It seems to me that there is a typical course of the disease "Matchitis". In the first 3 years it seems to be relatively quiescent followed by an flair that goes through stages that generally last about 7 months:
1. "Do I have enough interviews?" Obsession over the number of interviews, how fast they can be obtained, and does the patient have more or less than his/her fellow sufferers.
2. "Did they love me?" Sufferers attempt to read meanings into simple statements while exhibiting behaviors characterized by travel and spree spending. Advanced cases attempt to force love with elaborate concerns about the exchange of thank you notes. Severe cases attempt "second visits".
3. "How should I rank?" is the penultimate stage. Sufferers take the often incorrect conclusions they developed during the "love me" stage and construct elaborate circular scenarios that start "If I do this, he'll do this. . .therefore instead I should do this . . .but what if . . ."
4. "After the rank list". At this point some sufferers have a remission, but the majority spend their time in small rooms flipping their lower lip up and down saying "ebeedeeebeedeeebeedee. . .".
The crisis occurs in the third week in March and is followed by quick cure in the majority of cases. Unfortunately a small minority go on to "scramblenodosa". A few who are cured are bothered by residual testosterone poisoning (for the Marine version see Panda's and Corpsman's argument over nothing circa April last year).
Unforunately, Matchitis cannot be cured in less than 7 months and the fact that the crisis and resolution always occur in late march suggest that this is a variant of SAD. As such, I intend to propose it to the APA for the next version of the DSM so that the shrinks can charge to treat you crazies.
😀
Alleviation of symptoms while waiting for resolution can be accomplished by remembering a few things:
1. You are in the driver's seat, not the programs. If past is prologue, the majority of EM applicants get their first choice and something like 77% match to specialty. AMGs considerably higher. See these threads:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=266459
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=267944
2. EM interviewers are likely to be neutral because
we're tired, same as you. We've got hundreds of applications to parse, then 50-200 interviews to do. In addition, most of those interviewees will make great Docs and we know it. We have little fear of not filling, therefore we are not likely to use the sales tactics that are seen in some other specialties. On the other hand we have to do lots of interviews (apparently the average is about 10 per slot) to be sure we aren't in the scramble.
3. Don't try to overthink this. Don't rank other than in the order you really would like. It is to your advantage to influence the program, but not to ours to be influenced to put our list in other than in our true order. We know that you only have one first choice and that many fall in love with each program as they interview. But it's really often only infatuation (see Corpsman's journal last year
😉 ). Insincerity on your part is usually pretty obvious. I think most of us understand that you're have little choice and will not ding you on that basis.
In short matchitis can be cured and only temporarily renders the sufferer hideous.
👍 After the cure, the new doctor becomes his/her normal lovable self.
😍
