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Anyone applying DR this cycle with step1 230s, how are you doing?
Hi all,
I am a DO applicant with step 1 236 and step2 237. I applied broadly with a lot of community hospitals and low/mid tier academic programs. And I got only 1 DR invite so far. I never expected this and I don’t have red flags since I got 8 prelim/TY. My friend from the same school with the same score (236 and 242) also got only 1 DR invite as of now. I don’t know if the invitations are super slow since the application volumes are so high or I am almost done for this cycle.
I see people with stellar stats are doing well in terms of invites, but how about applicants with 230s? Can you share your invites if you belong to 230s like me? Thank you so much.. -
9 Replies
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230s + DO is probably what’s hurting you. One or the other might not have been as much of an issue.
That said, its an atypical cycle and things will probably be a little slow as well and people will keep canceling interviews so don’t lose hope. In any case as long as you match a PGY-1 spot you can apply again without losing time. Good luck.-
In 2020 charting outcome, 41/42 DO applicants with the similar score as me matched into DR. So I thought my score isn’t a problem. I don’t know if people will cancel interviews since it’s virtual so everyone will just attend.. :/
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Are you from a new or lesser known school? Any reason to suspect you had weak letters or limited radiology exposure?
Honestly the chances are also that many people just overapplied this year compared to last year after seeing the bloodbath. I know some people who are already talking about canceling interviews, at a certain point you get burnout and people will cancel locations that they are less likely to rank high. I wouldn’t lose hope, it’s not super late yet. That said, I think that preparing for the worst is not a bad idea just to cover your bases. Sounds like hopefully you should at least get a prelim position with your interviews.-
It is a well established DO school. I don’t suspect any weak letters. I just received an email from my school that about 6-7 students in my school applied to DR with similar scores as me and they all got <4 invites so far. I think I will get a prelim position at least. I am just so sad that I never imagined I would be unmatched for my advanced spot.
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I’m sorry you have to deal with this in one of the more unpredictable cycles for sure. But the game isn’t over. If interviews are this asymmetric to the top then I’d expect a good amount of spots open in the SOAP as well.
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You should be contacting programs for invites. If you wait on the sidelines, you will be overlooked. Start emailing or calling programs you feel are reasonable to match at with your application (be honest with yourself). Also, you have to start looking at how many interviews those matched DO applicants had and how many programs they ranked. Just having a certain score doesn’t guarantee anything – you need to have interviews in order to rank programs.
I was a DO applicant (240s/260s) who matched into a great program, but I had to hustle when invites went out, and I didn’t hear from the programs I felt I should be hearing from. Something as simple as that could be the difference between matching and not. This is your future and your education, take ownership and start making things happen. -
Quote from TTL
I’m sorry you have to deal with this in one of the more unpredictable cycles for sure. But the game isn’t over. If interviews are this asymmetric to the top then I’d expect a good amount of spots open in the SOAP as well.
exactly. +1
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Im an r4 at a low/mid academic program. Past chief(we do ours in our r3), now currently esir chief, passed core on first attempt and matched ir. I do not want to be the bearer of bad news. Ive been on the rank committee for 2, will be 3 years now. There has been significant board creep over the last 4-5 years. Scores that used to get you 30 interviews may only get you 5-10 now. I can confirm that our program is getting applications with people in the 260s, our pd and chairman think we may have a shot at a few of them.
That being said. DONT EVER GIVE UP. Like other posts have said, hustle. Call and email programs, especially close to where you go to school/are from originally. Try to get some really quick publications in radiology, try car case in point,( a day or twos work after getting a case) and then emailing programs telling them that you wanted to update them because you’re highly interested in their program, be specific. look up the programs and come up with a few reasons why specifically that program.
another thing that goes overlooked- look at your letter writers. If you only have one from a rad you need to get more. Honestly nothing pisses me off more that people with one letter of rec from a rad and two or three from other random services. I don’t need to know why your family medicine preceptor thinks you would do in radiology or why they think you deserve to get a spot. Little things like this add up.
Believe it or not, there’s often fierce debate at rank committee meetings over the smallest of details.
sorry for the bad grammar etc. Im on night float and got hammered last night but wanted to offer you some insight and provide some advice. dm me if you’d like and we can talk further and more in detail.
good luck everyone.-
hard disagree on LOR also from someone on ranking committee.
I guess slightly diff for IR but it’s pretty impossible to know someone will be a good DR as a med student, unless you have some kind of thing where students can dictate themselves or some vastly atypical situation than majority of student experiences.
In reality, watching DR is incredibly boring and way different than controlling things yourself.
I would way rather hear a surgeon say the person tore up their rotation and they wished they could talk the person into surgery than 3 DR attendings say they sat next to me well while I said there was bibasilar atelectasis or pneumonia. Obviously you want rads letters but I don’t really put much stock in them especially from a DR standpoint, more so for IR though for sure. I always look for statements in letters like ” xyz is in the top 5% of students I worked with or whatever”
For DR it’s pretty impossible to make those kinds of statements, but you definitely can in surgery/medicine or any of the other core rotations.
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