This week has been one that has been filled with great highs and the lowest of lows. On the one hand, I've been able to celebrate the happy stories of friends and acquaintences who matched into their chosen specialities. On the other hand, I have seen a lot of people on Twitter who did not match. I also have five friends, one who took his life on Tuesday, who did not match and who have, so far, failed to land a position in the SOAP.
I cannot begin to imagine what its like to open your email and find that you didn't match. There are not a lot of great helps out there to help unmatched students cope with this new-found reality or to develop a plan to apply for the match again. And the reality is that each year you try to match, your odds of matching go down by about 25%. Thus, its really in your best interest to match the same year that you graduate. I've been talking to my friends who didn't match, and to hear the despair in their voices has been heartbreaking. But its also served as a huge wake up call. Just because I am in medical school, there is no guarantee that I will match.Even though I am in a U.S. school, about 5%-6% of US students don't match each year. There is no guarantee that you will match just because you get into medical school. Thus, I'm now thinking about what I need to do to make sure that my odds of matching are as maximized as possible...
