<p>Things that I’m particularly thankful for in this entire interview/match process:
I’m not couples matching
I don’t have to figure out how to rank four-year programs vs. three-year programs and a prelim year (which still sounds like a logistical nightmare)
It would be borderline absurd for someone applying in internal medicine to do 21 interviews
I’m done with my interviews next week
I’ve sincerely liked most of the places I’ve interviewed</p>
<p>Things I’m not thankful for:
I have to actually figure out my rank list.</p>
<p>I imagined (hoped) that over the course of my interviews, my rank list would sort itself out naturally, and that hasn’t been the case at all. In all honesty, I think that almost everywhere I’ve interviewed would provide good training and have people with whom I would enjoy working. I can’t match to five places, obviously, but there are at least five places that each have something I want that the other four don’t have. It’s going to be a really tough decision.</p>
Like what? Just wondering what y’all find important enough to rank. This thread makes my head spin so I have to pick and choose my questions so I’ll have some chance of understanding the answer.</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s big things like how much I liked the program director or thought he/she was going good places with the program. Or the presence/absence of other training hospitals (believe it or not, there’s at least one place I like because I’d train in two hospitals and there’s at least one place that I like because I would only train in one). Sometimes it’s small things like call schedule, or cross coverage, or variety of electives. Location alternates between being a big deal for me and a semi-big deal for me. And there’s at least one place I really like because (among other reasons) I can tell they treat their residents particularly well (and at least one place I wish I had liked more because I can tell they treat their residents well).</p>
<p>More than all of the above, I think it’s gut feeling. I can come up with reasons for really liking a program where my initial gut feeling is good, and I can come up with reasons (sometimes the exact same reasons) to dislike programs where my gut feeling wasn’t so great.</p>
<p>I guess that I’m lucky that I liked so many of the places I interviewed (and really, really liked a number of them), but it’s going to make this next month difficult. Our rank lists are due February 22, and I suspect I’ll do some tweaking up to almost the last minute.</p>
<p>Now that I’ve gotten a little more than half of intern year under my belt, I’ll say that I think fit is by far the most important thing when making your match list. Every day, I love waking up and going to work because I a) love what it is I do and b) get to work with truly awesome people. No salary, parking pass, stipends, or prestige is going to change that. </p>
<p>I’d say that location matters depending on your personal situation and preferences. Obviously, if you have a spouse or family obligations, then you might want to go to or stay in a certain place. Residency can be a great time to try out a new city, but realize that any highly desirable location like NYC is going to be automatically more competitive, despite the actual quality or reputation of the program.</p>
<p>Thank y’all. My time here is limited these days but this is one thread I don’t miss. Mine is shouldering the burdens of mid-MS2 with Step 1 looming. Her “shouldering” is NOT complaint free. lol</p>
<p>Phase 1 was applications. Phase 2 was interviews. And now Phase 3 is beginning. I’ve already received a few second look emails. Obviously, the tone of these second looks are much different from med school second looks since you don’t have an acceptance in hand. For some specialties (like peds or internal medicine), these are more recruiting visits. In these specialties, you have a 90% chance of matching into your #1 choice so it is up to the applicant to decide where they want to go.</p>
<p>Second looks for radiology are different as you can imagine (we only have a 40% chance at matching into our #1 choice and a 60% chance into our top 3 choices). Typically, attached to the second look invitation is an invitation to “drop by” the program director’s office. That’s the biggest advantage of doing a second look in a competitive specialty: you get to do another interview with the program director and of course it goes a long way in terms of demonstrating interest. It is one more chance to solidify or improve your ranking. </p>
<p>I’m considering doing a second look at my #1 choice. But, it’s in another city so I’ll need to use up 2 days at least. My next rotation is a 2-week rotation in which I am given 1.5 days off so I need to come up with a way to fanagle another 0.5 days for the second look without failing the rotation.</p>
<p>My school actually kind of discouraged us from doing any second looks. Their opinion is that they cost a lot of money and they aren’t supposed to make any difference in the program’s ranking. They tell us that the only reason to go on a second look is if we feel like we need more information to make our decision.</p>
<p>That said, I don’t know what all the individual specialty advisors are telling their students. As norcalguy mentioned, second looks are definitely different with regards to specialty. Lots of the places I’ve interviewed have told us that if we want to do a second look, they’ll set one up, but it’s clear that it’s not something that they particularly want us to do. I don’t think any of us are being individually asked to come for a second look, at least not yet (or maybe I’m just not that competitive). Then again, in internal medicine, most places won’t finish their interviews until this week (and some will interview into February). I’m sure that they don’t want to deal with doing second looks while they’re still interviewing people for the first time.</p>
<p>I imagine with the number of people internal medicine programs interview, offering (or encouraging) second looks for every interviewee is just not feasible. </p>
<p>I definitely get the feeling that second looks are very optional. For radiology at least, I think the jury is still out as to whether they can be used to improve your rank status.</p>
<p>NCG - I’m a 4th year also at the end (just finished) of my radiology IV trail. </p>
<p>background:
step 1: 260s
step 2: 270s (taken early july)
research: couple experiences (~4), few presentations/posters, no pubs</p>
<p>pre-clinical -> clinical - all Hs
awards: AOA (elected junior year)
med school: top 25
unique: coupes matching (SO going into medicine)</p>
<p>I went on ~16 radiology IVs and I htought some of them went really well. Ive gotten a few love letters post-interview, but none about second looks. In fact, I remember at the UT Houston IV, the PD said not to ask for a 2nd look. I’ve heard the same from many of the programs I IVd at.</p>
<p>I wonder if we bumped into each other on the trail.</p>
<p>I found ranking number 1-4 pretty easy, but after that - in the middle of the ROL - it becomes significantly harder. First i’d like to say that I’m definitely set on going into academics at a great program (mgh/ucsf/ucla/mir) type programs… My SO has significant stats and is way too competitive for medicine so i’ll be by far the limiting factor. so my criteria were</p>
<p>1) research opportunities/prestige (felt these went pretty close hand-in-hand
2) fit/resident happiness
3) location</p>
<p>My son will be doing one second look, but it has nothing to do with increasing his chances. He’s got two schools that will be #3 or #4, and he just doesn’t remember enough about one of them. He took notes after each day of interviews, but he’d like to go back to this one. Fortunately, it’s an easy car drive for him. He emailed the PD but hasn’t heard back yet.</p>
<p>Out of the blue, my son got an invitation to interview for another one year program (transitional year, I think it’s called). It’s clear he wasn’t their first choice; presumably too many of the people they invited got tired near the end of the interviewing season and cancelled. However, it could be a good program if he needs a one year, so he interviewed there today (got the invitation earlier this week).</p>
<p>I finished interviewing yesterday as well. Ended up completing 25 interviews.</p>
<p>I’ve been keeping a rolling rank list so there shouldn’t be too many changes in the upcoming weeks. It might be harder to make the rank list of my prelim programs.</p>
<p>Dang, 25 interviews must’ve been torture - congrats on being done. Hope the ROL goes well - sounds like you’re already done. </p>
<p>What I find crazy is all the student’s who’ve already matched. My friends on the HPSP scholarship matched several weeks ago, and those going into Urology found out where they’re headed last week. I can’t imagine having too much desire to show up after matching, so hopefully they’ve laid out easy schedules or vacation from here to May :)</p>
<p>In the end, I will be ranking 16 radiology programs.</p>
<h1>1-3: I would be ecstatic to go to any of these 3. They are virtually identical in terms of how much I like them.</h1>
<h1>4-5: I would be really happy and lucky to match into either of these, although I would prefer one of my top 3.</h1>
<h1>6-8: Would be more than happy to attend.</h1>
<h1>9-14: All of these are excellent programs and there were things I liked and didn’t like about the programs. I admit, I’d be a little disappointed if I matched into one of these.</h1>
<h1>15-16: Good programs but I didn’t particularly get a good vibe when I interviewed. Still, better than not matching.</h1>
<p>Then there were a few programs that I will not be ranking at all.</p>
<p>Wow! Congrats! My nephew finished 4-yr residency and is going for fellowship, but my S1 will be applying medschool this year. A long way to go. I wanted to ask you about his junior Summer EC, NCG, but you are not in any threads for medschool applicants anymore? Good job with 25 interviews – that IS a lot.</p>
<p>I have one niece finishing up an oncology fellowship, another niece in the process of interviewing for residencies (also in oncology) and a daughter who is an M3 and will start the interview craziness after taking a research year. I can’t believe what you all go through - beginning with the high school or undergrad decision to try for medical school. I know that you chose this path and it was not thrust upon you but honestly, you all deserve an award.</p>