My Rank List

Rank lists were due today! So... about rank lists and matches. As I've already explained, the Match is a computer algorithm that will assign every medical student int he country their residency program based on a list we call the 'rank list' -- a numbered list of the student's preferences for residency in order. You can only list the programs that have interviewed you----  and the 'rank list' submitted by the programs of the students they have interviewed listed in numbered order.  The computer uses the lists to 'match' the student to the program. 

Since this is 2013, the D.O. match and the M.D. match are seperate still--- this is going to merge into one big match in 2015 (those LUCKY DUCKS!). Since we don't have that we have to chose between the matches because the D.O. match happens in feb and the M.D. match happens in march.

 Long complicated story short... after much deliberation I chose to drop out of the D.O. match. Ultimately, I applied to 60 ER programs got a total of 10 interviews.  5 DO and 5 MD.  (ironic no?)   When I looked at my list, my #1 & #2 are MD and after 4 years of med school i couldn't give up on a chance of getting them. They were just so much more my style than any other programs I saw, I made the decision to ditch the DO. Maybe this was a good decision maybe it wasn't. But I couldn't help but notice that in ER at least, the quality of the programs was just night and day. DO programs were just not as organized or polished and seemed to have less trauma. Obviously there are some exceptions. Anyhow, its what I did. For those wondering how I chose this list, its all about 'fit' and honestly I thought where would i be happiest? Where did the people seem like I would be friends with easiest? And maybe some about location, but mostly just where I fit best. So here is My Rank list....

1. University of Mississippi in Jackson, MS
2. John Peter Smith in Fort Worth, Tx
3. University of Nebraska in Omaha, NE
4. St. Francis in Peoria, IL
5. St. Vincent in Toledo, OH
6. Lehigh Valley in Allentown, PA  (this is dual program)

So on March 11th I will get an email that says either::  'matched'  or 'unmatched'   at this time if i'm matched I wait until March 15th when I get another email that says what program I matched to.

If i am unmatched, which is unfortuntely likely, since I really needed to rank 10 places to be assured of a match (ER is very competitive this year), I must enter the scramble (also called SOAP).  This involves me logging in to access the list of programs with spots after the match.  I then re apply using ERAS to 30 programs.  These programs I chose from will be in a variety of specialties and most likely will not be ER spots. Usually the unfilled spots is one of four: family med, internal med, psychiatry, and transitional year.  I chose not to enter transitional year because of funding cuts to Medicare (they pay residents salaries) they make it less likely for programs to want to pick up residents who already have been paid 1 year -- this will increase the chance that the hospital or program will have to pay the last year of the residents salary.  Anyhow, this was a really hard and crappy decision to make.  This boils down to meaning I may not end up being an ER doc like I wanted, but I am making this move so I can have some kind of paying job next year without having to go through this HELL another year.

So here's to my uncertain future and to March 11th, when I find out what kind of doctor i will end up being.....

(Edit: Before I forget I know 10 people personally who did not match in the DO match this year who ranked more than 8 places. Not looking good! Their specialities were: ER, Ob/GYN, Surgery. The NRMP reports that 10,000 med students won't match this year in the MD match. I'm getting freakin nervous!)