What does one do?

[Merely]

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Wait so what should a USMD m4 do if her step 1 and 2 are in the 240s, she’s AOA, honors in psych elective, got 13 interviews but only went to 8 and ranked 7. What does one do if they don’t match? This person only wants to do psych and nothing else. Do they take year off and do research? Match into different specialty? What’s the best way to become a psychiatrist in this horrible situation?

 

[nitemagi]

Scramble.

 

[Stagg737]

Posted this in another thread but also applies here. I cannot emphasize the last line enough:

1. SOAP into psych
2. SOAP into another field/transitional/pre-lim year and try to transfer to a psych program
3. SOAP into another field/transitional/pre-lim year and reapply in the match the following year as a PGY-2
4. SOAP into anything and look for the few programs which are outside the match. Contact them and see if they will interview you and if they accept you then you can quit your previous position and sign on with them. There may be some contract details to work out there, but I think it's possible.
5. Don't match at all and reapply for the match the following year

May be other options, but for now I'd try to chill hope for the best.

 

[Old&InTheWay]

Disregarding the AOA, you chances are very low 5-10% that you won't match with those scores and 5-10 ranks (based upon the last few years' data). But when you take into account the AOA membership, since 2014, only one AOA applicant did not match (out of ~180) with any number of ranks. Unless you are a terrible interviewer, I suspect you will match.

 

[Mad Jack]

Posted this in another thread but also applies here. I cannot emphasize the last line enough:

1. SOAP into psych
2. SOAP into another field/transitional/pre-lim year and try to transfer to a psych program
3. SOAP into another field/transitional/pre-lim year and reapply in the match the following year as a PGY-2
4. SOAP into anything and look for the few programs which are outside the match. Contact them and see if they will interview you and if they accept you then you can quit your previous position and sign on with them. There may be some contract details to work out there, but I think it's possible.
5. Don't match at all and reapply for the match the following year

May be other options, but for now I'd try to chill hope for the best.

Basically this. You should be fine with your app though.

 

[Merely]

Posted this in another thread but also applies here. I cannot emphasize the last line enough:

1. SOAP into psych
2. SOAP into another field/transitional/pre-lim year and try to transfer to a psych program
3. SOAP into another field/transitional/pre-lim year and reapply in the match the following year as a PGY-2
4. SOAP into anything and look for the few programs which are outside the match. Contact them and see if they will interview you and if they accept you then you can quit your previous position and sign on with them. There may be some contract details to work out there, but I think it's possible.
5. Don't match at all and reapply for the match the following year

May be other options, but for now I'd try to chill hope for the best.

Those are many options listed though, I’m trying to determine which of those is the best. Are they written in order of preference? Like if I can’t do number 1 then do 2,3 etc? Also I don’t think psych has any spots in SOAP 🙁

 

[mbgr2014]

Wait so what should a USMD m4 do if her step 1 and 2 are in the 240s, she’s AOA, honors in psych elective, got 13 interviews but only went to 8 and ranked 7. What does one do if they don’t match? This person only wants to do psych and nothing else. Do they take year off and do research? Match into different specialty? What’s the best way to become a psychiatrist in this horrible situation?

Hopefully, this person will still match! Those are great stats to go into match season 🙂 and I genuinely hope for the best for you or "this person"...

However, this is more for the future applicants, but this strategy is risky. Going on only 8 interviews when psychiatry has become increasingly competitive is taking a real chance. The average matched applicant ranked at least 10+ programs. If this person applied to 13+ places and had 13 interview offers, going on at least 10 would have been a much better plan than considering SOAPing now.

You're correct, there were very few SOAP positions for psychiatry last year and we don't know how much will be available this year. However, in my understanding, programs that require SOAP to fill are usually bottom-of-the-barrel, almost universally disliked by applicant type programs. Some unique cases do occur, like Columbia forgetting to certify their ROL (in another specialty), or like a new program coming available after the rank list deadline occurs (UCF Orlando), or a program not ranking several of their interviewees.

 

[Stagg737]

Those are many options listed though, I’m trying to determine which of those is the best. Are they written in order of preference? Like if I can’t do number 1 then do 2,3 etc? Also I don’t think psych has any spots in SOAP 🙁

I'd say in order. 1 is clearly the best if all you care about is being a psychiatrist, as you'll be guaranteed to be entering a psych program. After that it's hit or miss, but I go in order. Also, how do you know there are no spots in SOAP this year? I wouldn't make that assumption, though positions may be low.

 

[lockian]

Wait so what should a USMD m4 do if her step 1 and 2 are in the 240s, she’s AOA, honors in psych elective, got 13 interviews but only went to 8 and ranked 7. What does one do if they don’t match? This person only wants to do psych and nothing else. Do they take year off and do research? Match into different specialty? What’s the best way to become a psychiatrist in this horrible situation?

Honestly the only way I see this person not matching is if there's some major x-factor at play that you're not mentioning, i.e. she goes to interviews and gives everyone the heebie-jeebies. But then it would be hard to honor in psych or get AOA, since clinical grades do take interpersonal skills into account.

 

[Merely]

Ok good thx everyone for your reassuring words, I guess my friend would just have to try to soap into psych then if not take research year and reapply next year, soaping into IM sounds risky

 

[NickNaylor]

Honestly the only way I see this person not matching is if there's some major x-factor at play that you're not mentioning, i.e. she goes to interviews and gives everyone the heebie-jeebies. But then it would be hard to honor in psych or get AOA, since clinical grades do take interpersonal skills into account.

Complete agree, unless they're a complete doofus or there are other huge red flags in the application, I would be surprised if this "person" doesn't match.

 

[NontradCA]

They should panic right before match day and make an SDN thread.

 

[Merely]

Update: my friend matched so she won’t have to worry about anything, thanks everyone for your insights and words of encouragement, you all are very appreciated

 

[Old&InTheWay]

Congratulations to "your friend." 😉

 

[Trismegistus4]

They should panic right before match day and make an SDN thread.

You omitted the most important step: as soon as the question has been answered to their satisfaction, edit the OP, replacing the entire post with "." leaving subsequent readers to wonder what the heck everybody was replying to.

 

[NJWxMan]

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