The next step from medical school to residency is a very complex, confusing process. Last July, an ERAS application opened, which is the on-line application process. You put in a personal statement, fill in their boxes that make a CV, answer some questions, you school uploads your letters of recommendation, transcript, some how our national scores are uploaded on there as well. Then, on Sept 1, it opens for you to submit your application to the residency programs you want to apply to. They then at some point send you an email if they offer you an interview. You have to respond to your email asap as the dates are limited. Interviews occur somewhere between mid-october until late January. Towards the end of January, you go back online and put where you want to go (the places your interviewed) in order of preference. This list is locked in on February 22nd. Meanwhile, all residency programs are listing their candidates in order of preference. There is a big computer somewhere, that through some formula matches us up. We receive an email March 10th, at 12 eastern that says either:
Or, that you didn't match. If you didn't match, you go through the SOAP process, which a fast paced matching unfilled residency programs with students who didn't match. Then we wait until Friday to find out where we are going!!! That Friday, we went to a big auditorium, family and friends.
The Dean has all of our envelopes (the school finds out one day before we do where we're going) and they call out a group randomly and you go get your envelope. At this point, you can take it and leave, open it then walk up to the mic and announce, or open it while at the mic. I opened mine while walking to the mic, so I didn't know until I was reading it at the mic.
http://youtu.be/V9K6H6thabY
It is a very surreal experience to say the least. It happens to quickly. Oh, you also put a dollar into the bucket and the last person gets the pot since they had to listen to130 people read where they were going first!
http://youtu.be/V9K6H6thabY
It is a very surreal experience to say the least. It happens to quickly. Oh, you also put a dollar into the bucket and the last person gets the pot since they had to listen to130 people read where they were going first!
Its also neat to see who will be your co-interns - like Alison!
It was a beautiful day out, it was wonderful to finally be able to sit on the porch and relax!
That night was a very nice dinner/dance to celebrate getting a residency, since you can't actually use your MD without one year of residency (what's called the "intern" year!)
Below is another future co-intern Lauren!
My study buddy Vanna - sad she's heading to Utah, but happy since that was her first choice!
The process doesn't really make sense, but that's how it goes! I applied to 30 programs, interviewed at 10 (if you list 10 programs, you have 99% chance of matching, so I declined/cancelled offers past 10). UAMS was my number 1 choice for many reasons, and I feel very blessed to have both matched and matched at my top spot. They only take 5 ob/gyn residents, we had ~10 in my class doing ob/gyn, plus hundreds of out of state applications. A lot of places interview 50+ applicants! There are 24,000 first year positions offered (of any kind), 31,000 applicants (21,000 of those being US grads). Long story short, it's a whole bunch of craziness.
1 comment:
Katherine- I am so proud of you! And so happy you are where you want to be! You've worked so hard...harder than most (since you have the twins and all). :))
Post a Comment