THE SOAP 2013 Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
I know this may be a little early, but it is the elephant in the room. There seems to be a lot of us with no phone calls (yet). What plans do people have for the year? Has anyone looked at anything outside of research and, if so, what options are out there?
 
Does anyone know how late or early they will call? Still haven't gotten any phone calls for psychiatry. Getting a little nervous.
 
redrumi said:
All of my apps are prelim med/TY. I am on fire now, got a follow up call to an original email, and a new email to schedule a call. I hope other people are getting some love too.
Click to expand...

nada here.
 
Hi is it too late for any telephone interviews now for psychiatry ?
 
redrumi said:
All of my apps are prelim med/TY. I am on fire now, got a follow up call to an original email, and a new email to schedule a call. I hope other people are getting some love too.
Click to expand...

Ha, called it 😉 good luck! Keep it cool!
 
themoreyouknow said:
What about that movie "accepted"? I feel like that's appropriate.

Or Rudy?
Click to expand...

You're right, I'd rather watch "accepted" than "the following". But then again, it feels like we have been watching trailer from a thriller movie, "The Call".
 
sella turcica said:
I don't think there's much harm in being a straight shooter at this point, they want to know if they are wasting their time or not IMO. I had an interview that seemed to go well, then I wrote back and told the PD that if he offered me the position I would 100% take it (this is true, I will take it even if I get five other interviews today).
Click to expand...

I am doing the same. I figure there's no harm at this point.
 
SpringWater said:
I feel like I'm alone in this fight (aside from the nice people here who are on the same boat). I'm on a stupid away rotation right now and I hear back at my school and from a friend at another school (in the same city) all the unmatched students are all together with their councilors and associate dean. He doesn't know what is going on because luckily he matched but just hearing that makes me feel so alone. I'm literally at my rental kitchen counter going crazy right now. 2 phonecalls 1 email (without phonecall follow up). Are those of you stalking this forum thread also alone or are you with your respective schools?
Click to expand...

Def alone. US IMG. Girlfriend in another city. No such support structure from my school, Ill be surprised if they have any suggestions for me. Never a forum person, but Im glad to commiserate with strangers in similar situations. btw 0 calls, 0 emails...
 
sreenath830 said:
Def alone. US IMG. Girlfriend in another city. No such support structure from my school, Ill be surprised if they have any suggestions for me. Never a forum person, but Im glad to commiserate with strangers in similar situations. btw 0 calls, 0 emails...
Click to expand...

Same, first time forum goer here. Guess its good to collaborate with others in the same situation... even if it is to communally talk about our sorrows this week
 
dolhan16 said:
Same, first time forum goer here. Guess its good to collaborate with others in the same situation... even if it is to communally talk about our sorrows this week
Click to expand...

ditto on all of the above. misery loves company
 
I told the ppl at my current rotation that I will be in the hospital in the evening. Hospital has a lot of dead spot... dont know if i should go in?? What if there is a call.... I have been sitting at the same spot from 7-5pm now... 🙁
 
dolhan16 said:
I know this may be a little early, but it is the elephant in the room. There seems to be a lot of us with no phone calls (yet). What plans do people have for the year? Has anyone looked at anything outside of research and, if so, what options are out there?
Click to expand...

I'm going to be a stay at home dad since my wife has a marketable job, and hopefully I'll take some kind of classes at my undergrad alma mater. Maybe biomed engineering or something that would actually mesh well with my MD and land me a job that won't be embarrassing.

Nah, I haven't thought about this topic at all 😛
 
sair said:
I told the ppl at my current rotation that I will be in the hospital in the evening. Hospital has a lot of dead spot... dont know if i should go in?? What if there is a call.... I have been sitting at the same spot from 7-5pm now... 🙁
Click to expand...

dude, what rotation are you on? Did you let them know you are in the SOAP? Do they have a clue how important that is? I would call them and just tell them exactly what you just said. This is way more important than some MS4 rotation.
 
sella turcica said:
dude, what rotation are you on? Did you let them know you are in the SOAP? Do they have a clue how important that is? I would call them and just tell them exactly what you just said. This is way more important than some MS4 rotation.
Click to expand...

This 1000x, I knew I was a high risk match candidate and I told my team last week that I would more than likely be doing this. Remember that they all have matched and gone through this process. They know the stress. Let your team know, let the other MS know (if there are any), and dedicate the time to this. Now isnt the time to chance anything
 
I was supposed to be taking call tonight. My away team was nice enough to insist I take however many days I need to get a job. The staff offered for me to deal with it all in their offices and the chief I'm working with (who I was supposed to be on call with) told me to hang out in the call room so I'm not alone in the process. I kind of wish I would have taken either up on the offer but instead I'm at my rental with all the privacy I need to bawl my eyes out. It would be nice to have a distraction but at this point I am in no frame of mind to provide patient care. I would nicely ask for the night/day off. Job security next year is more important than a 4th yr rotation.
 
so far, 2 phone calls total, at 12 and 4pm. I guess I can panic if I don't get my 3rd interview around 8pm? I'm such a nervous wreck.

Seems some other people are also getting phone calls today. Not a wealth of interest but looks like we're not shooting total blanks at SDN. Scared how they're going to pick from phone candidates though (seems like they're doing quite a few interviews as both mine were very rushed.)
 
It's 5:15 PM in here and I still have 0 calls 0 emails. As much as I want to keep my chin up, this is unbearable.
 
I'm never going to look at my bar of soap the same way ever again after this.
 
I know that somehow this is better than the previous frantic scramble, but not being able to do anything and/or call anyone is nerve racking.
 
As much as I'm stressed right now, that was awesome. Thanks for the laugh 🙂 lol
 
sella turcica said:
dude, what rotation are you on? Did you let them know you are in the SOAP? Do they have a clue how important that is? I would call them and just tell them exactly what you just said. This is way more important than some MS4 rotation.
Click to expand...

dude the worst part is that exact hospital and exact department has a spot in soap... they claim to love me there... and they didnt even have the courtesy to call me and tell me yes or no..... Talk about being kicked when you are super low 🙁
 
When do programs stop calling? Tonight? Tomorrow morning?
 
sair said:
dude the worst part is that exact hospital and exact department has a spot in soap... they claim to love me there... and they didnt even have the courtesy to call me and tell me yes or no..... Talk about being kicked when you are super low 🙁
Click to expand...

It's ok. My home institution acted interested in me, so I ranked them at the top.

Bwaaaahahahahhah.
 
dolhan16 said:
When do programs stop calling? Tonight? Tomorrow morning?
Click to expand...

I am assuming they will still call tomorrow morning, since the deadline is 12pm for the list, they can still interview until 10:30-11 and then convene in an office and make up a quick list.
 
sella turcica said:
It's ok. My home institution acted interested in me, so I ranked them at the top.

Bwaaaahahahahhah.
Click to expand...

Dude this is the one i am rotating at for the next 2 wks... if not offered, i will have to put a smiley face and pretend like nothing happened....
 
sella turcica said:
It's ok. My home institution acted interested in me, so I ranked them at the top.

Bwaaaahahahahhah.
Click to expand...

dolhan16 said:
When do programs stop calling? Tonight? Tomorrow morning?
Click to expand...

sair said:
Dude this is the one i am rotating at for the next 2 wks... if not offered, i will have to put a smiley face and pretend like nothing happened....
Click to expand...

Dudes, that is harsh. ;( it sucks that programs lie so much, I would appreciate a : "listen here, this is your weakness..... we're not gonna rank you here, but make sure you don't let other programs notice this weakness, ok bubba?" now wouldn't THAT be more helpful?
 
sella turcica said:
From what I understand, it's highly unlikely that anyone will get an offer without at least some kind of contact. I hear you on the debt issue. I'm guessing that this debacle is going to cost me about 10 years to bounce back from (financially).

I've been telling myself that others have it worse. I don't have terminal cancer, I'm not going to prison, I'm don't have locked-in syndrome. Life's good, right? 🙄

Realistically though, my only solution would be to do something that my MD serves as a nice addition to. ie: go back to school for biomed engineering/etc. I'm already thinking about ways to handle this. Sure, I'll be poor for a while, but at this point I'm going to be poor no matter how hard I work for a few years.
Click to expand...

My close friend who is SOAPing now may need to think of alternative career options as well since he has had nothing so far. He told me of some service that helps people with MDs get setup in non-clinical roles/jobs but is super expensive. Other options include going to PA school and also since my friend is into computers he's also wanting to see about opporunities working for EMR companies like Cerner.



dolhan16 said:
When do programs stop calling? Tonight? Tomorrow morning?
Click to expand...

Here's the SOAP schedule with offer periods: https://www.aamc.org/download/275096/data/erassoapschedule.pdf

But I think basically it's now until Friday 5pm EST that anyone can call you if they're interested. So there's not limit, as far as I know, on when programs can stop calling. It's fill or buts for them until Friday.
 
FMDoc13 said:
Dudes, that is harsh. ;( it sucks that programs lie so much, I would appreciate a : "listen here, this is your weakness..... we're not gonna rank you here, but make sure you don't let other programs notice this weakness, ok bubba?" now wouldn't THAT be more helpful?
Click to expand...

it's like playing jedi mind in startrek.
 
FMDoc13 said:
I am assuming they will still call tomorrow morning, since the deadline is 12pm for the list, they can still interview until 10:30-11 and then convene in an office and make up a quick list.
Click to expand...

As an FYI, per the thread last year there were indeed some calls on Wednesday morning. This makes sense; since you're not actually making a "list" and only making as many offers as you have spots, there's no reason that a program wouldn't call almost up until the deadline. They just need to pick one person (or two, or however many spots they have open) that they like and don't have worry about ranking every single person they talk to.

To answer another common question, it looks like at least one user reported getting an offer at a place that never even contacted them during the SOAP. Granted this was prelim surg, so who knows if that would happen in other specialties and I wouldn't expect that it would be the norm, but found that interesting.
 
Mapplicant said:
My close friend who is SOAPing now may need to think of alternative career options as well since he has had nothing so far. He told me of some service that helps people with MDs get setup in non-clinical roles/jobs but is super expensive.
Click to expand...

Just as a warning for your friend, these services are scams. They ask for TONS of money in the end (hook you in with a smaller first payment, and at every stage ask you for more.)
 
FMDoc13 said:
I am assuming they will still call tomorrow morning, since the deadline is 12pm for the list, they can still interview until 10:30-11 and then convene in an office and make up a quick list.
Click to expand...

Seems they can call anytime. Theoretically, they only need as many names in their list as they have spots open for a round. So a program with 1 spot only needs 1 name. Then they have an hour to put up a second name if the first guy doesn't accept before round 2.
 
Slade said:
Just as a warning for your friend, these services are scams. They ask for TONS of money in the end (hook you in with a smaller first payment, and at every stage ask you for more.)
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks alot. He was telling me the average cost is a month's pay of a primary care physician (aka around $10,000). I found one of these websites and honestly the layout looked pretty amateur. Thanks again I will let him know!
 
briton said:
The numbers seem a little high. According to the NRMP results from the 2012 publication (page 1) there were 31,355 active applicants (submitted certified ROLs) for 26,772 spots. Only 529 spots went unfilled last year. So that makes the number more like 5,000. Still a lot but better than 10,000.
Click to expand...

"well as by the numbers of registrants (38,377)and active applicants (31,355)"

Just need to be registered to SOAP.
 
GoSpursGo said:
As an FYI, per the thread last year there were indeed some calls on Wednesday morning. This makes sense; since you're not actually making a "list" and only making as many offers as you have spots, there's no reason that a program wouldn't call almost up until the deadline. They just need to pick one person (or two, or however many spots they have open) that they like and don't have worry about ranking every single person they talk to.

To answer another common question, it looks like at least one user reported getting an offer at a place that never even contacted them during the SOAP. Granted this was prelim surg, so who knows if that would happen in other specialties and I wouldn't expect that it would be the norm, but found that interesting.
Click to expand...

Great so technically more lying can happen. I am thinking though this process is a bit more truthful since they don't really have THAT much time to look through apps AND make phone calls. MAYBE I am just wishful thinking.
 
I am pretty much assuming we are done for the night... 0/30
 
FMDoc13 said:
Great so technically more lying can happen. I am thinking though this process is a bit more truthful since they don't really have THAT much time to look through apps AND make phone calls. MAYBE I am just wishful thinking.
Click to expand...

Is a 15 minute phone interview really that meaningful? Most it'll find out is that you crammed every program in the country with spots in your specialty into your 30 (and/or FMGs/prelims/TYs near your area)
 
soap user guide if anyone needs it. good luck to all you soapers. Dont for one sec think abt switching career at this point! You'all have come this far and this is just another bump, surely all of you can overcome this crap. Good luck!👍
 

Attachments

Ogenki said:
Is a 15 minute phone interview really that meaningful? Most it'll find out is that you crammed every program in the country with spots in your specialty into your 30 (and/or FMGs/prelims/TYs near your area)
Click to expand...

I really don't think they care at this time why you are applying, although some have asked. I think they just want to hear you, so they can see if 1) you speak English, 2) you speak it intelligently and 3) ask you what your goals are in life and see if they match with theirs.
 
my wife and I are probably going to marathon some movies, and drink all the coffee in the house.
 
Can someone explain to me why are there hundreds of articles out there warning against the upcoming doctor shortage and yet here we are after 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of med school, 3 USMLE exams and $200,000 in student loans begging for soap scraps like some starving dog at the dinner table!? The system is broke and the SOAP shouldn't even exist! IMO as long as you've passed all the tests and jumped through all the hoops you should have a guaranteed spot in medicine, at least in primary care. This is so messed up. FYI I'm a US Grad interested in family medicine, no calls or e-mails yet but I guess theres always tommorow.
 
changethesystem said:
Can someone explain to me why are there hundreds of articles out there warning against the upcoming doctor shortage and yet here we are after 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of med school, 3 USMLE exams and $200,000 in student loans begging for soap scraps like some starving dog at the dinner table!? The system is broke and the SOAP shouldn't even exist! IMO as long as you've passed all the tests and jumped through all the hoops you should have a guaranteed spot in medicine, at least in primary care. This is so messed up. FYI I'm a US Grad interested in family medicine, no calls or e-mails yet but I guess theres always tommorow.
Click to expand...

I know how you feel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

V
SOAP 2026
Replies
30
Views
2K
Viper3175
Viper3175
V
SOAP 2024
Replies
3
Views
2K
Gastrapathy
Gastrapathy
V
SOAP 2023
Replies
0
Views
2K
vbomn1
V
GoSpursGo
SOAP 2022
Replies
49
Views
10K
Apollyon
A
V
SOAP/Scramble 2021 Thread
2
Replies
57
Views
10K
BruceWaynMD
BruceWaynMD
Top