waiting until match day

[DJ LACTULOSE]

so interviews are over and most of us have our match lists finished... i feel like waiting until match day is going to be the hardest part of this whole process. one day i feel pretty confident, the next i'm freaking out, wondering if i'll end up at my home program or below it on my list.

i'm on a really easy rotation and have feb off and then my last (and also easy) rotation in march. maybe i should go on a trip or something.

at least there's plenty of time for going out... but man, this waiting is killing me! at least after match day, you're not in limbo anymore. i really kind of feel homeless right now.

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[CernerDrone]

but as long as you only ranked the places you'd be "happy" at, you'll be happy regardless, relatively speaking right?

 

[MSI-Scrub]

so interviews are over and most of us have our match lists finished... i feel like waiting until match day is going to be the hardest part of this whole process. one day i feel pretty confident, the next i'm freaking out, wondering if i'll end up at my home program or below it on my list.

i'm on a really easy rotation and have feb off and then my last (and also easy) rotation in march. maybe i should go on a trip or something.

at least there's plenty of time for going out... but man, this waiting is killing me! at least after match day, you're not in limbo anymore. i really kind of feel homeless right now.

I had the day off today and played around with my rank list all day. This one up a few spots, this one down a few spots, etc etc. At the end of the day, my list looked exactly as it did this morning before I stared. I realized I am obsessing and really need to just leave it alone.

This waiting is hard. I can't wait to start looking for housing in my new city. I'm really trying to be patient and leave things as they are from now on. I'm praying things work out at the end and that I'm happy.

Good luck to everyone!

 

[buckley]

the reward of patience is patience....but man, who wants that?
The waiting game is so anxiety-provoking.

 

[0382938]

I actually have been wondering about the rationale behind the match timeline. Initially I thought it was pretty dumb to have everybody finish interviewing in January and then not have lists due until late Feb. Now I'm among the thousands who has no idea what to do with his rank list, so I don't think that's quite so stupid. However, I still don't get why it takes them another month to tell us. I mean, the computer algorithm can't take more than a couple hours to go through the entire batch of us, right? So why not tell us so we can start figuring out our lives? Housing, plane tickets, a new driver's lisence . . .

 

[Rogue_Leader]

I think what's even more silly is how on the Monday before match day, you find out if you matched, but they still wait until Thursday to tell you where. I mean, what's the rational about that?

 

[0382938]

I assume it's so that the scramblers can do it before match day, included in the festivities at their schools, etc.

 

[gutonc]

I actually have been wondering about the rationale behind the match timeline. Initially I thought it was pretty dumb to have everybody finish interviewing in January and then not have lists due until late Feb. Now I'm among the thousands who has no idea what to do with his rank list, so I don't think that's quite so stupid. However, I still don't get why it takes them another month to tell us. I mean, the computer algorithm can't take more than a couple hours to go through the entire batch of us, right? So why not tell us so we can start figuring out our lives? Housing, plane tickets, a new driver's lisence . . .

As has been pointed out many times before, the main reason for taking so long is so that they don't F it up. You're right, they probably only need a couple of hours to run the algorithm and even if you do it half a dozen times or more that should only take a day or two at the most. But then portions of it get hand checked 2 or 3 times as well against initial rank lists. Then they run it again several dozen times, just for the hell of it.

You may wonder, what are the chances that this kind of thing would get messed up? Well, a couple of years ago (3 IIRC) the AUA match got so fu><><0r3d that people w/ AOA and PhDs weren't matching while people who had no business applying to community FM programs were matching at top 10 urology programs. Turns out the original data was entered completely backwards and it didn't get double/triple-checked. And this was only for a few hundred Urology spots. Imagine the complexity of basically every other residency spot in the country and you can see why it takes so long.

So just suck it up and deal w/ it. Yes, the wait is annoying, but it beats the alternative.

 

[Cuteasaurus]

I think I'll be very happy to spend Feb in the MICU. If I'm working, I won't have time to be neurotic, right? Otherwise, I feel pretty bad for my family and friends...

 

[gng930]

I assume it's so that the scramblers can do it before match day, included in the festivities at their schools, etc.

Speculation on my part, but I think it's that way because they don't want people who did match and were somewhat disappointed with their placement to be scoping out for better programs when the list of unfilled spots is released.

 

[velo]

Yeah I know exactly what you mean. I keep spending all my time looking into housing and the local cycling scene in the city of my #1 choice. As much as I enjoy taking it easy during 4th year I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. There's not really anything for me here anymore and I wish I could start moving on.

Oh and the really irritating thing about browsing housing is when you find a perfect place while looking in January. Goddamn it, can you guys just hold out until June? Please?

 

[Cuteasaurus]

Oh and the really irritating thing about browsing housing is when you find a perfect place while looking in January. Goddamn it, can you guys just hold out until June? Please?

I totally know what you mean. There have been a couple houses I've found that would be perfect and they're at an awesome price even given today's housing market. Too bad I have no idea what state I'll end up in...ugh.

 

[Rogue_Leader]

I assume it's so that the scramblers can do it before match day, included in the festivities at their schools, etc.

Eh, I have a hard time believing that the NRMP is all that concerned with whether unmatched applicants get to have cookies and punch with their classmates.

 

[0382938]

Eh, I have a hard time believing that the NRMP is all that concerned with whether unmatched applicants get to have cookies and punch with their classmates.

My logic was that med school deans want to announce their match lists with as many of the graduating class accounted for as possible. Also, PD's want to do the same. Both of these groups of people probably have some kind of lobby at the NRMP, right? (I really don't know how the bureaucracy works.) Cookies notwithstanding, it's in everybody's best interest to have it all neat and tidy for match day.