SOAP

I didn't match. Not the best way to come back to blogging after a 1+ year absence, but it is what it is.

I've been silent on here because I didn't want to post grumpy, sad things all the time. No one wants to read that. I was hoping to finally have some happy news after years of stress. But alas, that didn't happen and here we are.

To give some background to my story, I applied into ortho with low step scores (sub-230) and four interviews, so this didn't come as a too much of a surprise. Regardless, it still sucks.

I had a bad feeling about yesterday. I realistically only had a shot at one of my four interviews* (let's call it Program A) and when I sent them a "You're my #1" email, I got a somewhat noncommittal response. So I knew it was coming.

Having said all that, there were some reasons to be hopeful. My chairman is really good buddies with their chair and placed a call for me and our program director is also close with another attending at Program A. Both said that Program A had contacted them about me and said that they really liked me, I did a good job on my away, blah, blah, blah. I also met Program A's step cut-off, which is a rarity with my numbers and the competitiveness of ortho. Everything that could go in my favor was seemingly going in my favor, but unfortunately it still didn't work out.

So now I'm stuck going through SOAP, hoping to match a preliminary general surgery position and trying again next year. I was advised to try for Program A again because I had such a good shot this year and probably just barely missed the cut. I resisted at first because I figured if they didn't want me the first time then there's no reason for them to want me again. I equated it to a bad breakup where no one ever goes back to their number 5. A friend reminded me that if I'm using relationship metaphors for Match, then this should be considered a polygamous marriage rather than a monomagous relationship since they keep coming back for more every year. So I wisened up and at the last minute added Program A's prelim spots to my application list.

Now I wait.

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* My interviews were at my home program (which flat out told me they won't take me because of my Step score), at an away that also had a hard Step cutoff that I didn't meet (I didn't find this out until the first day of the away), and at a very popular northeast school that for some weird reason offered me an interview.