Match Day isn’t that cruel. Anyone who doesn’t match is informed of the fact by his home program director on the Monday ahead of Match Day (which is always on a Friday). Unmatched students then have the opportunity to SOAP into any remaining unfilled residency spots. Or they can make other arrangements for research positions or for a transitional or preliminary residency year, or to delay graduation so they attempt to match again the next year.
And Match Day ceremonies vary from school to school. At D1’s school, student are allowed 1 guest (there’s a catered meal and an open bar) and there’s an unofficial understanding among the students that they should not invite a parent since their celebration tend to be a bit…um… rowdy.
“If my kid had the potential of NOT matching, I’d say that’d be reason enough for me to attend. Somebody needs to be there to ‘pick up the pieces’!”
Match Day is for those who matched. I do not believe that people who did not match are there.
Not every “Unmatched students then have the opportunity to SOAP into any remaining unfilled residency spots.” Some specialties do not have it at all. They may have some 2 -3 unfilled spots in the whole nation and they want to take time filling them. If the specialty has prelim year, then the unmatched are normally going to Prelim year (they usually matched to Prelim year). The only reason for unmatched to attend the Matching ceremony would be to see where they matched for Prelim year. But if they did not apply to a Prelim year, then I do not see any reason to attend.
Step 3 is behind! What a relief! Lack of rest and not much preparation at all for the obvious lack of time. A score is well below Step 1, 2, but still much higher than average for Step 3 and score did not matter anyway. No more general medicine tests in D’s future. Being an Internal Medicine resident this year was a definite help for Step 3.
Yeah, the rule a lot of my residents told me about step 3 was that unlike the 8 weeks of prep for Step 1, or the 8 days of prep for Step 2, Step 3 only required you to keep your Blood Alcohol Concentration under 0.08! (The more PC version of that joke was Step 1: 2 months, Step 2: 2 weeks, Step 3: Don’t forget the No. 2 pencil…back when you needed a pencil for these exams).
And yes, the test is geared towards IM. Most of what I remember from my Step 3 Test Day was that you didn’t want a pediatrician treating post-menopausal vaginal bleeding! That, and the questions related to pediatrics were outdated and not at all what I would have recommended - essentially every answer choice looked terrible to me.
Always learning new things about this whole ‘doctor’ thing!..BFF tells me if her son wanted to do primary care instead of ortho, he’d have scores to qualify him for the best programs in the country but since he’s planning on ortho…he’ll be happy with significantly ‘lesser’ programs. As a patient, this kind of thing never crossed my mind!
^^
Scores (assuming Step scores) are but one important factor in gaining an interview, and then matching at any ortho program whether “best” or significantly “lesser.” Scores alone don’t qualify anyone for any ortho program
I honestly don’t think where a patient’s ortho MD did their training crosses most patients’ minds. Or even if a patient checks to see their ortho MD’s training background I don’t think that most patients have a clue as to what it means or can evaluate the differences in program. Typically I think a patient gets referred by someone they trust (ie GP, hospital ER) to ortho MD. The patient will assume the ortho MD is competent. If they have a connection and trust ortho MD’s Dx/Tx plan, the procedure gets done without regard to their training background. If anything crosses a patient’s mind, it’ll be whether ortho MD takes their insurance. And if true emergency (eg car accident, multiple broken bones) whatever family member who has say so (eg spouse) at hospital is going to talk to ortho MD on call and get okay to move ahead with whatever is needed to stabilize patient. The subject of where the on call ortho MD did their training won’t come into play.
Taken another way, some patients may care about the Orthopod’s pedigree, see a “lowly” training program and not realize just how intelligent their doctor is and what pedigree they might have had in an alternate specialty. Prestige is an immensely complicated thing to track, even for those who are in medicine. My fellowship program draws knowing nods from everyone I meet, but my residency program draws confused looks…except from those in my subspecialty who know that there’s a good group there of smart people and that my positive pedigree doesn’t just start at fellowship. And while I can judge people within my field accurately, I struggle to know much about any other specialty. When my wife and I move in the next few months, I’ll be of no use in helping her judge new OB/GYN’s. If my parents were to get sick, I would be of little value in selecting the absolute best specialist for them to see.
Is it true that physicians in the north west region tend to have a higher income? If it is true, what may be the reason behind it? I am talking about fully-fledged physicians here, not the residents (who do not have much leverage to set their “price”, as the info in the link in the previous post seems to imply.)
Unlike a rural area, the north west is a quite desirable area for most (as long as Mount Helen and Mount Rainier do not erupt. LOL.) The quality of water is better than that in southern California, for example.
I don’t know about MD salaries, but I can say that the article is correct about UCSF offering a stipend toward housing expenses, DD really liked the UCSF program, put it #2 on her list, so seriously researched those costs. Of course, Seattle has really had housing cost increases the past few years. One year in med school two girls paid about $1400 for a large apartment, now, just a few years later, it is $2000 and more for a tiny place. (n=1)
"Unlike a rural area, the north west is a quite desirable area for most (as long as Mount Helen and Mount Rainier do not erupt. LOL.) The quality of water is better than that in southern California, for example. "
Very much depends on specific person situation. My D. did not apply in the west at all. She excluded whole west and NYC and applied to all other programs. The interesting observation based on her very wide range of applications is that the south was not interested in her at all, the most southern location was in VA - only 1 II. Most of her II were from Midwest (as was predicted) with good number from NE (which was a big surprise). One very strong program was in rural area (or “In a middle of nowhere” - how she called it). She would have gone there with no regrets though. But she did not have to as she got her #1 choice.
Best wishes to everybody applying this year! We are also waiting for D’s best friend results - she ranked #1 the program at D’s location. That would be awesome for both of them to have at least 3 years in the same city. Although, friend’s boyfriend will have to find another job.
Time flies. It seems like just a very short time ago that S was starting med school, and now he’s getting ready for MS4 and getting his ducks in a row for residency apps.
I’m happy to see a post from @Bigredmed He was a great help when son was, what, a soph in college? lol… oh my!
Son has arranged to have his headshots done. He’s been so busy the last month or two that I’ve barely have had time to talk to him. I look forward to hearing what all he has planned for the next few months.
The only comments I have is that despite all the incredibly hard work during my D’s first year - Prelim year for her, she continues being much more upbeat and satisfied than in her medical school years. Her comment has been going in more and more positive direction. She said repeatedly, than in comparison, now she knows her place, her position is more defined. She said that she is even getting more comfortable on the “heart” floor and the “neurology” floor, both are part of her Internal medicine Prelim year and both have absolutely nothing to do with her specialty. These 2 she did not like much at the beginning. Her schedule continues to be absolutely horrendous, but I like her attitude: “Something that I have to do”. Just in this 2 current weeks of rotation, she will have three 30 hours shifts and 2 “long” shifts when she can admit until later, which usually makes a 12 hours shift into 14 hours (12 hours is a normal and the shortest shift on Internal Medicine floor). They have one day off every 6 days. However, she just came from her vacation that she enjoyed greatly, so we hope that it will help at least for the beginning. She is looking forward to start her specialty residency on July 1 though and then it will be no more hospital shifts.
We are also very anxious to see where my D’s best friend match in this current cycle, meaning in 3 weeks. Her #1 choice actually let her know that they like her a lot and it is at the same location where my D. is, different specialty though, different medical organization.
In regard to the residency application cycle, I cannot advise anybody as D’s cycle was pretty unique because of her specialty. She did not even have much advice for her best friend.
Best wishes to your S., mom2collegekids. He is entering a very interesting and unique (to medical school) stage.