Derm resident here. Congrats to those who matched! This is a very difficult time for those who did not match, and odds are you won't get in through the SOAP (the unfilled spots are left intentionally unfilled). What you can do right now is figure out what you are going to do NEXT application cycle. Realistically, you will not be able to improve your applications by much between now and during internship year. You will be slammed. If you do a research year, you will only have a few experiences and/or publications to speak of if you apply during that year. Applying next cycle is a risk, but the alternative is delaying reapplication for a few years. I went unmatched and reapplied as an intern with no additions to my application other than a single publication that went from in-process to published during that time. However, I was a pretty solid applicant and my mentors were all surprised I didn't match. Right now you need to be realistic. If you were the 230's, 1 case report, HP/P student, this might not be a realistic goal for you. If you are by all means competitive, then take a week and blow off steam but get right back to the grind. |--> Sorry but that's just not true, if one were to do a research fellowship, I mean there is a limit, but being in the 230s and doing a good research fellowship helps.
what do you mean "intentionally unfilled"? wtf <- Yea, this is confusing and also offers false hope. I was a very good applicant that didn't match and didn't sniff one of the soap spots that year. Then, I found out that most of these are because the program got an extra spot, found their person before the match, but had to go through NRMP and purposefully didn't rank anybody and just took their selected resident after the match. This is called "going outside the match." That is also how I got my current residency position. Interviewed in January and the program took me so I withdrew from the match (though I had interviewed several other places) and signed a few weeks later with them. Not all soap spots are like that, but the year I didn't match, both were. Sorry, guys :/ I ok thank you for clarifying, so how many years off total is it if I reapply as a intern (prelim + up to 1 year with nothing to do right?) or as a research fellow? (Sorry confused and lacking sleep)
I did an intern year and focused on getting a good fellowship. I applied for 2 out of the match physician spots during intern year I did not get (had I gotten one, it would have been 0 years extra). I then got a productive fellowship and got the physician-only spot in January that began that June (1 extra year). Had I stayed in the match I could've matched at a few physician positions (again, 1 year extra) or advanced positions (2 extra years). If you really want to do derm, get cracking on finding a great fellowship and do great work. There are lots of opportunities that come up along the way, but they usually go to people that are dedicated to the field and are in fellowships.