Countdown to Match Day

[Heisencat]

With 21 days left until Match Day, I thought it would be helpful to have a little support thread! 

How are you guys passing your time? Where are you hoping to end up next year? How’s the ranking process going? 

I find myself ranking based on location and although all the programs I interviewed at were decent-excellent, I only really want to live in the cities of my top 3-4 choices! 

I find this waiting period to be so agonizing haha. In only three weeks we get to find out where we spend the next 2-5 years. 

[PolkaDoots]

Spending my time on the worlds most boring elective. Hoping to end up anywhere I can match with my partner. Ranked some 200 couples combinations this week. For us, it's mostly about location too, obviously. But if I was ranking solo my top 5 would have looked very different!

[jlkhhylyiluh6]

.

[MDLaval]

Best of luck, folks. Time will really fly by. I wish you all have a positive match result and get the discipline/program of your choice.  

[NeuroD]

 

[Thunderbirds]

I agree about location. We all focus on the nitty-gritty details about each program, but at the end of the day, when it comes to ROL for most of us, it ends up being about location. There are many programs (eg. Ottawa, Queen's, Halifax) that I like a lot, but not ranking in top 3 because I don't have the desire to move out East. 

I feel OK/confident one hour, then next hour I worry about being unmatched haha. I doubt I will be able to sleep the night before. 

[shematoma]

1 hour ago, Thunderbirds said:

I agree about location. We all focus on the nitty-gritty details about each program, but at the end of the day, when it comes to ROL for most of us, it ends up being about location. There are many programs (eg. Ottawa, Queen's, Halifax) that I like a lot, but not ranking in top 3 because I don't have the desire to move out East. 

I feel OK/confident one hour, then next hour I worry about being unmatched haha. I doubt I will be able to sleep the night before. 

Benzos are your friend

[Heisencat]

On 2/5/2019 at 6:09 PM, beeboop said:

just being a nervous old wreck until match day haha. Also applied for psych, broadly (10 interviews in total), no horrible interviews but just sort of feel ok-good with all of them. Seems like there were SO many people at each interview day, and so many great people i wonder how psych will shake out. Best of luck to all!

I feel the same way! And true, there were sooo many candidates for all programs, it’s hard to imagine how they distinguish between us. 

On 2/8/2019 at 9:58 PM, Thunderbirds said:

I agree about location. We all focus on the nitty-gritty details about each program, but at the end of the day, when it comes to ROL for most of us, it ends up being about location. There are many programs (eg. Ottawa, Queen's, Halifax) that I like a lot, but not ranking in top 3 because I don't have the desire to move out East. 

I feel OK/confident one hour, then next hour I worry about being unmatched haha. I doubt I will be able to sleep the night before. 

And now we have the option of knowing the day before regarding unmatched status. I opted in for that and am hoping it will help me sleep better the night before if all goes well :p 

[adrenergic24]

5 hours ago, Heisencat said:

And now we have the option of knowing the day before regarding unmatched status.

If you don't mind me asking, how can we opt for this? I don't see an option on my CaRMS account.

[RichardHammond]

24 minutes ago, adrenergic24 said:

If you don't mind me asking, how can we opt for this? I don't see an option on my CaRMS account.

My application > Match Participation > scroll to the bottom to the section titled "Advanced release of unmatched status - Applicant Consent"

It's only available to CMG applicants though.

[adrenergic24]

Thanks a lot!

[PolkaDoots]

22 hours ago, Heisencat said:

I feel the same way! And true, there were sooo many candidates for all programs, it’s hard to imagine how they distinguish between us. 

And now we have the option of knowing the day before regarding unmatched status. I opted in for that and am hoping it will help me sleep better the night before if all goes well :p 

Depends on your school. Mine said they won't tell us even though they will know because "you don't have time off until Tuesday at 11 am, so you would be required to be present and working on Monday we dont wanna tell you a day in advance because you wont be able to focus that day, and also you wont be able to do much meaningful planning that one day anyway"

[klamar]

13 hours ago, PolkaDoots said:

Depends on your school. Mine said they won't tell us even though they will know because "you don't have time off until Tuesday at 11 am, so you would be required to be present and working on Monday we dont wanna tell you a day in advance because you wont be able to focus that day, and also you wont be able to do much meaningful planning that one day anyway"

nice

[NeuroD]

16 hours ago, PolkaDoots said:

Depends on your school. Mine said they won't tell us even though they will know because "you don't have time off until Tuesday at 11 am, so you would be required to be present and working on Monday we dont wanna tell you a day in advance because you wont be able to focus that day, and also you wont be able to do much meaningful planning that one day anyway"

To be fair...this makes sense. Having to be on duty while you secretly know that you didn't match seems like a terrible idea that wasn't those that out.

My school has created a complicated back system to address it. You sign up on Carms, the  u email the school to tell them you don't want to know until it's time....I think the whole thing is silly. What's the point of that extra day.

[PolkaDoots]

2 hours ago, PhD2MD said:

To be fair...this makes sense. Having to be on duty while you secretly know that you didn't match seems like a terrible idea that wasn't those that out.

My school has created a complicated back system to address it. You sign up on Carms, the  u email the school to tell them you don't want to know until it's time....I think the whole thing is silly. What's the point of that extra day.

Or if you didnt match they could just email you Monday and give you Monday/Tuesday off. Were done core rotations everyone is just on post carms electives that are chosen specifically to be the least amount of work possible

[NeuroD]

1 hour ago, PolkaDoots said:

Or if you didnt match they could just email you Monday and give you Monday/Tuesday off. Were done core rotations everyone is just on post carms electives that are chosen specifically to be the least amount of work possible

Well...most of us anyways. Mac is different of course :P. I wonder if anyone else is to. My stream in particular will be in the middle of gen surg, haha.

[rmorelan]

20 hours ago, PolkaDoots said:

Depends on your school. Mine said they won't tell us even though they will know because "you don't have time off until Tuesday at 11 am, so you would be required to be present and working on Monday we dont wanna tell you a day in advance because you wont be able to focus that day, and also you wont be able to do much meaningful planning that one day anyway"

more than focus though - I mean schools often have a LOT of support set up in advance for people that don't match because it is just such a blow. Having people randomly finding out the they didn't match all over the place can be difficult. That is of course highly variable but that was one of the reasons the schools wanted to control it. 

Plus you really cannot plan much until you know what is left over and the ideally when your school gears up to help you. 

No perfect answers of course. 

[Heisencat]

Our school told us they will inform us on Monday afternoon and then we can take the afternoon off if we get the email. And we’re all done core rotations and are doing selectives. I guess the point is to provide us with more support but I opted in because I want that peace of mind the night before. 

On second thought, I think I’m might end up opting out. I know I’ll be stressing out on Monday just anticipating that email. And at least on Tuesday you can find out in the privacy of your home that you didn’t match and cry in peace haha. 

[jlkhhylyiluh6]

welp, thats it. applicant ROL deadline past, program ROL deadline past last week. CaRMS is probably warming up the algorithim as we speak. See everyone on the other side

[jigglypuff]

I really don't get why we have a 2-week window between submitting the ROL and finding out the match results. Pure torture. 

 

[PurpleS]

33 minutes ago, jigglypuff said:

I really don't get why we have a 2-week window between submitting the ROL and finding out the match results. Pure torture. 

 

Would rather wait so they can double and triple check the results rather than have it sooner and for it to be wrong. Can't imagine the couples match being easy to run haha.

[jlkhhylyiluh6]

6 hours ago, PurpleS said:

Would rather wait so they can double and triple check the results rather than have it sooner and for it to be wrong. Can't imagine the couples match being easy to run haha.

I mean its a computer program, theres no "easy" or 'hard" run since theyre just pressing a button...unless you feel bad for the computer? 

Reminds of the scene in The Office when Michael Scott asks the accountant (who just told him the michael scott paper company was bankrupt) to "crunch those numbers again". And then he just stares at him and says "its an excel spreadsheet, theres really no calculations im doing..."

[jigglypuff]

15 minutes ago, beeboop said:

I mean its a computer program, theres no "easy" or 'hard" run since theyre just pressing a button...unless you feel bad for the computer? 

Reminds of the scene in The Office when Michael Scott asks the accountant (who just told him the michael scott paper company was bankrupt) to "crunch those numbers again". And then he just stares at him and says "its an excel spreadsheet, theres really no calculations im doing..."

Haha maybe that's what I should do.. re-watch The Office.. it helped my anxiety for almost 2 seconds  

[PurpleS]

1 hour ago, beeboop said:

I mean its a computer program, theres no "easy" or 'hard" run since theyre just pressing a button...unless you feel bad for the computer? 

Reminds of the scene in The Office when Michael Scott asks the accountant (who just told him the michael scott paper company was bankrupt) to "crunch those numbers again". And then he just stares at him and says "its an excel spreadsheet, theres really no calculations im doing..."

I'd still hope they double check things. Imagine if they made a mistake and had to change everyone's match results... People make mistakes on codes and Excel all the time.

[NeuroD]

3 minutes ago, PurpleS said:

I'd still hope they double check things. Imagine if they made a mistake and had to change everyone's match results... People make mistakes on codes and Excel all the time.

Possibly haha...but I doubt there is anyone manually inputting any codes or doing anything, it's likely all automated.

Most likely just automatically takes the data that's input to their website from all parties and runs it thru the same code every year. There probably isn't anything to "double check". Although perhaps they give themselves this time to do a couple manual simulations just to be able to tell everyone that they do QC lol and therefore are worth the many millions they make every year.