Residency Rush

   How is it almost September?! Time is just flying by.  So far, 4th year rocks!  It was super intense in the beginning, but things have calmed down now, and my residency application is really starting to come together.  I have my personal statement done, my letters of recommendation uploaded into ERAS, and I've taken Step 2 CK and Step 2 CS.  Really, I just need to enter things from my CV into ERAS, and I'm finished!  I'm applying to a grand total of 32 programs. Normally, you don't have to apply to this many programs for OB/Gyn, but I'm couples-matching* which complicates things, and I just like to be extra cautious.  BF is applying for General Surgery, and we're applying all over the East Coast, all over the West Coast, and some random places in between.

   My amazing OB/Gyn advisor** has put together a series of workshops on applying to OB/Gyn residency for us MS4s, and today we talked about interviewing.  From what it sounds like, it is exactly like rushing for a sorority.  You go and interview, and they sit down with your picture, say what they thought about you, and rank you in order of how badly they want you to match there.  It is a "mutual selection process," where the programs rank the candidates, and the candidates rank the programs.  Then some crazy computer algorithm takes these rank lists and computes where you are supposed to match. And come that special day in March, you open up an envelope, and the piece of paper inside tells you exactly where you'll be spending the next 3-5 years of your life.  (This is the equivalent of a sorority bid).
There's no negotiating, no waitlists, no choosing between different acceptances.  The decision-making is done for you, and fate nudges you in the right direction.


* For you non-medical folk: couples-matching is basically where you apply to residency programs as a package deal with your significant other, that way you HAVE to end up in the same geographical region

** Who, by the way, I totally wanna be her when I grow up. She is amazing.

   Speaking of sorority rush, I recently went to a super fun wine and cheese event for the local Gamma Phi alumnae chapter.  It was a lot of fun, and I hope I have time to go to more events this year.

 Alpha Iota Alumnae!