Why do we even HAVE a match?!

[hermione]

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I received a letter today from an internship program. I won't say which one. This is an excerpt from the letter:

"The committee was impressed with your academic and clinical preformance and while there are students ranked ahead of you, we will list you favorably in the 2006-07 intern match. You must contact our office by January 3 2006 to indicate your level of interest. Otherwise, we will continue to fill the internship with other qualified applicants."

This is absurd. I thought the entire POINT of the match was the I would be indicating my freakin level of interest by RANKING programs. Isn't that the entire point?! WTF??

This comes after I find out that I drove all the way to a (different) program 3 states away, paying all of my own travel expenses, to find out from a fellow classmate that the four (anesthesia) positions they offer (IN THE MATCH) are already promised to four other people. I mean, why even bother?? It seems like every DO student I talk to has some idea of where they are going next year. I really don't care, as I think its fantastic to know early. But why don't we just get rid of all this match nonsense all together, since SO MANY D.O. PROGRAMS so blatently disregard the whole process. February 13th or whenever the hell the day is is just a formality.

Grrr! Isn't this stupid letter illegal? I am so pissed off. Why am I paying all this money to participate in this whole stupid sham of a match process? Why should I have to call? I'm not going to call, and I know I'm probablly over reacting due to all the stress of this whole process. But for some reason this letter really pushed me over the edge today.

 

[Ice-1]

I received a letter today from an internship program. I won't say which one. This is an excerpt from the letter:

"The committee was impressed with your academic and clinical preformance and while there are students ranked ahead of you, we will list you favorably in the 2006-07 intern match. You must contact our office by January 3 2006 to indicate your level of interest. Otherwise, we will continue to fill the internship with other qualified applicants."

This is absurd. I thought the entire POINT of the match was the I would be indicating my freakin level of interest by RANKING programs. Isn't that the entire point?! WTF??

This comes after I find out that I drove all the way to a (different) program 3 states away, paying all of my own travel expenses, to find out from a fellow classmate that the four (anesthesia) positions they offer (IN THE MATCH) are already promised to four other people. I mean, why even bother?? It seems like every DO student I talk to has some idea of where they are going next year. I really don't care, as I think its fantastic to know early. But why don't we just get rid of all this match nonsense all together, since SO MANY D.O. PROGRAMS so blatently disregard the whole process. February 13th or whenever the hell the day is is just a formality.

Grrr! Isn't this stupid letter illegal? I am so pissed off. Why am I paying all this money to participate in this whole stupid sham of a match process? Why should I have to call? I'm not going to call, and I know I'm probablly over reacting due to all the stress of this whole process. But for some reason this letter really pushed me over the edge today.

Seems like that letter is pretty close to violation of the match rules. If you spent the time and $$$$ to apply and interview at the program, that should indicate interest enough. I'm going into allopathic match and have not heard of similar letters being issued from those programs. Don't pay any attention to people who think they know where they are going next year until they have a signed contract in hand. Alot can happen between verbal promises and match day. Good luck!

 

[hermione]

I also have not heard of anything like this at MD programs. Which makes it even worse. Not to say it doesn't happen, but at least they aren't so damn BLATANT about it. Thanks for the support though. 🙂 I'm doing allopathic match as well, but just using the DO match for internship. What a pain in the A S S that is. Extra money, can't link internship ranks to residency ranks geographically, what a nightmare. How many freakin days until March 13th?!

 

[LovelyRita]

I also have not heard of anything like this at MD programs. Which makes it even worse. Not to say it doesn't happen, but at least they aren't so damn BLATANT about it. Thanks for the support though. 🙂 I'm doing allopathic match as well, but just using the DO match for internship. What a pain in the A S S that is. Extra money, can't link internship ranks to residency ranks geographically, what a nightmare. How many freakin days until March 13th?!

Yes. My experience thus far at MD programs I've interviewed at has been that they wouldn't tell me what my chances are, definitively, whereas at the DO programs they've told me if I rank them #1 I'll get a spot. So what kind of fool would I be to gamble away my DO spot?

OTOH, I know someone (DO) who was interviewing for anesthesia at an MD program and, had rotated at that place, and they were pretty communicative that they'd give her a spot...but as far as I'm aware, no guarantees.

DO residencies = systemwide inconsistencies. 👎

 

[hermione]

So does anyone know if there is anything we can do about it? I mean, I know it is too late for our class, but shouldn't SOMEBODY be regulating this? And isn't it our responsibility to report it? Who is in charge, is it ERAS or the AOA or the matching service we use (NatMatch?). I don't know. I'm still pissed off by that letter, by the way, so I'm thinking maybe I wasn't just overreacting. I'd love to report it, but where??

 

[Sugar72]

So does anyone know if there is anything we can do about it? I mean, I know it is too late for our class, but shouldn't SOMEBODY be regulating this? And isn't it our responsibility to report it? Who is in charge, is it ERAS or the AOA or the matching service we use (NatMatch?). I don't know. I'm still pissed off by that letter, by the way, so I'm thinking maybe I wasn't just overreacting. I'd love to report it, but where??

I would be totally pissed off too. I am not that surprised. It seems to me that the osteopathic teaching community might be growing too fast for its leadership. Maybe it is an infrastructure problem or a leader problem - it just seems to me that the osteopathic graduate institutions are running them like there are still only a handfull of schools and graduates. I guess I really haven't had a lot of trouble personally, but for a community that is growing so quickly we need to have growth in graduate education and the systems (like the match) that feed into it.

I commend you for trying to stay in the osteopathic system for internship - I gave up on that! Hopefully I will be able to get my intern year approved.

 

[hermione]

Thanks for commending me, but truthfully it is just because it was convenient as far as there being an internship in my hometown. I have no intention of practicing in one of the "five states" either. It was just for the convenience factor, not some dedication to the osteopathic way or anything. I'm so bitter and jaded with this whole process at this point. I can't wait for March to get here and to be done already.