This is Match Week:
Monday: Programs find out if they filled; applicants find out if they matched; SOAP begins. Here’s a 2025 primer on SOAP.
Tuesday through Thursday: SOAP process in play.
Friday: Match Day.
If you were one of my residency clients this year, I’d appreciate hearing from you when you have a moment to update me. I’m sending everyone the best of wishes.
More from the AAMC: I read a troubling piece recently regarding a bizarre problem Puerto Rican medical students are having. Apparently, some folks don’t understand that Puerto Rico is part of the United States. Some Puerto Rican students report they are being misidentified as international medical graduates (IMGs).
The crux of the matter is that Puerto Rican medical schools are – like other U.S. allopathic medical schools – accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. On the other hand, many medical schools in other parts of the Caribbean are not LCME-accredited and graduate IMGs.
IMGs have a tougher time matching. In the last cycle, U.S.- citizen IMGs matched at a rate of 67% and non-U.S.-citizen IMGs matched at a rate of 58.5%. On the other hand, U.S. MD graduates matched at a rate of 93.5%. Thus, being misidentified as an IMG is to the detriment of Puerto Rican medical students in the Match.
See Bridget Balch’s interesting article with more details here.
Imagine you’re back in high school, planning to ask a fellow classmate to the prom. You approach your potential date, “Would you be interested in going with me to the dance? You’re one of my top three choices.”
Not very compelling…The same is true for letters of interest or, really, any outreach to medical schools or residency programs: Over the years, I’ve edited many letters in which applicants mention that an institution is “one of my top” picks.
Avoid that type of language. Instead you can say something like “I would be thrilled to be at your institution,” or “I am confident I can make a positive contribution.” In other words, you can stay honest while not shooting yourself in the foot.
p.s. I’m a huge Flight of the Conchords fan. See this song for reinforcement.
Let me know if you need assistance with a letter of interest.
For a long time there has existed a bottleneck in the physician training system with more medical students graduating than residency spots available. This phenomenon has been one of the contributors to the physician shortage in the United States.
In an effort to begin to relieve the problem, in 2021 Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act Section 126 to expand the number of Medicare-supported residency slots.
Last month the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a list of hospitals that were awarded 200 new residency positions under the Act. About seven in 10 of the positions are going to primary care and psychiatry training programs.
You can read an American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) news article about the new slots here.
The AAMC recently published a piece about the post-pandemic persistence of residency virtual interviews. While some programs still encourage in-person interviews, most now standardly conduct online ones. The AAMC article points out important benefits including financial and environmental.
Something the AAMC article doesn’t specifically touch on is that virtual interviews have likely softened the sting of systemic sexism in the application process. The potential (albeit remote) for a candidate to record an interview or even have another person listening in diminishes the risk of sexist questions.
What happens in the room between an applicant and faculty member may no longer necessarily stay there.
Check out the Doximity piece I wrote, “How Virtual Interviews Might Mitigate Systemic Sexism in Medicine.” (Unfortunately, the story I tell at the beginning of the article is only one of several inappropriate questions I got from faculty interviewers when I was a student.)
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
