Hello, everybody.
Long time no see.
I have been immersed in the turmoil that is the fourth year of medical school. I don't happen to go to one of those medical schools I keep hearing about where the fourth year is easy and awesome. We only get one month of vacation, which includes time spent traveling for interviews. So, with interviews, elective and non-elective rotations, my clinical skills board exam, and being a single mom, I haven't even been opening my laptop most days.
My match rank list is certified, and now I am sitting on my hands and freaking out quietly...well, mostly quietly. For the uninitiated out there, the match is a hellish roulette wheel in which about 37,000 applicants vie for about 25,000 residency positions. This year, I am one of those 37,000 applicants.
I wrote a little bit about my various pressures regarding applying for residency programs here, and that post also has a link to the Match Day topic week here at MiM.
I ended up trying to stay as close to home as possible. I would be happy at any of the programs that ended up on my rank list. I would have liked to have interviewed at more programs. I was limited by my custody agreement, and I further limited myself by only applying to programs in cities where I knew somebody.
I am terrified that I am going to have to scramble. Obstetrics and gynecology has been a really competitive match recently. The National Resident Match Program is nice enough to crunch the data from recent matches, so I have a boatload of tables and graphs to stare at as I freak out. 77.1% of ob/gyn applicants matched last year. 99.6% of program positions filled, which means only 2 positions were left for the more than 200 or so ob/gyn applicants that didn't match. I am guessing most of those applicants didn't have a custody agreement that had pretty strict boundaries.
So, if anyone has any suggestions of how I can distract myself until March 12th, the day I learn if I match, and then March 16th, the day I learn where I match, please let me know.
I feel your pain. I am a new mommy, just graduated, and am at home on maternity leave awaiting match results. Ahhh. To pass the time I: don't sleep because I'm thinking about what all of the things I need to do after Match Day (daycare, apartment hunting), daydream about all of the different possibilities that could occur after matching, I try my best not to think about the SOAP, and cuddle with my Little One. Best wishes to you. Hopefully having a little person around who cares nothing about this whole process can be a distraction :-)
ReplyDeleteIf you find any great ways to distract yourself please let me know. I am the Mommy of three little ones and am also awaiting match results for OB/GYN. Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteI hear you! I don't have custody or geography limiting me, but I'm stressed out waiting for results nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteSigned,
Another MSIV Mom of 3 going into OB/Gyn
Wow, there's a lot of OB wanna-bes here! I hope we all get good news soon!
ReplyDeleteI don't have any good suggestions for distraction. I was in a performance of the Vagina Monologues, but it's over. My birthday is coming up, so there's that.
Ack.
What happens to the other 12000 people?
ReplyDeleteI'm right there in that boat with you - but matching in peds. Such an exciting and anxiety-provoking time. I just can't get out of my head all the things that will need to be done once the match has actually happened. Oh, like my husband looking for a job, finding a place to live, childcare, etc.
ReplyDelete@Katie - good luck! Yes, the scurrying around after match, especially if I have to move, is just as scary as match!
ReplyDelete@Juggler - they have to "scramble" for open positions.