LAST FEW MONTHS BEFORE MATCH: SOME TIPS

By Mid-January, a major bulk of the residency interviews will be over. A few places may still trickle out a few interviews, but things are pretty much wrapping up for the final 'Rank-order-list' preparation meetings of the resident selection committees across the participating programs.

This post applies more to the candidates who have had interviews and now start the waiting game. Would not apply to the fortunate ones who pre-matched either into the programs they wanted or did not mind getting into, besides the unfortunate ones who did not land any interviews this time.


Nothing is sure about the match - ten interviews and more in a specialty may have a larger mathematical possibility, whereas a single great interview can still be game ! As for the prematches part, we did see in the 2005-2006 season how even a prematch is not a surety (Forest Park Residency Program shut down for financial reasons before the match - even after giving out prematches to IMGs!) ...not that I wanna scare anyone, just mentioned some facts.


"Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure." - that was not me, it was Ophrah Winfrey who said so. She is surely right about the surety part, but we are not ready for 'let go' part yet...Not until the Rank-order-lists are finally submitted by the programs he he ;-)


Here are a few things to do to improve chances for those who have had interviews (especially the ones with few interviews):


1. Have you updated the programs about what you are doing lately ? It's a good time to right that with the new year wishes, if you have not already :-)


2. How about proposing to all your interviewed programs that you would not mind observing in the program for 2 to 4 weeks prior to the start date ?


3. If you have had interviews, starting any new US Clinical Experience or Research work now could still be of some help in improving your rating before the program directors submit their rank order lists.


4. If you are particularly very very very very keen on some program you interviewed at, you may ask for a second visit yourself (coz not all programs have a habit of giving out second-looks on their own)

5. A resident told me how he send personal paper greeting cards by post to all the programs that he had interviewed at, before February, thanking them again for the interview and expressing how badly he wanted to be with them - I leave that open to debate and personal choices, not commenting on that ....just mentioning !


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HOW TO WITHDRAW FROM THE RESIDENCY MATCH

Accepting a prematch (out-of-match) offer is probably the biggest reason for withdrawing from the NRMP match. Guess we don't need to delve into other reasons.

First of all, prematched candidates must note that it is imperative to withdraw from the Match before the Rank Order List Submission deadline - The deadline for 2007 Match is Wednesday 21, at 9:00 PM Eastern Time. Otherwise you might end up with a second marriage - LOL. Entering the NRMP Matching program is a contractual agreement to abide to the Match results. In case you do forget to withdraw and end up matching - you land in troubled waters. Even if you decide to go with the Matched position, the prematch offering program is gonna be up in arms - unless of course you only signed the Letter of intent and Not the binding prematch contract letter (Lets reserve that for another post, but it's a safe idea to wait till you actually sign and send back the prematch contract letter before you withdraw from the match)


Here are the steps to withdraw from the NRMP Matching Program:

1. Open up to the NRMP Match WebSite.
2. Login ( *Duh*)
3. After you login, Click on "Update My Profile" Link on the Menu Seen on the Left
4. Next, you should see a "Withdraw" Link adjacent to your name along with other Links
5. Choose Withdraw and Confirm


This will automatically send a notification to all programs who rank you on their ROLs.

If it helps, Click here to look at the images / screenshots of the process.


Now, In Addition, candidates can and should notify individual programs about your withdrawal. This is not compulsory, but as I wrote on an earlier post about notifying programs about Interview cancellations, I consider it ethical to let the programs know about your withdrawal, so that they can extend invitation to other candidates on the waiting list. Of course, if the Interview season is already over (Jan end), then notifying individual programs is more of a matter of courtesy - they will get to know anyways if they rank you. [ If they did not want to rank you, they don't need to know anyways ;-) ]


Here's the Steps to notify programs individually. Instead of me overusing my ATP molecules into typing, lemme copy-paste what AAMC.org site says on this ..he he
"
You may withdraw from programs one of two ways;
- by contacting them directly (e-mail, phone, etc.)
- or by using the new withdraw feature in MyERAS.

1. Withdrawing by Contacting Programs:

* If you no longer wish to be considered by a program you can contact the program directly and notify them of your decision. Contact information for the programs can be obtained from within your MyERAS account. Once contacted programs will have the ability to mark you as "withdrawn" from application and will no longer consider you for the position(s).

2. Withdrawing using MyERAS:

* You may now use MyERAS to withdraw your application from consideration by a program. To withdraw using MyERAS you will need to login to your MyERAS account, click on the "Programs" tab, click on the "Programs Applied to" tab, click on the the program you wish to withdraw from, mark the field "I would like to notify this program that I am withdrawing myself, click on "Save."

Source


Here's a screenshot of where to find that withdrawal field they are talking about. Personally I don't like the way they have designed this functionality, coz' you gotta do it individually do it for each program ! And there are plenty of IMGs who applied to 100-plus program - didn't you guys ? ;-)


Also read:

- "Deadline" for prematch offers from Residency Programs?