I’m very hopeful that all blog readers who are residency applicants will be Matching successfully this year. But it is worth understanding how the NRMP SOAP (formerly called “the Scramble”) works.
Years ago, when I was an applicant, the Scramble was all that unmatched candidates had… and it was not great. For a quick history on the Scramble’s transition to SOAP, check out this article.
For details on this year’s SOAP (and Match week) schedule, check out this PDF that includes great details.
I’m sending a big congratulations to all of those residency candidates who successfully matched last week! Next year will be the start of something wonderful and challenging. Here are my tips for being happy (or at least as happy as possible) during residency:
1. Physician heal thyself. You will be working a ton, but eating healthfully and getting exercise will make everything a little better.
2. You’ve got a friend. You may be working 80-hour weeks, but plan to spend at least half an hour every week catching up with someone who makes you laugh.
3. Vacation – all I ever wanted. Figure out somewhere fun you want to travel when you are not working, and then happily anticipate the trip.
4. Date night. Take time out for your spouse or partner. Although I was not yet married when I trained, I remember being upset by seeing several marriages and relationships split up. You can never get that back. (This advice goes for children too, if you have them. You have an even greater challenge ahead of you than most if you are a parent in residency.)
5. Dance dance party party. Knitting, hiking, dancing, watching movies, kayaking, reading – whatever it is , do not let yourself become unidimensional.
6. Realize that the honking drivers have simply had a bad day. When I was in medical school, a brilliant upper classman came to speak to us about being on the wards. He told us that when someone aggressively honks at you on the road, it’s often because s/he in a bad mood – not because you are about to cause an accident. The same is true in the hospital. Tired, burned out professionals can make you feel bad. Don’t let them.
Getting into residency is hard. Understanding how to rank programs for the Match is easy. Thanks to a Nobel Prize winning economist and his colleagues, the current Match algorithm ensures that your desires are the priority over the residency programs’. What this means practically is that you should rank your first choice first, your second second, etc. There is no need to try to play the system.
I’ve had applicants tell me that they plan to rank a less preferred institution higher because that program has more residency slots. That’s a huge no-no. The applicant will actually be harming him/herself with that strategy!
Improving written materials and interview skills is important, but all of that work can go to waste if applicants do not understand basic strategies for the Match. This month the NRMP published an article called, “Understanding the Interview and Ranking Behaviors of Unmatched International Medical Students and Graduates in the 2013 Main Residency Match” in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education. The data is especially important for IMGs who represented the majority of unmatched candidates.
Sadly, the authors found that some applicants made strategic errors including the below:
– Not attending all interviews, thus failing to capitalize on every opportunity to market themselves.
– Declining to rank all programs at which they interviewed or not ranking all programs they would be willing to attend.
– Misunderstanding the Match and ranking programs at which applicants did not interview.
– Failing to rank programs based on true preferences or ranking programs based on the perceived likelihood of matching.
Here’s an important reminder from the ECFMG® News page:
To participate in the National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) Main Residency Match®, international medical students/graduates must have passed all exams required for ECFMG Certification. If you plan to participate in the 2016 Match (in March 2016) and still need to pass Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS), you should register now to take the examination.
To help ensure that your result will be available in time to participate in the 2016 Match, you must take Step 2 CS by December 31, 2015. If you do not register now and schedule soon, it is possible that you will not be able to obtain a test date in 2015. At the time of this writing, the earliest available test date at any test center is in October 2015.
The USMLE program also has issued a Scheduling Reminder for Step 2 CS, strongly encouraging medical students/graduates to schedule their exams early to obtain a testing appointment this year.
If you register and schedule now, you can change your scheduled testing appointment (subject to availability) at no cost, provided you give notice of more than 14 days.
Detailed information on the results reporting schedule for Step 2 CS is available on the ECFMG website.
– See more at: http://www.ecfmg.org/news/2015/05/29/reminder-imgs-participating-in-2016-match-should-apply-for-step-2-cs-now/#sthash.DZFNaVTV.dpuf
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital. She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
