THE SOAP 2013 Thread

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sreenath830 said:
For those fortunate to have received calls from PDs, what speciality was your first choice, and what type of program contacted you? AMG or IMG? Has anyone received calls from categorical medicine positions?

For me, no calls no interviews...pretty despondent, dont even know if its worth applying for the second round today.
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Anesthesiology was my first choice. I'm AMG, no failures but my board scores were 20x's. Personally I think they're screening by Step Scores even more than interview season and I'm just getting people who got past that to notice I'm US citizen about to graduate from a decent allopathic med school. Most of my interviews came later (past the initial wave which probably went to all the average/high step scores without obvious red flags) and even then, one FMG interviewers didn't even know I applied for Anesthesiology despite a new personal statement explaining why I'm applying to FM and all my LORs being from anesthesiologists who said I'd make a great anesthesiology resident for their program. So I'm not sure how much of my app really got read past the step score by most of the 30 I applied to.

I can't imagine what you're going through but as I found out on Monday, alot of interviews a false sense of security and make.the gut punch hurt even worse.
 
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I just pray to GOD there are no computer glitches between 12 and 5
 
Hey luminescent--

My fiancé interviewed at some primary care IM programs....the ones he went to were Univ programs, and about 60% of the grads go on to fellowship. I think it just depends which one you seek. Obviously if you pick cards you have to be on the ball from Day 0 and maybe not picky about geography. My point is, it's possible!!

Good luck to you!
 
Originally Posted by sreenath830 View Post
For those fortunate to have received calls from PDs, what speciality was your first choice, and what type of program contacted you? AMG or IMG? Has anyone received calls from categorical medicine positions?
Click to expand...

Our first choice was FM, we only reapplied to FM, got contacted by some programs that actually rejected us during the interview season. We are both US-IMGs
 
sella turcica said:
After SOAP has concluded at 5PM on Friday, is there a place where we can obtain the list of programs that incompletely filled so we can call them and beg them for a spot?
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Since the consensus is that the list of unfilled programs will be updated continually as soon as the offer starts here in an hour, I think a good way is to write down/type in notepad what programs are still unfilled on friday morning and then start calling after the SOAP is over. Since if they haven't filled by friday then it's possible they will have unfilled spots even after SOAP.

Also if you go to FREIDA, there is an optional search criteria that tells you about programs not in the NRMP which you can also try to establish contact as well.

Best of luck to everyone in this! Keep hopes up and never, ever give up!
 
sreenath830 said:
For those fortunate to have received calls from PDs, what speciality was your first choice, and what type of program contacted you? AMG or IMG? Has anyone received calls from categorical medicine positions?

For me, no calls no interviews...pretty despondent, dont even know if its worth applying for the second round today.
Click to expand...

I have also received 0/30 calls. I was expecting to get offers without any calls though since I am applying only for prelims, but really worried after reading all the stuff on here.

As far as my profile goes... I matched into my #1 ranked radiology program as an IMG, with quite decent board scores, lots of US experience and great letters of reference. Can't believe I'm stressing out 10x more about this than I did for the categorical!
 
No new programs contacted me today, heard in total via email and/or phone from 4/30 ty/prelim med programs. Resident from one of the programs called me today after speaking to the PD.
 
Guys! Would really appreciate an answer to this- Is there a point applying to Surgery-prelim when all your LORs are IM?
 
no calls for me this morning either.
 
I dont think it matters, I know a couple of people who got prelim surgery but applied for PCP specialties. U need to remember the PD need you for scutwork. I hope this helps
 
so i called and asked about the real time updating thing. apparently the open positions only update in real time for programs so they know who they can no longer offer positions to. otherwise for us applicants, the list of open spots only is supposed to update at 2pm and not continuously like they made it seem. also, my counselor said in last years soap, the open spots didnt actually update until 3pm despite nrmp saying they would be updated at 2pm.
 
aquabatch said:
Basically, the school is worried. The dean has talked to other deans. They are worried. Word is it was just a BAD year. Way way way too many ppl for spots.
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Wouldn't it be more accurate to call it an ominous trend rather than a bad year? Recent history has seen more medical schools and growing class sizes. With the influx of even more medical graduates next year, combined with the larger pool of unmatched / unsoaped candidates from this year, I hardly see 2013 as simply "a" bad year.
 
molten said:
Guys! Would really appreciate an answer to this- Is there a point applying to Surgery-prelim when all your LORs are IM?
Click to expand...

IMO yes, there is point, PDs looking to fill prelims could not care less about your initial goals. If you have good LORs and decent scores, they want you, you're a warm body in a hectic residency, and they get funding for you and you get to see patients for a year and do some networking, take Step 3 and MATCH next year.
 
on the NRMP SOAP table... it says Friday after 3pm the list of unfilled programs becomes available and will be available until May 1st.
 
sazerac said:
Wouldn't it be more accurate to call it an ominous trend rather than a bad year? Recent history has seen more medical schools and growing class sizes. With the influx of even more medical graduates next year, combined with the larger pool of unmatched / unsoaped candidates from this year, I hardly see 2013 as simply "a" bad year.
Click to expand...

Agreed. This is not "just a bad year." People don't just all of a sudden rush to get into medical school. There have been alot of articles in the news talking about shortage of residency spots and the ominous future due to low GME funding. Coupled with the fact that medical schools make money whereas residencies not so much and you get growing AMGs as well as IMGs competing for the same or slightly larger total residency spots each year.
 
Think about all this wasted talent next time the lady at the clinic says that the doctor isn't available but if you'd like you can be seen by the nurse practicioner or the PA.

It's all about the profit its always been about the profit never about the people.
 
Mapplicant said:
Agreed. This is not "just a bad year." People don't just all of a sudden rush to get into medical school. There have been alot of articles in the news talking about shortage of residency spots and the ominous future due to low GME funding. Coupled with the fact that medical schools make money whereas residencies not so much and you get growing AMGs as well as IMGs competing for the same or slightly larger total residency spots each year.
Click to expand...

Agreed. If you think this year is bad...watch next year or 2015.

Unless theres a serious push for inc. in residency spots some MD AMGs are going to get uber-screwed.
 
the programs have now certified their lists.... 😱
 
5 minutes till probably more disappointment.
 
My institution had initially advised our SOAP students to wait until 2 PM to scramble.

With the aforementioned info, I'm curious, how are you folks going to strategize?

I hate the thought of having to risk 5 of 10 slots on programs that may fill within the 2 hour timeframe.
 
offers are being generated....? what's that mean? I didn't get one? I thought it would say yes/no.
 
No Offers, where is the real time list?? Does the offers come during this round if a person rejects it... or nothing...??
 
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!! I knew you would get an offer during the first round....now get some sleep...I hope we will be lucky too
 
Nothing, obviously. The bums won't even make a mistake I can capitalize on.

Well, the unfilled list is AS IS. I thought it was going to be updated (?)
 
CDI said:
Agreed. If you think this year is bad...watch next year or 2015.

Unless theres a serious push for inc. in residency spots some MD AMGs are going to get uber-screwed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can't imagine the near future. This topic came up briefly earlier in the thread and I mentioned that if this trend continues there will be a crash in medical school applications in what can be thought of as the "med school bubble." Law school is having that exact problem right now with huge drop in applications because a lot of graduates of law schools can't find jobs that actually require you to have a JD.

It used to be a huge celebration and a party when you or someone you know/in your family got accepted into medical school because that basically meant they're going to be a doctor. But now, medical school does not mean becoming a doctor. And with how much time, sacrifice and money it takes to go through medical school? I wouldn't be surprised if the bubble bursts for the med school market as well.


changethesystem said:
Think about all this wasted talent next time the lady at the clinic says that the doctor isn't available but if you'd like you can be seen by the nurse practicioner or the PA.

It's all about the profit its always been about the profit never about the people.
Click to expand...

I think more medical schools isn't always a bad thing. We need more doctors so in the med school market the supply is increasing to meet the demand of people who want to get started at becoming doctors. However, the big problem is how to increase residency slots at the same pace. Money is being talked about as the big issue, which shouldn't be seeing how the government can afford to shell out hundreds of billions for other things that I, personally, find not as valuable as GME funding.
 
So wth....when does the list get updated to see if the spots we applied for have any remaining seats???
 
No offers. Are we supposed to see an updated list of programs at 2 PM? So should I wait to apply to the next 10? How do the next round of offers come at 3? Yes im confused lol
 
DrSDR said:
So wth....when does the list get updated to see if the spots we applied for have any remaining seats???
Click to expand...

I assume its updated at 2pm. The deadline for the offers to be accepted or rejected.
 
CDI said:
Agreed. If you think this year is bad...watch next year or 2015.

Unless theres a serious push for inc. in residency spots some MD AMGs are going to get uber-screwed.
Click to expand...

The era of the IMG/FMG will come to an end by 2016.
 
do we have to reapply to some programs in the original 30 if we are still interested?
 
Can we still get offers during this period at say 1 PM ET?
 
Ogenki said:
OMG, I got an offer from the anesthesiology program that called. I didn't even think they were interested.
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told you, only 1 matters!!!

We got 3/6 that called, chose one! We HAVE jobs!!!! Hang in there guys!!!! The next round has at least 4 FM spots available that we just rejected

Don't give up!!!!!!
 
To all the douchebags posting in regards to non-SOAP related (and somewhat antagonizing) issues, please STOP for the sake of sincere people going through a professionally tumultuous time.

Seriously, let's be considerate.
 
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