Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Brief Update

Okay this will have to be brief because I am tired and would like to get some rest but its been a while so I thought I would try and update.

Last week Drew finished up the last week of his first sub-Inter ship. It was pretty similar to his third week other than the fact that he was done on Friday at 4:00p.m.

Since he was in between sub-Is, I went to visit him this weekend and we finalized his personal statement and worked on the application. (I will update about the weekend later). Overall I feel really good about his personal statement. I owe that mostly to the help of another surgeon's wife who has been an absolute angel - she has given us so much advice! I cannot even imagine how much more difficult this process would have been without her words of experience and help.

The way residency applications work is that you submit all your information (personal info, experience, letters of recommendation, transcripts, test scores, personal statement etc.) through ERAS and they submit your application to the programs you wish to apply to. Yesterday was September 1st; the first day to submit your application (you have ERAS send it to the programs). Although most program applications are not due until October 1 or November 1, but with more competitive programs (ENT, radiology, derm, plastics, neurosurgery) it is very important to submit your application as soon as possible. So yesterday we did It. We submitted over 40 applications to programs in the following states: Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, Florida, Texas, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, California, District of Columbia, and Kentucky. The number of programs is so high because 1) most programs only accept 1-2 residents a year and 2) neurosurgery has a 60% match rate. For now I am just going to sit back and wait to see if interview invitations start rolling in, in the next few weeks/months.

I'll try to update on Drew's second sub-Internship later this week!

4 comments:

Mrs T said...

Good luck!!! I get nervous reading your posts about this process!!! My MSIII husband wants ortho more than anything in the world, and while I have no idea how competitive it is, I know it is somewhat competitive....and 40 applications seems crazy?! But I guess it's necessary - - and expensive I presume?!

Unknown said...

Good luck!

Mrs. C. said...

I totally understand how you're feeling. I spent a good part of the weekend and Monday night helping my fiance' perfect his application. Now it's just a waiting process!

Julie @ Bunsen Burner Bakery said...

Good luck! Hopefully you won't have to wait long - my husband starting hearing back about his radiology residency interviews before the end of September. He applied to a lot of places too -- though more because he was aiming for a specific geographical area since we are in a long distance marriage but didn't want to be TOO long distance -- and was shocked to find the number of programs that interviewed him and said that unless he had family/a true tie to the city, they weren't interested in him. So if your husband can come up with some connection to each place (a family member in the area who he wants to live near, a job that you particularly want, etc.) it may help out in the long run!