1. Dr. G.U. Gunner, One Man's Wild Journey to Urology Residency
I've had the tremendous good fortune to meet many distinct kinds of medical students, residents, and attending physicians. Because of the intense challenges we face during our training, we share a bond. Most of us confront similar obstacles, battle with similar insecurities, and feel the same pressure to succeed. Still, for all we have in common, our journeys will be as unique as we are. As I describe how the residency application process unfolded for me, I will highlight wherever I see opportunities to improve upon what I did. My goal is to diminish unnecessary anticipatory anxiety.
Introduction
I graduated from college with a BA in Humanities and a concentration in Health Care Ethics. In addition to the classes which counted towards my degree, I also took premedical courses. I applied broadly to medical schools, both Osteopathic and Allopathic. I had an undergraduate GPA of 3.45 and an MCAT of 32(514). I received only three interviews, but I got into a DO school off the waiting list. The first class at my medical school, gross anatomy, challenged me more than anything I had ever experienced. I spent a lot of tearful nights staring at diagrams or flashcards, unable to recall what I had just spent hours trying to memorize.
I reached a low when I came close to failing part of an exam that involved recognizing a structure I had dissected myself. As I stared at the results of that test, posted on a board outside the anatomy lab, I decided. I started to disregard every single bit of guidance that told me to relax. If a piece of advice made things easier, I would ignore it. If someone told me only to learn structures associated with clinical problems, I ignored them and instead set about retaining everything. My classmates could afford to live well-balanced lives and somehow memorize this material. Not me.
Stubbornly ignoring a lot of excellent advice, I did nothing but study. I lost ten pounds in 30 days. Still, I came away with a good grade. After anatomy, the remaining curriculum came much more naturally to me. And the incredibly intense study habits I had adopted paid some dividends. By the end of year 2, I stood near the top of my class. Once more, ignoring the school counselor's advice, I decided to take both the USMLE and the COMLEX exams. I took three board preparation classes, and I had no goal other than scoring as high as possible on the first step of my boards. I had taken no time to pause and reflect on what career I wanted to pursue within medicine.
Choosing a Field
My first clinical rotation, Urology, brought me into the operating room for the first time as a participant. The relaxed atmosphere of the endoscopy suite stood in stark contrast to the surrounding rooms. The whole environment surprised me. None of the dour intensity from the medical library clung to these people the way it did to me. During this rotation, I learned my USMLE Step 1 score. 252. Based on practice exams, I had anticipated a score about twenty points lower. The other students rotating with me shared their scores with me. When they learned my score, they treated me differently, and I felt aloof. I brought reading materials into the OR and, to my later horror, 'corrected' a resident while he spoke attending physician.
I didn't have time to wallow in regret over my lack of interpersonal skills. My very next rotation, General Surgery, provided an entirely new opportunity to outwork my peers. In this way, the defiant attitude born out of profound anxiety following an anatomy exam hardened into part of my personality. For better or worse, I possessed the necessary intensity to be the first person to arrive and the last person to leave. I spent every free second reading and studying. The surgical residents liked me. I cannot even describe the teeter-totter emotions from struggling so brutally one month to feeling appreciated the next. After scoring well on my shelf exam, I received an honors mark on my general surgery rotation. Amid that elation, defiant as ever, I made it my goal to match Urology.
Building a Resume
I practically interrogated the staff in the Dean's Office until I knew how my school calculated rotation grades and constructed a Dean's letter. I used that knowledge to my advantage, selectively choosing the doctors responsible for my performance evaluations. After more honors rotations, I sent a few emails to a Urology resident at our home program. He gently discouraged me by suggesting that I pursue a career in a medical field better suited to my personality. I politely acknowledged his feedback. I heard about a monthly academic conference, and I showed up to as many of these as possible. I sent out an email to several members of the faculty regarding participation in research. I heard back about a benchwork study investigating the effect of a drug on the Androgen Receptor. I went to the lab several times to help, and I made sure I could describe the project if someone asked.
Before long, I finished my third year. I achieved honors or high pass in almost every rotation, but this reflected excellent planning and diligence more than excellence as a rotating student. In hindsight, I cannot believe how little I grew as a person. Still, time passed, and I remained laser-focused on strengthening my CV. Many students receive help scheduling rotations in their chosen field (so-called 'Audition Rotations). The thought of asking for help from a guidance counselor never even entered my mind. Instead, I found a web forum focused on the Urology Residency Match. I selected my away rotations, 2 Osteopathic and 1 Allopathic. I read about the importance of my performance at my home Urology rotation as a fourth year. The performance while rotating at the beginning of my third year did not set me up for success. I needed to demonstrate personal and professional growth. I braced myself for a 30 day "perfect performance."
30 Days
I showed up an hour early for rounds for the first week. Another student appeared 45 minutes early; "my main competition," I thought to myself as I shook his hand. Three more students, all desperately trying to match into Urology, arrived 10 minutes before rounds. I stuffed my pockets full of supplies, and I volunteered for everything. I ensured I was first to arrive and last to leave by coming in early and intentionally angling for late cases. My plan guaranteed me extra time with the residents. When one of the residents happened to begin typing up a case report, I had the opportunity to ask whether I could help. That resident assigned me a task to do in whatever spare time I had after leaving the hospital. Before the month ended, I had authored a case report and submitted it for publication in a prestigious journal.
However, not everything went so well. The intense level of stress and the enormous pressure I placed upon myself affected me. I waited for weeks for time with the program director. When the time came, the program director was determined to see my response to acute stress. I shadowed him for an afternoon in his office. At the end of the afternoon, he asked me to sit across from him in his office. He asked me a string of tough questions about an obscure topic. I did my best to answer, but most of my responses were versions of "I don't know." I tried my best not to let my discouragement show outwardly. Earlier, I had started to ask him about a letter of recommendation. He deflected the issue and promised to return to it later. Now, as I sat in his office trying to project a calm demeanor, he circled back to my request.
"I suppose you will need a letter of recommendation then, right? Do you see this?" He gestured to an envelope lying on the corner of his desk. "Do you know what this is?" I shook my head no. He told me it was the letter he had just finished writing for "one of the best students we've seen in years." I looked and saw the name on the envelope. It was my competition, not me. I felt myself smile, "I've enjoyed working with him these last few weeks, nice guy."
A few silent seconds passed, and I thanked my program director for the opportunity to follow him this afternoon. I held out my CV, some other details about me, and an envelope and offered them to him. I still needed that letter. I cannot describe the profound deflation I felt when he refused to take the papers from me. He crossed the desk to shake my hand, and I did not want to take his offered hand. But I did.
"Why don't you write the letter yourself? I'll sign it if I think it's good." He smiled briefly and ushered me out of the room. I left his office in a state of profound confusion and made my way back to the resident call room. I sat down on the couch there. After a few quiet minutes, one of the residents knowingly turned around and said, "How was it?"
Not great. I explained what had happened. "What the heck am I supposed to do now?" Every resident I asked had a different take. I left for home, anxious to hear my fiancé's opinion. We decided to write a glowing letter and dare him to sign it, and we did just that.
On the second to last day of the rotation, I looked back on the 30 days. On at least three separate occasions, I had annoyed one of the residents. One time involved doubting someone's ability as a tennis player. Why on Earth would I do something like that!? But the worst thing I did, happened on the second to last night of the rotation. At the end of a long day, the clock read 8:45 pm as the Urology team finished their portion of a combined case with GYN Oncology. As we left the room, I remarked to one of the residents that I felt tired. I will never forget the resident's reply. "I don't ever want to hear a student complain about being tired. Talk to me after you have been on-call." I apologized as well as I could.
Letters and Personal Statement
I gave my program director a copy of the letter he requested I write for myself. With the help of my wife-to-be and plenty of internet research, I wrote myself one heck of a letter, and I had no idea if he would sign it. I also approached another attending with whom I had worked closely and requested an additional letter from him. After leaving that rotation, I spent a weekend with a practicing Urologist I had met through my future Father-in-Law. I asked him for my third letter of recommendation. I asked the surgeon in charge of my third-year general surgery rotation for my fourth and final recommendation.
Next, I crafted a personal statement over the next month during the next month in a Rural Medicine clinic. I made sure to show rather than tell in my writing. Specifically, I described stories from my life and training that highlighted my strengths. I finished my statement by illustrating my vision for my future. I didn't stop until I had something that brought tears to the eyes of my wife-to-be. However, she may have been a bit biased in my favor.
Away Rotations
I scheduled Urology away-rotations at two DO programs and at one MD residency. I won't bore anyone with a detailed discussion of these months, but I will offer a few lessons I learned. I recommend doing an away-rotation at no more than one institution. I wish I had treated my "aways" with the same level of urgency I reserved for the fourth-year rotation I did at my home program. I did not, and this reflected poorly on me. I came in late one day during one of these months. And I did not prepare anything unique for a conference presentation I needed to give at another place during another. I still can't believe I gave a "canned" presentation using a clinical case from a different hospital. Later, as a resident, I watched as students who presented patients from other rotations doomed themselves. Don't be like me.
Interviews
Read this part of the story on residency interview preparation page.
Conclusion
Medical school and the residency match process create massive levels of anxiety. The experience made me a stronger person and reinforced a defiant streak within me. But I made things infinitely harder than necessary. I took too little time to reflect on my chosen career path. Instead, I based my decisions on resentment and even spite. I missed a crucial opportunity to learn how and when to ask for help. That is a lesson I had to learn repeatedly throughout a brutally difficult residency. I hope that everyone reading this can learn from my experience, avoid the same mistakes, and even enjoy the process.
2. Dr. Sean, matched into emergency medicine
Hello Friend,
I just wanted to do a write up about my fourth year of medical school experience, as it pertains to picking a specialty, residencies to apply to, application in general, how I went about interviewing and finally creating the dreaded rank order list! This should be an exciting time for you, and trust me, if you are nervous or are having some trepidation you are not the only one. My hope is that this write-up will assuage some of your preoccupations about the future, and just remember, you’re so close to becoming a smart, and compassionate physician!
Deciding on a Specialty
I hope by this point you have decided on a specialty and are more focusing on where you want to train, rather than what you want to do. If so, you can skip this section and move on down to researching programs. That said, if you’re still unsure or torn between two, three, or multiple specialties do NOT worry! I know plenty of people who were undecided as late as when they were organizing their rank-order list, heck I was one of them! There are a few things I would recommend you do at this point to help narrow it down if you really feel lost. First, the AAMC has the Medical Specialty Preference Inventory which has you fill out some questions to determine your aptitude for many specialties. I did it and landed between Internal Medicine (IM) and Emergency Medicine (EM), and after taking it a few times (the questions don’t change if I remember correctly), I found my answers could change based on my mood. It may be a good tool to try right now and a few weeks from now, based off of your changing priorities. I’d also encourage you to try and schedule any fourth-year rotations in specialties you are considering at the beginning of the academic year, so that way you can 1. get letters of recommendation for that specialty, and 2. determine if it is the correct career path for you.
Also, I recommend taking a day to reflect on your previous experiences up to this point. This is a very difficult decision because often us medical students conflate love for a specialty for love of a group of people we worked with on a rotation. Do your best to separate the people and the actual content of the work. Do you love the day-to-day work? Can you see yourself doing this for years (decades even)? Or are you just enamored by the novelty of the daily experience? After a while, most parts of medicine will become hackneyed to the veteran physician; so, ask yourself will you still love the field when much of what you love now becomes rote? Or will it become a burden? It’s impossible to know, but these are questions you should be considering when choosing a specialty, not even to mention the work life balance, and future career goals you may have. That said, it is not unheard to switch specialties, and up to 4% of residents don’t complete the initial residency that they start with.
Still haven’t decided on a specialty to go for 100%? Well, you can apply to multiple specialties. Students applying to competitive specialties often apply to back-up specialties to help increase their chance for a successful residency match. However, in my case, I loved emergency medicine, but I felt the limitation of EM as a specialty for treating the patients that come to the emergency room. I saw burn-out affecting physicians, nursing and staff alike from dealing with non-emergency problems of those who are under or uninsured and the frustration that it can bring on. So, I applied to combined emergency medicine and internal medicine programs and combined emergency medicine and family medicine (FM) programs and was happy I did. It gave me insight and peace of mind about eventually choosing emergency medicine as number 1.
Researching Programs to Apply to
I used Frieda, AAMC Residency Explorer tool, the EMRA match website to look at residency statistics and find places that interested me. By far the most useful for me was the EMRA match website. It has a map that lists each EM residency, and often has information about each that is easy to access. For me when considering residencies to apply to I thought about: location (mostly east coast preference as I didn’t have ties elsewhere, also urban>rural areas), fellowships in addiction, critical care and palliative care medicine (all three I have an interest in), volume/acuity (I want to be able to see and do everything in residency) and benefits.
I made an excel spreadsheet that I added several columns to and used that as a way to compare residencies. Some of the columns included: salary, salary to cost of living (getting paid $65K in NYC means a lot less than $65K in western MA), size, electronic medical record system, vacation days, autonomy (are there other residents like ortho/anesthesia in ER taking procedures), 3 vs 4-year program, available moonlighting opportunities, night off protected before conference days (it makes it easier to learn when you got some sleep the night before your conference days), length of shift, and proximity to an airport (this became important to me with residencies further away, that way I would be able go to weddings/visit family in the coming years more easily). Some programs do not have all the information on their website nor on any of the aforementioned resources, a good idea is to either flag these spots on your spreadsheet to fill in later during an open house or send an email to a resident or coordinator (the websites often have these emails listed somewhere). Though emailing comes with a risk of seeming too eager, not doing your due diligence to find the information if they have it listed elsewhere (note some programs have multiple websites, either for the hospital/organization itself, and for the actual residency so be careful of that); although on the other hand you emailing the coordinator beforehand shows interest and could possibly put you on their radar for an interview in the fall. Additionally, if you don’t have social media (i.e., Instagram or Twitter) it is a good idea to create one to specifically follow each residency account so you can find their meet and greets pre-ERAS and familiarize yourself with the culture of each residency. I found this super helpful and attended several virtual open houses with residencies before ERAS even opened and got to ask residents some questions when they did daily account take overs.
So How Many Applications are Enough?
Frankly, much of my application was also limited by price, it gets very expensive to apply to many specialties. However, for each new specialty you apply to, the first 10 applications are a $100 fee, so they’re $10 per application. For the next 10 per specialty (11-20) it is $17 per application, the following 10 (21-30) are $21 each and any more above 30 $26 each. If you’re like me and apply to 41, send COMLEX and USMLE Scores sent it will be $925, not including the combined specialties which were another $200. To even apply it was over $1000 dollars for me, which hurt my budget a lot for the year. That said, I wish I had applied to more reach programs. I was pleasantly surprised that I got more interviews with some of the top programs than I did with places that I thought were safer bets. The glass ceiling for DOs doesn’t so much exist except for some of the true ivory towers (talking Harvard and the like), at least in emergency medicine. I wish I had applied to a few programs that hadn’t historically taken DOs, as the residency match lists at these institutions included DOs this year. It just goes to show you never know who will send you an interview and you might as well over apply and be in the position to turn down interviews, than under apply and not be in the safe zone for matching. I was told by an advisor that 35 was a good number for me to apply to with 20 safer residencies and 15 more competitive wherever I wanted, with the goal to secure 12 interviews. Now, I don’t want to seem conceited, but I was a rather strong applicant, with great board scores, a lot of extracurricular activities including: research, education experience and more. Be honest with yourself, are you truly a strong candidate, or should you be aiming lower? A good advisor is an important when getting an idea of how you stack up. Applying is tricky, it’s ideal to apply to the perfect amount to get double digit interviews, and not spend too much.
However, in the post COVID-19 world, without needing to pay to travel to these locations, many students over-apply so that way they can have their pick of the interviews. It seems that this is looked down upon, given interview hoarding, and many programs going unfilled this year after main residency match, but in the end, you need to look out for yourself. I know of two very competitive EM applicants last year that did not match because they abided by the COVID era guideline, whereas others I know who skirted the recommendations matched. You’ve worked too hard for all these years to not match (though if you don’t, it’s not the end of the world, both of those students re-applied this year and matched their top programs). It’s tough though, I imagine changes will be coming to the process after 219 unfilled spots in EM, a complete anomaly no one saw coming, since there is often only single digit vacancies after the residency match. These vacancies were likely due to interview hoarding, so just do you best, and don’t go on more interview than necessary, and spend a little more than you think is reasonable on applying.
ERAS and the Application
Once ERAS opens, you should begin filling out any and all information. It is my strongest advice that you update your CV beforehand, so that way entering information into the program is as easy as a copy paste. I also implore you to have worked on your personal statement before ERAS opens. Send it to as many people as possible, especially people who might not know you well, that way they can get a sense of who you are from the writing (that’s exactly what these programs will be doing and give constructive feedback). Your personal statement ought to be why this specialty, what do you bring to the table, and what are your future plans. Don’t overly stress about this, it shouldn’t make or break your application, so just ensure you answer those questions, and it’s free of any grammatical errors or anything that can be construed as negative. Show yourself in a pleasant light and address any red flags in your application if needed. I would read and re-read everything that goes on your application, so you know it like the back of your hand. This is your one chance at making a first impression, so put yourself out there without errors. You’ve done some incredible things in medical school and prior, make those things shine and be proud of your experiences. Talk with your advisor or mentor, ask them to look things over, but take advice with a grain of salt; this is your application make sure it rings true to you.
Just remember, everything you out on your application is fair game for an interviewer, you should be comfortable talking about everything you put on there for at least 5 minutes, and frankly after pouring over your application, you should have no excuse for not being able to talk about each and every experience at some length. One thing I must add is look at each programs website you are applying to when getting ready to submit your application. Some have stipulations that they expect you to put a paragraph explaining why their program, or something to the same effect. I caught two programs that were in my top 5 that had this requirement, and I am under the impression that I got an interview there because of my attention to that detail. If you have the time, you could personalize each personal statement to each residency. My friend did this for several combined programs, and it worked to her favor, however it was a lot of extra work.
Most importantly, have your ERAS application submitted at minimum 3 days before residencies can start downloading applications. There is no excuse for not having your application submitted in time; it only shows that you aren’t great with deadlines and no residency wants a student who can’t meet deadlines. After you’ve submitted, relax take some much needed, rest and relaxation, and try not to overanalyze your application anymore.
Interviews
Read this part on residency interview prep page.
Rank Order List
This is a very personal choice, and ultimately you should be the only one who develops the criteria for how you rank, unless you have a family or are couples matching. Thankfully for me, it was totally a personal decision. However, it was much more difficult given I was also ranking the combined programs I interviewed at. All told I had 20 ranks, 12 just EM, 2 EM/FM, and 6 EM/IM programs. I really, really loved some of those combined programs, but I ultimately ranked 2 just EM programs above my top 3 combined programs. I went back and forth for a while and moved places up and down based off of just feeling. I reviewed my notes, went to post-interview meet and greets (the number of zoom calls truly never end) and talked to friends who either rotated at the programs or are current residents there. I ultimately decided 3-year programs were higher ranked than 4 year, especially given the EM work force survey. I just didn’t think an extra year of education would be worth it, especially when it means one year less of being able to find a job. Plus, I plan on doing a fellowship, and the extra year in fellowship will make me more competitive than just another year of EM. I tried not to let any post interview communication affect me, and I actually received a handwritten letter from a PD that got lost in the postal system so it didn’t come in until after rank order list submission, which honestly might have had them move higher on my list. That said, I based my rank list off of fit, and how I imagined where I would like to live for 3 years.
However, I think that I would consider prestige to be more and more important moving forward in emergency medicine, as it is a tightening field, and a more prestigious residency will help you land a job in tougher and tougher markets. Ultimately, I landed at my #2, which is great. I loved the interview day there, and the meet and greet incorporated a few of the resident’s significant others, which I thought was endearing. It felt more that they were a family, and less like a group of co-workers which was the most important for me. I am very excited about taking the next step, but also incredibly nervous. I have definitely had my doubts about whether I made the right decision on rank order list, but overall, what’s done is done. I heard someone wrote out their rank order list and posted at the end of their bed for a week prior to finalizing it. If they didn’t like the list, they would change it, but going to sleep and waking up with the list is a good idea because it is deciding ultimately where you are going to be and train for a significant portion of your life. My only final advice is to also go to the locations where the residencies are, it will be difficult and expensive, but if you can hit your top 3-5 before you submit it will be super helpful, especially in the zoom era. It’s one thing to get along with the people, and like the place on paper, it’s a completely different ballgame when you see it in person. I caution you with ranking anything too high if you’ve never been there.
Final thoughts
Although I feel some apprehension at taking the next step, I imagine I would be having the same feelings regardless of where I matched on my list. I hope this somewhat cogent rambling has helped you in your future journey to residency. I just want you to remember that you worked incredibly hard and have given it your all. Take some deep breaths, these residencies need to fill their slots too, so you absolutely have a chance. No matter where you wind up, and no matter what field you find yourself in, you will be a great doctor, especially if you remember to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. I wish you the best, and hope you get your number one dear friend! Best of luck, but don’t just take my word for it, do your homework, and ask around; your future depends on it!
3. Dr. L., Family medicine resident application story
Looking back, it feels surreal that only one year ago, I was on the other side of the residency match process. As a PGY-1 family medicine resident now, I can feel relief instead of anxiety when I hear “ERAS”. I was fortunate enough to have a good Residency Match season, and I owe it to preparing ahead of time. Preparation may seem intimidating, but it was the last thing I could control to influence how my Match would go. Having a good plan early took away a lot of the stress by not having it build up all at once.
Selecting Programs
Before deciding where to apply and how to rank, you have to determine what your priorities are. Is it prestige? Is it the type of training, whether it be academic versus community program? Is it location, salary, or something else? For me, it was location, full-spectrum training, and acceptance of osteopathic manipulation.
Being in a medical school across the country from where I was from, it was my priority to get back home. I still had family and friends there that I was looking forward to getting back to. This significantly helped me to cut down my list of options. On the spreadsheet, I took out every state that was not around where I wanted to be. I kept some around where I went to medical school since I had built those connections, but my list became a lot more manageable.
Full-spectrum training to me meant being trained in the many facets of family medicine without being completely opposed. Opposed versus unopposed is an issue that affects family medicine training being how broad it is. I did not want to be so opposed that I would feel like I was not doing much, but I did not need a completely unopposed program. I made sure to note other residencies a program would have and ask during interviews about how opposed residents felt. Full-spectrum training also meant having a diverse patient population; I wanted to work with patients of different ages, cultures, and socioeconomic levels since that is how I envisioned my future practice to look like. This ties back to location as having this much diversity would mostly mean somewhere that is more urban. Again, I was able to cut out some programs.
As a DO student who enjoys using osteopathic manipulation, I wanted to be at a program that would allow me to use and practice my skills. That meant I was looking for programs that had DOs as residents and faculty. Osteopathic recognition is a distinction granted to some programs as well, but I was fine with a program without it, as long as I can get the training. Also, with the merger, I would have to face more competition from programs that were traditionally MD. This helped me take out some programs that did not have a history with osteopaths as I figured my chances were low anyway.
How Many to Apply to
One of the biggest questions that no one has an exact answer to is “How many programs should I apply to?”. You will hear so many different answers from different people. I decided to try to take a more data-driven route. The Reddit spreadsheet from the prior year helped as there were people who posted their scores, where they were applying to, how many programs they applied to, and how many interviews they received. Though not completely reliable, it helped put my application in the context of previous applicants and their outcomes. I also used the NRMP residency match data to see collectively how people with similar scores and stats fared. There is data on the percent chance of matching based on how many programs ranked for particular score ranges. Again, this is population data so it does not guarantee anything for me, but it gave some guidance.
After taking all this data into account, I had to be honest with myself as an applicant. Looking at my stats, where do I really stand against the average family medicine applicant of the past? I eventually came to a range of 20-30 needed to match residency. Since it was a new interview experience being all virtual, I decided to keep it safe and double that number. Eventually, I ended up applying to 50 programs. In the end, it turned out to be a bit excessive, but I felt safe.
Which Programs
Now I had to get my list of potentials shaved down. It was time to take a deeper look at each program individually. For this, I found that Residency Explorer was especially useful. I was able to find information about the kind of training they have, the average hours they work, the salary, and estimated board score ranges.
I also looked up each program’s website and noted significant strengths and weaknesses. More and more, I was getting to know each program and started developing ideas of where I would like to be. Programs that did not fit what I was looking for got cut from my list until I was down to 50. I also rated each program based on my perceived ability to be ranked by “Likely”, “Average”, or “Difficult”. This way, I was making sure my list was not too heavily weighted with reach programs.
Interviews
Read this part on residency interview prep page.
Ranking
The final step. While I was going through interviews, I updated my spreadsheet with notes of how I felt each interview went. This helped me remember what I thought about each program and where I wanted to rank them. I defaulted back to my priorities of location, training, and osteopathic acceptance, but now I can add in another component.
Through the process, I realized how much I valued having camaraderie and fun in the program. The interviews where I got to meet the residents and see that they are actually enjoying the program got a higher rank for me over the ones where I did not meet residents at all. If I had a weird feeling or if the interviews were too short, they were dropped lower. For some programs, I didn't even get to meet the program director which I thought was a bit odd as well, so I ranked them lower.
Final Thoughts
Waiting, waiting, waiting. It felt like an eternity until I found out if I had matched residency position. It took another eternity to find out where. Eventually, I matched into my second choice. I was disappointed not making my first one, but my top four choices were able to hit all of my priorities, plus they had some prestige to their names. I now train at a program within a top hospital system in the country and I get to be by my family and friends. It finally feels like all of that grueling time in medical school was worth it.
Research and preparation got me through the residency match cycle. Boards are done, grades are in; there is only so much left you can do. Have people look over your personal statement and application. Make sure you have the best product you can produce. When interviews come, know that you are ready and prepared for them. Programs want to see your interest and are just looking for someone who will fit. It is then your job to be yourself and decide if they fit you.