Preparing for a Successful Match! Go all in, Go all out.

OVERVIEW
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The “Fire and Ice” theory. This is what got me through this long and arduous journey. “Fire” stands for the fire in your belly that drives you to give your very best every day and keep going. “Ice” refers to the ice in your veins that keeps you calm and composed during important and difficult moments.
 
I am an International Medical Graduate and matched into my dream program on my second attempt. Here's a little snippet about my journey and what I did differently the second time around.

My USMLE Journey
I graduated from medical school in 2020. I was scheduled to travel to the US to give my Step 2 CS as well as do 3 months of rotations at university hospitals.

However, due to COVID all of these got canceled. Instead, I decided to get some hands-on work experience in my home country during the midst of the pandemic.

Simultaneously, I also decided to do telerotations to get an understanding of the US healthcare system. To say that the sudden turn of events and uncertainty was overwhelming would be an understatement.

My 1st Attempt
I did everything possible to make my application ready for the match. When I applied for the 2021 match, I had my Step 1 and Step 2 CK scores, OET, was ECFMG certified, had 2 publications, 3 US LORs, all from Telerotations, and 1 home country LOR from my experience working in the COVID wards.

I ended up getting 4 interviews in total. All from community hospitals, out of which one was a pre-match offer. I, unfortunately, didn’t match that year. 

My Journey With Sarthi
At this point, I knew exactly what to do, but in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do. That’s when I decided to speak to Dr. Pawan Khera and we chalked out a detailed plan for the next 7 months.

I was done with Step 3. I did 5 in-person rotations, was able to build a good rapport with my attendings and got strong and personalized LORs from them. After sending out a whole lot of emails, I was able to get an in-person research position which I started once I was done with my rotations.

I also did other things on the side that I was passionate about, like teaching and working as a content creator. I started working on my CV and PS well in advance and by application time, I had my CV and PS reviewed by many people including the Sarthi panel as well as seniors and doctors that I had rotated with.

Since my CV was ready, I was able to reach out to programs before the start of the application season, expressing my interest in their program as well as asking them for feedback regarding my application.

This was immensely helpful because it got my application noticed, with a good number of programs responding to me with feedback or saying that they have made a note of my interest in their program.

Another thing I did during the season was to build connections and reach out to as many people as possible asking for advice, opportunities, and feedback and they were all incredibly supportive and helpful. LinkedIn and Twitter are great platforms for this.

So, to summarize, when I applied this time, I had 4 strong and personalized US LORs, 5 months of hands-on USCE, hands-on research experience, 3 additional publications, and Step 3 completed.

My Achievement:
During the interview season, I continued my program outreach by emailing programs once every 2 to 3 weeks. I also reached out to anyone I knew at a program, senior/ doctor, expressing my interest in their program and requesting an interview opportunity.

Interview Prep:
In total, I managed to get a total of 17 interviews this time. I got a mix of interviews from both university and community hospitals. This was only part of the work done. 

A lot comes down to your interview skills. I worked a lot more on my interview skills this time. I watched all the Sarthi Interview Classes, worked on each question in detail, and made a skeleton answer for each of them. For practice, I took the 2 Sarthi Mock Interviews and also practiced with friends.

All the feedback I received from the Sarthi mentors as well as other applicants was immensely helpful. I compiled all the advice I received and further worked on refining my answers. With each interview, I felt more at ease.

Prior to each interview I would try and reach out to residents at the program to get a better understanding of what the program has to offer.

In addition to this, the virtual open houses that were organized prior to the start of the interview season were immensely helpful in understanding what different programs have to offer and gave me a better understanding of what I’m looking for in a program, and helped me make a more informed decision towards the end of the interview season.

While deciding on my ROL, I spoke to residents and mentors seeking their advice. I took this into consideration along with my interview day experience and used the two to decide on how to rank my programs.

I used a combination of objective and subjective factors, with my interview day experience playing a major role in how I ranked my programs. 

I finally ended up matching into one of my top choices and was thrilled. This was my dream program and had been since the start of my USMLE journey.

In the end, all the hard work paid off and I was glad I decided to give myself a second shot at this.

"I made a plan, stuck to it, and went all out."

To everyone out there who’s on this journey, I’d like to say: believe in yourself, surround yourself with the right people, make a plan, build connections and you’ll be on the right path.

The best thing about the process is that there isn’t one thing that determines whether you’ll match or not but multiple factors. So, don’t let a red flag hold you back.

Let your passion for medicine shine through and give them a peek into your future goals and ambitions. Remember, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Go all in, go all out. 

-- Sarthi Student


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