USC want YOU!!!

[jaunx]

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Love...
It is such a wonderful thing.
Don't you remember that feeling? When your face gets all flushed, your heart goes pitter-patter, and your stomach gets light and airy. awwwww,shucks...teeheehee...

Let me count the ways that I love you.

I had a couple of friends fall in love with the USC IM program.
They got love letters back. A nice glowing e-mail here, a beautifully written letter there...and to top it off...whispers of eternal bliss while walking down the dark, yet romantic corridors of the USC county hospital.

It was soooooOOOOOOOO sweet.

"you are a wonderful applicant." "We can't think of anyone else we would want more than you." "you are in...you are soooo in........."

yes, it was like warm apple-pie.

Love can make extremely naive people do extremely stupid things. Well, you don't even have to be THAT naive.... They are my friends so I'll give them a little break. I'll blame it on the fact that medical school makes dogs out of some of us. Any type of approval makes us drool. A sly smile. A quick nod of the head.
OH GOODIE! They like me, they really, really like me. Instantly we start panting and barking and wagging our little tales.

They started declining interviews to other programs.
Many interviews....
and to good programs.
I asked them why? They said, "why ask why? I am in love."

They made plans to be in Southern California.
They were so excited.

I rolled my eyes. What can you say to people in love?

I think in one of the e-mails that I read, there was a suggestion that on the day of the match, they should each get on their knees and bend over...just slightly.

You know what? They did exactly as they were told...and you know what happened? Guesssssss!!!!

WAM BAM...but, alas...there wasn't even a thank you ma'am.

The moral of this story:
I write this, not to make fun of my friends, but to illustrate to those of you out there ready to start your residency applications
that some people will blow sunshine right up your rectum....so much so,that pretty soon it will be coming out your mouth. Do not be naive. Do not be stupid. Do not be made a fool. You have heard it all before but some of you...we all know that someone...you need to hear it one more time. Don't believe the hype. You NEED IT IN WRITING! o/w...it don't mean ship.

ya know what I'm sayin'?

 

[soon2bdoc2003]

ahah I know 3 people in my class who had EXACTLY the same experience with USC.

 

[jaunx]

whoops
Not tales, but TAILS.
can't spell.
sorry.

 

[prince2100]

u know what those people who did not match at USC were the luckiest people. I know an IM resident at that program that hates it there and says the program truly sucks. This is coming from a happy go lucky person too. The resident mentions that many others hate it there also, they have a big workload and don't learn much. Can u say scutwork??? They can!!!

Good luck, thats an honest answer, find out for yourself.

 

[fourthyear]

these empty promises happen at other programs and other specialties. Despite lots of postitive encouragement from my top two programs, I interviewed at many places, agonized over my rank order list, making slight changes between my 8 and 9 choices in the last week, always thinking I could end up anywhere on that list. My friends and family thought I was crazy b/c surely I would match at one of those top 2...guess what, I did NOT. I am still confused about why they'd bother to give me such encouragement, then not choose me, but there are a lot of good candidates out there, so I guess I can undertand how they probably told about 20 of us the same story, hoping they'd fill with most of us, but knowing they couldn't take us all. Luckily, my dilligence in thinking so much about my interview schedule and my ROL worked out, b/c I think I'll be very happy with this place I ended up, even though it was in the middle of my list.

This is good advice and I'm glad someone started this thread now to let the new applicants know what they are getting into. Play the game to your advantage and remember that you won't know where you're going till Match Day, no matter how sweet the program's promises are.