were originally intended for folks trying to figure out what they want to do for a living, not to give an easy time to folks who already know. But as it stands, the best of the advanced matches tend to snap up the transitional years, and the ones that tend to be left over in the scramble tend to be the prelims, and a lot of the prelims end up going to non-US folks.

 

[circulus vitios]

Here's the way it usually works. Match is usually sometime around March 19. 93% of US seniors matched this March. On eg the 16th, three days earlier, students who didn't match were told that they didn't. Then on March 17-18 there is what is known as the "scramble". What that entails is that on March 17, the NBME releases a list of all the programs that didn't fill and starting at noon that day, the students, usually with the help of faculty and deans, furiously make calls and faxes to programs with open slots hoping to snag one of those remaining places. A good percentage of the US students who didn't match get a spot in this way -- the number of residency slots currently outnumbers US applicants -- they just don't always get the specialty they desire or may have to take a one year prelim slot. Non US med students tend to do much worse in the scramble -- it's harder to get through if you don't have a faculty member helping you and able to use a private line or get someone to take their call. So many people reportedly simply spend two days on voicemail and faxing stuff with no results.

The remainder of folks who don't snag a position usually line up a research year to improve their application for next year, or otherwise try to obtain a spot that opens up later during the year (people sometimes drop out due to pregnancy, family issues and folks jump in and snag their spots.)

Wow, I thought that was always a hyperbole and not literal. 😱 That's a pretty terrible way to fill slots.

 

[Spiker]

Here's the way it usually works. Match is usually sometime around March 19. 93% of US seniors matched this March. On eg the 16th, three days earlier, students who didn't match were told that they didn't. Then on March 17-18 there is what is known as the "scramble". What that entails is that on March 17, the NBME releases a list of all the programs that didn't fill and starting at noon that day, the students, usually with the help of faculty and deans, furiously make calls and faxes to programs with open slots hoping to snag one of those remaining places. A good percentage of the US students who didn't match get a spot in this way -- the number of residency slots currently outnumbers US applicants -- they just don't always get the specialty they desire or may have to take a one year prelim slot. Non US med students tend to do much worse in the scramble -- it's harder to get through if you don't have a faculty member helping you and able to use a private line or get someone to take their call. So many people reportedly simply spend two days on voicemail and faxing stuff with no results.

The remainder of folks who don't snag a position usually line up a research year to improve their application for next year, or otherwise try to obtain a spot that opens up later during the year (people sometimes drop out due to pregnancy, family issues and folks jump in and snag their spots.)

Are you serious? Why they making that so crazy? You get like almost a year for med school the only 2-3 days for matching wow...

 

[Blesbok]

Everyone that matches gets a letter at the beginning of match week saying that you matched. Everyone that doesn't match gets a letter bomb.


But seriously, at the beginning of match week you get an email saying you either did or didn't match. Then you find out on thursday where you actually matched at a big ceremony. If you get the email saying you didn't match, you freak out and start calling everyone that has open spots in your specialty and email them your CV, most likely do a quick phone interview, and if you are lucky you get a scramble spot in the specialty that you wanted, however, usually you end up scrambling into a less competitive specialty with a bunch of open spots. Then if you are lucky you can get a postgrad match, but if the chances of this happening in a competitive specialty is much lower than matching the first time.

 

[Law2Doc]

Are you serious? Why they making that so crazy? You get like almost a year for med school the only 2-3 days for matching wow...

Again this isn't matching, it's the scramble, for folks who didn't match. The match works differently. For the match, you apply on ERAS anytime from 9/2 on (ie a 7 mo process). Then you do interviews between late October and Early Feb. Then you rank the places you interviewed at in the order you want to go by mid-February. Programs also rank the applicants they interviewed by mid- february. And THEN the stuff I'm talking about above happens, with everything culminating on Match Day on 3/19 with the 93% who matched finding out where. The system is a good one for the vast majority who match. It's reportedly a hectic one for the 7% who didn't.

 

[Blesbok]

Are you serious? Why they making that so crazy? You get like almost a year for med school the only 2-3 days for matching wow...

That is only if you didn't match. You start the application process in the summer at the beginning of fourth year. You then get invited to interviews and such just like when you were applying to med school. However, to avoid wait lists and open match spots you submit a rank list of your top match locations and the residencies also submit a list of their top ranked students. They then use an algorithm to match your top choices to their top choices so that you get your highest ranked program that wants you. If all the programs you ranked end up filling up before they get to your name on the school's rank list, then you have to scramble which is where that 2-3 days comes in.

 

[circulus vitios]

Again this isn't matching, it's the scramble, for folks who didn't match. The match works differently. For the match, you apply on ERAS anytime from 9/2 on (ie a 7 mo process). Then you do interviews between late October and Early Feb. Then you rank the places you interviewed at in the order you want to go by mid-February. Programs also rank the applicants they interviewed by mid- february. And THEN the stuff I'm talking about above happens, with everything culminating on Match Day on 3/19 with the 93% who matched finding out where. The system is a good one for the vast majority who match. It's reportedly a hectic one for the 7% who didn't.

If I didn't match into a categorical residency position, could I match regularly into a prelim or transitional position? Or would I have to scramble into one of those as well? And do prelim/transitional years count as intern years (ex: I did a transitional surgery year would I only have 4 years of general surgery residency left?).

 

[MrBurns10]

If I didn't match into a categorical residency position, could I match regularly into a prelim or transitional position? Or would I have to scramble into one of those as well? And do prelim/transitional years count as intern years (ex: I did a transitional surgery year would I only have 4 years of general surgery residency left?).

Yes, and sort of.

You can list prelim years at which you interviewed at the end of your rank list. You could either match there, or you could scramble into a position if you don't match. As for your second question, again, there is no such thing as a "transitional surgery year"...it's a surgical prelim year. If you do a surgical prelim and you do well, you may be accepted to your program's cateogorical program (if there are open spots) and your internship will usually count toward your years. You could also apply out for an open PGY-2 or -3 position elsewhere in the country and you would not have to repeat your intern year. Put if you did a transitional year or a prelim medicine year and you want to go to a categorical surgical program, the intern year would obviously not count.