re: Calling MD's/Med Students

Sad to see LSU doing that sort of thing. A girl in my class got screwed over by a program here over that. Their defense was that they ranked her high enough to match in most years but that they filled their spots sooner than expected this year since the specialty got so competitive. I had a similar thing happen to me at a place I did an away rotation at, but in the end I'm thanking my lucky stars I ended up where I did because it's been a perfect fit for me. It wasn't my first choice, obviously, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

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It's stuff like this that makes me question how straightforward the algorithm is. I know it's supposed to be simple though.

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The human factor, as previously mentioned, plays a huge role. It doesn't make sense that the "other guy" with the >250 didn't match anywhere, other than the fact that he must have been that weird and/or standoff-ish in his interview. Every person you interview with can make or break you.

Thanks Garfield, I would take the test tomorrow if I could. I am so sick of the process. Everytime I do a test I miss at least one thing I know, or there is something new I don't know, but I've been told not to worry about it.

I've taken pretty much every exam from 2008-February 16. I have submitted tests to my professors from school and they said I will do fine. I guess you will never feel 100% prepared but I'm so tired of studying I just want to get it over with.

I know someone who made a 20 on the mcat with a low 3-ish gpa and got accepted into a Caribbean med school.

Since there are so many med people here, I have to tell my favorite doctor joke:

Four doctors are in a boat out on the swamp, hunting ducks.

A bird flies overhead. The FP looks up, says, "body like a duck, bill like a duck, webbed feet like a duck, quacks like a duck. It's a duck", and shoots it.

A little while later a bird flies overhead. The IM resident looks up, says, "body like a duck, bill like a duck, webbed feet like a duck, quacks like a duck. It's a rare species of goose that mimics ducks", and pulls out a notebook and starts writing the paper.

A little while later a bird flies overhead. The surgeon casually blows it out of the sky, turns to the pathologist, and says, "swim out there and see if that was a duck."

Unfortunately, I've always had a soft spot for corny jokes. Have an upvote sir.

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I've taken pretty much every exam from 2008-February 16. I have submitted tests to my professors from school and they said I will do fine. I guess you will never feel 100% prepared but I'm so tired of studying I just want to get it over with.

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That's a good place to be. You don't want to be nervous - you want to be annoyed.

Remember, you only need to be smarter than the failure rate. I didn't take the LA bar so no clue on that one. The bar I took had a 75% passage rate. The girl that took the chair next to me had a ball of animal crackers wrapped in fricking aluminum foil that she would periodically (and noisily) unwrap and loudly munch on during the entire first day. At first I was extremely pissed but then realized she's definitely filling that 25% quota (who tha' frick wraps animal crackers in aluminum foil - repeatedly).

FWIW, my wife (who is also a professional) and I have been in a very high income stratosphere and then back down to less than usual college liberal arts undergrads then back up again (all since passing the bar) but our happiness has not had the same curve. We have struggled financially and been happy and had excess and been miserable. I'm not saying money doesn't matter - it sure of a hell does (and makes a lot of things easier) but it's the icing not the cake (unless you can't afford basic necessities, then it's all that matters).

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What there isn't an algorithm for is how programs choose to rank people and why. Human factor. You'll never understand it.

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I was chief resident of my program my last year of residency, and one of my duties was to participate in the interview process for applicants. I probably did 50-60 interviews over 3 days, took a lot of notes, etc. At the end of the last day, I had a rough idea of who I thought were excellent candidates, but I really had a hard time ranking everyone from 1-50 or 60 (whatever the number was). So, I figured when we all gathered to discuss things, it would take a very long time to sort through everyone.

We went into a conference room, the program director put all of the applications on the table and would hold up one at a time. We'd vote "yes" or "no", and she made two piles. After that, we got a chance to make a case for someone we thought was good or bad from the "yes" pile. The program director would listen while arranging the pile of "yes" candidates, and after we got through all of those, the rank list was determined. It took a total of about 30-45 minutes.

So, a committee of about 8 spent 3 days interviewing candidates and less than an hour sorting through all of it. I don't know if that's how it works everywhere, but I thought it was a little shortsighted when you're somewhat responsible for all of these physicians' futures. It was definitely eye opening.

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Thanks Garfield, I would take the test tomorrow if I could. I am so sick of the process. Everytime I do a test I miss at least one thing I know, or there is something new I don't know, but I've been told not to worry about it.

I've taken pretty much every exam from 2008-February 16. I have submitted tests to my professors from school and they said I will do fine. I guess you will never feel 100% prepared but I'm so tired of studying I just want to get it over with.

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Take as many practice tests as you can. Learn how the examiners test the issues. There are many patterns that you will pick up on. Once you've identified them, if you have taken enough practice exams, you can quickly spit out canned answers and move on. I can't tell you how important it is to take as many practice tests as you can.

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I don't know if that's how it works everywhere

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My program does interviews through January. Residents go out to dinner, one gives a tour, and then there's a 3 resident panel that interviews the group. Each of those residents evaluates each candidate. There's a score sheet. There are also faculty score sheets. There are also comments. Faculty and Chiefs put together a preliminary rank list, then our program director takes a single noon conference and says, "what needs to change?" The entire program (24) are present and giving input. Moving people up, down, off, and on the list. Faculty reconvene and make the final decisions and tweak it a bit further.

From what I've gathered, we are one of very few that do it this way. But it's pretty cool to have a lot of input into who we do/don't want to work with.