To those who didn't match -- my sincerest and best wishes to you all. I know I've met some of you on the trail who didn't match, and I would love to have you all as colleagues should you decide to reapply. I hope that everyone finds something they will enjoy doing, be it urology or something else.I know it is still soon, but I wanted to get an idea across before this forum quiets down.If you did not match, please anonymously post your stats and data in the google doc match list. This will help us and next year's group hopefully get a better sense of what particular characteristics differentiated the matched and unmatched applicants.Thank you all for helping to transform this nebulous process into something more tangible, and helping to create some real data that can be used for future advising.
I can tell you my stats : Step 1 254, Not AOA, 3 non Uro pubs, 1 Uro pub in European Urology, 5 uro posters, 3 uro abstracts(1 first author), 2 national awards, STRONG letters of recommendation, mediocre medschool, 1 Away at semi-prestigous univeristy. Was courted by over 1/2 of the programs I interviewed at. I took no additional time for medschool and got all these Uro pubs out within the past year. Why I didn't match? You tell me because I would love to know. Those of you who matched, congratulations. Those of us who didn't are trying to figure out why but trust me, I don't think its stats because I am sure that I did > 63.9% of the people who applied and that goes the same for a majority of the people who didn't match.
There are a lot of intangible things that programs look for in an applicant. Being good on paper just gets you an interview. You also need to be a nice person and not malignant. Lot of applicants seemed stand-off-ish this year. Like you were too good for the program. Well, you were too good, and now you have no program. Try relaxing a bit more next year, tell some funny jokes. The interview process is as much about personality as it is numbers.
There are a lot of intangible things that programs look for in an applicant. Being good on paper just gets you an interview. You also need to be a nice person and not malignant. Lot of applicants seemed stand-off-ish this year. Like you were too good for the program. Well, you were too good, and now you have no program. Try relaxing a bit more next year, tell some funny jokes. The interview process is as much about personality as it is numbers.
wow, what a douchebag comment the match rate was 64%. 84% of applicants could have been great personalities who looked great on paper (to even have the guts to apply for uro you have to be somewhat decent on paper)...being that there is limited spots in urology, 20% of that 84% awesome people would still be completely screwed...its the nature of this process. if 84% of applicants have great numbers and great personalities then how do you answer the question of "why didnt you match?" to the 20%?you could have been ranked #4 on the list of 2 programs and #5 on the list of 2 other programs and #6 at 1 other program...so you are "fairly highly" ranked at a total of 5 programs.....yet still dont match....how do you explain that?......i know for a FACT that i was ranked #4 at a program that had 3 spots, but this year they did great in matching their top 3...the is similar feedback I have received from a few programs that did better in the match this year in getting their top choices than they have historically....i matched really low on my list so i refuse to complain, but I wanted to inquire to understand what happened because I realize the reality that I could have been one of those people who did not match....especially since i know some people that didntthere are too many solid applicants applying for a field where there are not enough spots to accomodate them all. the answer to matching is not "tell some funny jokes"....the more urology becomes a desireable surgical speacialty and the more people find out about it...we will continue to see more and more awesome applicants applying....and the down side to this is....there will not be enough room to accomodate them all.25% of reapplicants matched this year...do you explain the fact that they didnt match the first time was because of personality or numbers? you can't, because their numbers and personality proabably didnt change yet they ended up matching this year, which was more competitive than last year....
Totally agree with the above. Not knowing who you guys are who are posting above it's impossible for me to speak to your cases directly, but it definitely seemed like there were a lot of applicants acting excessively guarded this year. Not saying these applicants felt that they were too good (I would hope not, at least, given that we're a Tier 1 by the rankings I've seen on this site), but they definitely weren't letting much personality shine through.Everyone looks good on paper, everyone has research and good boards, so at the end of the day it comes down to being someone who the residents and attendings are going to like spending the next 5-6 years with. Your clinical evals and letters speak to that indirectly (letters moreso, especially if they're from a known entity in the field), but the interview dinner and the interview day itself are really all we have to judge you on. In light of how competitive the match was last year and this year, I would especially recommend to future applicants that you NOT SKIP THE DINNER, as it's probably your best opportunity to make a personality impression. Again, not saying you guys in particular were guilty of this -- the match was competitive enough that some of it came down to arbitrariness, and whether you ranked a program in your top few spots that actually felt the same way about you -- but this was a notably odd part of the cohort this year that was picked up on.
Totally agree with the above. Not knowing who you guys are who are posting above it's impossible for me to speak to your cases directly, but it definitely seemed like there were a lot of applicants acting excessively guarded this year. Not saying these applicants felt that they were too good (I would hope not, at least, given that we're a Tier 1 by the rankings I've seen on this site), but they definitely weren't letting much personality shine through.Everyone looks good on paper, everyone has research and good boards, so at the end of the day it comes down to being someone who the residents and attendings are going to like spending the next 5-6 years with. Your clinical evals and letters speak to that indirectly (letters moreso, especially if they're from a known entity in the field), but the interview dinner and the interview day itself are really all we have to judge you on. In light of how competitive the match was last year and this year, I would especially recommend to future applicants that you NOT SKIP THE DINNER, as it's probably your best opportunity to make a personality impression. Again, not saying you guys in particular were guilty of this -- the match was competitive enough that some of it came down to arbitrariness, and whether you ranked a program in your top few spots that actually felt the same way about you -- but this was a notably odd part of the cohort this year that was picked up on.
i have to disagree with this poster in his 'do not skip the dinner' comment. While its obviously better not to skip the dinner, a lot of people have to miss dinners because of flights and interviews being back to back, and i do not think people should feel that this puts them at a disadvantage at a program. I personally matched at a place where i was not able to make the dinner. if you show enthusiasm about a program during the interview day, and utilize the opportunities given to you to talk with residents during the interview day you can definitely get to know the residents well. Furthermore, not all programs even take the residents' opinions on applicants into account. the idea of possibly skipping an interview at one program just to go to the dinner at another program seems silly.
Totally agree with the above. Not knowing who you guys are who are posting above it's impossible for me to speak to your cases directly, but it definitely seemed like there were a lot of applicants acting excessively guarded this year. Not saying these applicants felt that they were too good (I would hope not, at least, given that we're a Tier 1 by the rankings I've seen on this site), but they definitely weren't letting much personality shine through.Everyone looks good on paper, everyone has research and good boards, so at the end of the day it comes down to being someone who the residents and attendings are going to like spending the next 5-6 years with. Your clinical evals and letters speak to that indirectly (letters moreso, especially if they're from a known entity in the field), but the interview dinner and the interview day itself are really all we have to judge you on. In light of how competitive the match was last year and this year, I would especially recommend to future applicants that you NOT SKIP THE DINNER, as it's probably your best opportunity to make a personality impression. Again, not saying you guys in particular were guilty of this -- the match was competitive enough that some of it came down to arbitrariness, and whether you ranked a program in your top few spots that actually felt the same way about you -- but this was a notably odd part of the cohort this year that was picked up on.
i have to disagree with this poster in his 'do not skip the dinner' comment. While its obviously better not to skip the dinner, a lot of people have to miss dinners because of flights and interviews being back to back, and i do not think people should feel that this puts them at a disadvantage at a program. I personally matched at a place where i was not able to make the dinner. if you show enthusiasm about a program during the interview day, and utilize the opportunities given to you to talk with residents during the interview day you can definitely get to know the residents well. Furthermore, not all programs even take the residents' opinions on applicants into account. the idea of possibly skipping an interview at one program just to go to the dinner at another program seems silly.
Wait until you see it from the other side (see how many applicants you truly remember from interview day itself versus from the dinner the night before). Can you be memorable, of course, but is it easier if you go to the event designed to introduce you to the residents, absolutely. And if a program doesn't even take into account what their own residents think about who they want to work with for the next 5-6 years, that's a heck of a sign about how the program feels about its residents in general.
There are a lot of intangible things that programs look for in an applicant. Being good on paper just gets you an interview. You also need to be a nice person and not malignant. Lot of applicants seemed stand-off-ish this year. Like you were too good for the program. Well, you were too good, and now you have no program. Try relaxing a bit more next year, tell some funny jokes. The interview process is as much about personality as it is numbers.
Totally agree with the above. Not knowing who you guys are who are posting above it's impossible for me to speak to your cases directly, but it definitely seemed like there were a lot of applicants acting excessively guarded this year. Not saying these applicants felt that they were too good (I would hope not, at least, given that we're a Tier 1 by the rankings I've seen on this site), but they definitely weren't letting much personality shine through.Everyone looks good on paper, everyone has research and good boards, so at the end of the day it comes down to being someone who the residents and attendings are going to like spending the next 5-6 years with. Your clinical evals and letters speak to that indirectly (letters moreso, especially if they're from a known entity in the field), but the interview dinner and the interview day itself are really all we have to judge you on. In light of how competitive the match was last year and this year, I would especially recommend to future applicants that you NOT SKIP THE DINNER, as it's probably your best opportunity to make a personality impression. Again, not saying you guys in particular were guilty of this -- the match was competitive enough that some of it came down to arbitrariness, and whether you ranked a program in your top few spots that actually felt the same way about you -- but this was a notably odd part of the cohort this year that was picked up on.
Agree with the above poster.