School: South/Southeast State School
Step Scores: Step 1/2: 245-255
Grades: Preclinicals had 3 C's, Small number of A's and Mostly B's(think 4th quartile), Honors in FM, P's in Everything else but 97th percentile in IM and Peds NBME.(School is H,P,F). 4th year was all P/F
Research: 9 items on ERAS. Published AHA abstract and national meeting presentation. Everything else was small posters and abstracts.
AOA: Lol no
Rank: Barely 3rd quartile.
Interview Invites:Red is Cancelled/Did not attend ~ 26MP( UTSW, UTH, Baylor, LSU-NO,
Tulane, UAB,
UTenn, Louisville, USF, UMiami, Duke, MUSC,
Mizzou-Columbia, UMKC, UIC, OSU, Loyola, UNMC, MCW,
Case Western Univeristy Hospitals, Univeristy of Arizona, Indiana, Utah,
OU OKC, Baystate), ~15 IM
Rejections: UMinn, UMich, CU, Rochester, UCLA(loved this rejection email), UCSD, Vanderbilt, UNC, MGH(loved their x3 message), BWH, Cincinnati, UChicago, UPenn/CHOP, Yale
Other: 1 away, 1 second look. Both at places in the South/Southeast. Bilingual fluency in other language. Ranked ~24 programs
Matched (+ # on ROL): #1 (South/Southeast program)
Advice:
I played the numbers game. Applied to a bunch of places so that I could for sure match IM or MP if i ended up doing a straight rank( Final rank list was mixed bag). My aim was to get into an academic program with good peds and/or IM so that fellowship was still open. I picked bigger programs and fewer smaller programs(UNMC, MUSC,Utah). I also looked where past graduates of my school had either matched MP or matched categorical IM or peds.
Location was one of the bigger parts of me matching(Spouse) hence my IM application to their/my home/ or near / or Spouse agreeable area to live(Beach or big city didn't hurt
). But at the same time i was reasonable when sending out the initial eras application. This was a job hunt and I made sure i applied to enough places so that a job would be the outcome. Every place i visited with the exception of maybe one i could see myself living there which made ranking easy and hard(Loved everywhere)
Away/second look/Letters: Without divulging too much, I think these were absolutely important for me matching to the program I did. Put a face to a name and/or showed dedication to program/field. I also sent a letter of interest to three programs I hadn't heard from, which resulted in two interviews ( ended up being in my top 3 ), so don't be shy in sending a letter in october/nov if you are radio silence from a place(s) you really want to evaluate.
Interviews: all super conversational and chill. No pimping or grilling. Loved everyone i interviewed with. Loved visiting all programs and saw myself super happy matching there with but a small fingerful of programs. I loved all the PD's i met along the trial. MP is a special field with great people that matched my personality.
Scheduling: I tried to plan ahead before i applied and used FRIEDA/program websites to find out when places start interviewing and made a spreadsheet of the date range, dates if available, and day of the week. this helped to see which programs had dates that could conflict, only offered in a small batch of time, or when to give up hearing from a program if last date was too close. I grouped as many interview i could near each other( Texas with Texas, Midwest with Midwest, Chicago with Chicago, Florida with Florida, etc). i did most of my colder places in the earlier part of the cycle, and most of my warmer places during the winter, which made for agreeable travel. Having a Chase Sapphire Plus card and getting wise to buying tickets with points from airlines is a must have skill for multi-month traveling. Only started cancelling interviews once I got tired of flying out, so the programs that had dates in January tended to start dropping off. In the beginning, I tried to frontload my interview as much as possible to leave buffer room for future invites to programs i wanted. Be flexible though. PC are also open to helping you reschedule dates, just call and ask if a problem comes up or you find out you can schedule two cities or nearby places in at good times near each other.
Ranking: It came down to location, strength of med peds program and presence, the PD, the residents, and how strong the peds side was. Programs that I ranked lower had weaker peds("good medicine programs are a dime a dozen, great peds programs are gems to find"-Mentor). But overall it came to fit. ROL: was a mixed bag. the goal was to make a list that any in the top 11 would have left me jumping for joy. Sent letter of intent to top program and strong letter of interest to 2-3. No one but one replied saying positive things but anything far from definitive. Trust no one though and have contingency plans set up(Back up specialty, high volume app, networking)
Overall: Interview season was long. From early Oct to late Jan is exhausting. Plan your 4th your schedule accordingly. Programs paid for or part of the cost 2/3 of time, I was only left with the whole bill at a handful of places.
Part of me thinks I went overboard, but the practical part of me says this isn't the time to cheap out and be lazy.
I matched to a dream program. Only regret is not doing better in preclinicals to help with some of the application anxiety, but that worked itself out. I look forward to seeing some of you again and meeting you at future NRMPA meetings