Match Day Experiences

General Med Student Discussion
1

Hi folks,

As you all know from reading information on the thread, Residency Applicaiton Process, I participated in the Scramble along with about 10 of my classmates. I wanted to describe what happened on Match Day for us and the rest of my class.

If you did not participate in the Scramble where you knew two days ago, where you would be next year, Match Day was the day when you opened your envelope and received the actual news as to where you would be.

Match Day started out at 11AM when the Senior Class gathered in the auditorium with the Deans, faculty, family, members of the Class of 2003, 2004 and 2005 and friends for a Long White Coat Ceremony. The ceremony consisted of a speech by Dr. LaSalle Leffall, Jr., our leading surgeon reminding us of why we entered medicine in the first place. The speech and introductions lasted about 30 minutes.

As Dr. Lefalle finished his speech, our Dean of Education appeared with the letters ( in alphabetical order) containing our results. She let us know that for the first time in Howard history, my class had a greater than 95% match rate for the class after the Scramble. Most of the people in my class went into Internal Medicine with Peds a close second. General Surgery, was pretty low as expected.

As our names were called, we walked across the stage, were cloaked with a long white labcoat, picked up an envelope and were told not to open the envelopes until everyone had one. At the end of the ceremony, we were allowed to open our envelopes. Since I already knew where I was going, this was pretty anti-climactic for me.

The student standing next to me burst into tears because she didn’t match where she really wanted to be. My best friend matched at Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Ft. Gordon in Augusta GA for General Surgery. Another friend matched at Baystate General Hospital (Tufts) for Internal Medicine. I was the only match at University of Virginia for anything. Other places we had matched were Mayo Clinic for Orthopedic Surgery, Hopkins for Internal Medicine, UCLA for Family Practice, SUNY Downstate for General Surgery, Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh for Pediatrics, University of West Virginia for Anesthesia, 8 at Howard for various specialties, Georgetown for Pediatrics and MCV for Pediatrics.

We all gathered on stage for a class photo in our new long white coats with our names and MD and our departments. We then had a reception and champagne toast before going home.

Later tonight, the second year class gives us a send-off party called “The Smoker”. This year’s theme is Taking the Gamble. Our next hurdle will be graduation on 10 May 2002 and residency on 1 July 2002.

It was a blast… :cool:

2

Hi Natalie,

Thanks for the inside look. Great as always! I was curious about the student you said burst into tears when she didn’t get the match she wanted. It raised a question for me. Do you think a lot of people (I’m not saying this was the case with this particular girl - I have no idea, hers may have just been dissapointment which I totally understand) are so afraid of scrambling that they fill in places and or specialties they would perhaps be unhappy with? I was wondering if you thought it would be better in such circumstances to fill in a few and scramble as you did, or if in some circumstances this just wasn’t an option. I guess it depends on specialty, location choice etc, but I am curious what factors lead you to fill out your form exactly as you did - how many programs to put down, etc. It seemed from your postings that you almost expected to be scrambling before you knew?

3
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Quote: from oldernotwiser on 4:47 am on Mar. 22, 2002
Hi Natalie,

Thanks for the inside look. Great as always! I was curious about the student you said burst into tears when she didn't get the match she wanted. It raised a question for me. Do you think a lot of people (I'm not saying this was the case with this particular girl - I have no idea, hers may have just been dissapointment which I totally understand) are so afraid of scrambling that they fill in places and or specialties they would perhaps be unhappy with? I was wondering if you thought it would be better in such circumstances to fill in a few and scramble as you did, or if in some circumstances this just wasn't an option. I guess it depends on specialty, location choice etc, but I am curious what factors lead you to fill out your form exactly as you did - how many programs to put down, etc. It seemed from your postings that you almost expected to be scrambling before you knew?

Hi there,

Most people would rather definitely match than Scramble. As I have posted before, for me the Scramble worked well but I love to live on the edge. ;)

There are plenty of pitfalls in the whole residency match system. I have put as much as I can out there for people to have a good idea of what is involved as you are going through the medical school process.

The one rule to always obey is: Do not to rank any program where you don't want to do a residency.

She violated this rule because she wanted to match more than take her chances in the Scramble. She was interested in Peds.

Scrambling has its ups and downs but the more flexible you are and the more empty slots out there in your specialty, the better your chances of getting into a good program. I knew from my Mayo experience, that there would be plenty of good General Surgery slots to be had during the Scramble. This was not the case for Anesthesia. If I had been looking for Anesthesia, Radiology or Derm, I would have been in a pretty bad situation.

For specialties like Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Pediatrics and Family Practice, there were plenty of slots across the nation. This year's Scramble belonged to the General Surgeons and I was fortunate to have a good Dean's office behind me. :cool:

I put only a few programs on my rank list because I would rather have taken my chances in the Scramble than rank a program that I knew I didn't want. I was just the opposite of my classmate. On Match Day, I was a little happier than she was.

The take home message: You have to do lots of investigation in a short period of time. If you know ahead of time that your specialty is tight ( like Anesthesia, Derm, Radiology) then try to make sure that you match. If you know that applications are down and that there are plenty of slots, you know the scramble is not going to be the "Kiss of Death". How do you get this information?

You do a visiting clerkship at a top-rated program like Mayo Clinic and you ask the residency director how many applications he or she has received this year and how you stack up with the applicants interviewed so far. A good honest program director will tell you the truth. Beware though, some PDs will lie. :)
4

Natalie,

First let me say congratulations!! What a feeling it must be to walk across that stage!!

Secondly, and this question is for anyone who can answer it… Does a medical student have a better chance at matching at their ‘home’ school than anyone else? For example, does a med student from Mayo have a better chance at a residency position at Mayo than someone from MSU?

Thanks!!

5

Natalie,
congratulations, what an honor,and one well deserved,
not that you seem to have too much spare time…BUT!! I think a book outlining all of your experiences in this terrific journey in your life would be a gift for those who read it. You have a wonderful way of describing situations that almost make you feell as though you were also there! And your down to earth advice and words of encouragement are amazing and very, very helpful, thanks
//good luck in Virginia!
Patty

6

Congratulations Natalie!

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Quote: from Geoffro on 7:52 pm on Mar. 22, 2002
Secondly, and this question is for anyone who can answer it… Does a medical student have a better chance at matching at their ‘home’ school than anyone else? For example, does a med student from Mayo have a better chance at a residency position at Mayo than someone from MSU?

Thanks!!

If you check school’s match lists I think you will find that there are definitely some people that stay at the same institution for residency training. I have seen the match list for Mayo last year and more than half will be training at Mayo. Mayo definitely likes to keep people in the Mayo family.

I would think that you would probably have an easier time matching at your own institution since the people that would be recommending you probably know the residency directors. You can see that Natalie said 8 people from Howard matched at Howard – probably more than any other individual institution.
7

Hi there,

It is probably true that most people elect to stay at their home institution. I tended to not want to do that because I know that(especially for Surgery) it is important to get out and get a different perspective.

The Howard Surgery Department is nationally known and has excellent teachers but they have been my mentors for four years. I will never forget the excellent instruction and guidance that they provided. They provided key training at the level that I needed the to provide key training (surgical clerkship). The trauma and critical care service is second to none at Howard. When I spent the month at Mayo, I was even more impressed at how high the quality of teaching is at Howard. (Mayo sends their surgery residents to Detroit for Trauma since Rochester is pretty slow).

I was definitely looking for a program that was very research heavy. While Howard has an outstanding surgery residency program, most of the reasearch there is done off-site at places like NIH. NIH is a world-class institution to do research but I really wanted to stay at my own institution. When you leave your institution for a year, you tend to lose some contact with the day to day events.

One of the things that you all will do when you look for a residency, is try to find the program that will provide the training opportunities that are best for you and your career. Training at Howard would have been very acceptable for me but I really wanted to do residency in an institution that had more bench reseach on site. I am thankful to have a place that meets 100% of my wishes.

If you look at the graduates from the Howard surgical residency program this year, they are headed for transplant fellowships (UCLA), cardiothoracic fellowships(Cleveland Clinic) and plastics fellowships. Howard trains some incredible surgeons!

When you finish medical school at Mayo, you may find that you do not want to train at Mayo for various reasons. While Mayo is a top-rated institution, you may find that you fit the training program better at another institution. The one thing for sure is that completing medical school at Mayo will give you lots of options. When you reach this point, you will have lots of information that will enable you to make the best decisions for post-graduate training.

As Betsy, our premier attending has said, " If you are miserable in a residency, you are totally miserable". It does not make much difference how highly ranked a program is if you don’t like being there. All of us remember the third-year surgery resident at Johns Hopkins that quit. I am sure that she was elated on Match Day (she had attended Hopkins as a medical student) but three years later, her perspective and needs changed, and she quit surgery all together. Of lately, General Surgery has been the top specialty for attrition. I am not going to attempt to address that problem but take every opportunity to get as much information about specialties and residencies as you can. :)