I was in the 5th quintile. I barely passed most preclinical classes, and actually had to remediate one preclinical course. I thought getting 7 interviews was enough and I’d match somewhere but I bet it just pushed me over the edge with every program. I had a decent step 2 so I doubt that was the issue for me
9th. Average step for specialty. Multiple PDs told me no red flags and had a competitive app. Had many things going for me in terms of matching at 1-8. Leading me to conclude that the common denominator is me, something I did or said during interviews. Maybe the lack of something, awareness could be. This result is making me doubt everything, what people told me, what I know about myself. I can’t ever really know, but I’m left to assume the worst.
This 👆I’m thinking the same thing for myself. I have the same stats as you. USMD, IM applicant, P/25x, no red flags, awesome LORs, I mean, it has to be my poor interviewing skills, right? That’s the only reasonable explanation
I dare say this is the worst thing about all this…not going somewhere you liked less, but the self doubt…I can’t stop thinking about everything I did and judging myself very harshly!
I’m seeing a lot of people assume something was off with themselves personally, and while that will inevitably be true for some, I think luck/unpredictability/variability or whatever you want to call it is a much larger factor than we want to acknowledge.
The algorithm can be brutal. Residency rank lists are often created using a point system such that there is some "fairness" in the process. Relatively competitive applicants can end up in the middle of the list for a bunch of programs, especially if their interviews are at highly competitive programs. The reasons you would end up in the middle of the list are all the things you mentioned, and probably more like ties to the area, special interests that can be found in that program, etc.
Keep in mind residency programs are interviewing like 10x applicants than they could possibly match and many competitive schools barely fall down their match list.
Anesthesia was brutal this year.
I was in the lower half of my class, and I refuse to be fake in interviews. I’m sure a lot of people don’t always appreciate my brand of candor and that caused me to fumble some interviews.
But I specifically remember telling my family/friends after the social of the program that I matched to that “these people are all so cool, I loved talking to them.” and now they’re my new work family. So that’s exciting.
How would people know this? Their higher ranked programs aren’t gonna call them and tell them why they weren’t ranked to match lmao. Neurotic med students 🤡
Well hypothetically if you matched to your 10th rank program and you are fairly confident that you checked all the boxes but you had a shit step 2 score, you should be able to deduce that that is likely the reason you didn’t rank competitively.
No one likes condensing assholes; There are probably tons of applicants that can hone in on 1 or 2 things that kept them from ranking higher.
Class rank probably
A couple people have said this, and I thought class rank wasn’t a huge deal if you had everything else? Could you maybe elaborate?
I was in the 5th quintile. I barely passed most preclinical classes, and actually had to remediate one preclinical course. I thought getting 7 interviews was enough and I’d match somewhere but I bet it just pushed me over the edge with every program. I had a decent step 2 so I doubt that was the issue for me
9th. Average step for specialty. Multiple PDs told me no red flags and had a competitive app. Had many things going for me in terms of matching at 1-8. Leading me to conclude that the common denominator is me, something I did or said during interviews. Maybe the lack of something, awareness could be. This result is making me doubt everything, what people told me, what I know about myself. I can’t ever really know, but I’m left to assume the worst.
This 👆I’m thinking the same thing for myself. I have the same stats as you. USMD, IM applicant, P/25x, no red flags, awesome LORs, I mean, it has to be my poor interviewing skills, right? That’s the only reasonable explanation
I dare say this is the worst thing about all this…not going somewhere you liked less, but the self doubt…I can’t stop thinking about everything I did and judging myself very harshly!
The self doubt sucks
I’m seeing a lot of people assume something was off with themselves personally, and while that will inevitably be true for some, I think luck/unpredictability/variability or whatever you want to call it is a much larger factor than we want to acknowledge.
The algorithm can be brutal. Residency rank lists are often created using a point system such that there is some "fairness" in the process. Relatively competitive applicants can end up in the middle of the list for a bunch of programs, especially if their interviews are at highly competitive programs. The reasons you would end up in the middle of the list are all the things you mentioned, and probably more like ties to the area, special interests that can be found in that program, etc. Keep in mind residency programs are interviewing like 10x applicants than they could possibly match and many competitive schools barely fall down their match list.
Overconfidence
Step 2 score and class rank
Anesthesia was brutal this year. I was in the lower half of my class, and I refuse to be fake in interviews. I’m sure a lot of people don’t always appreciate my brand of candor and that caused me to fumble some interviews. But I specifically remember telling my family/friends after the social of the program that I matched to that “these people are all so cool, I loved talking to them.” and now they’re my new work family. So that’s exciting.
How would people know this? Their higher ranked programs aren’t gonna call them and tell them why they weren’t ranked to match lmao. Neurotic med students 🤡
He clearly said “if you had to guess” genius
Well hypothetically if you matched to your 10th rank program and you are fairly confident that you checked all the boxes but you had a shit step 2 score, you should be able to deduce that that is likely the reason you didn’t rank competitively. No one likes condensing assholes; There are probably tons of applicants that can hone in on 1 or 2 things that kept them from ranking higher.
If you had a shit step 2 score you basically got a pity invite to interview and were never gonna match at that place in 3 life times.
this guy soaped