when do you hear?

[Cumberland]

So now that the residency application has been in for three or four hours, when will we start hearing back from programs?

I know i am being slightly impatient, but i can wait to figure out where we are going to live for the next four years.

I totally understand!!
I think it varies by specialty....so take this with a grain of salt. For IM, I think we heard in the late October or November time frame (we made a mid-December interview trip together so we had to have about a month notice, I think).
For derm, we started hearing at the beginning of November and he continued to receive offers through the middle of January. The majority of offers fell between Thanksgiving and mid-Dec.

[SuzySunshine]

I totally agree with you - luckily my husband is doing an early match so we hope to start hearing around the end of September and he'll be done with interviews by Christmas. For our friends that are doing March match programs they don't expect to hear until late October!

The wait is killing me too - I TOTALLY understand!

If I remember correctly we had letters of intent for matching within 3-4 weeks, but that was for a DO program.

[SuzySunshine]

What are letters of intent? I don't think the match is done the same way with MD programs, I've never heard that term used.

I think the MD match must be different. Sometimes programs (MD match) send letters around the time the match list is due indicating interest in a candidate -- depends on program, speciality, etc.

Suwanee -- I forgot to mention that there are sometimes regional differences in the times that programs offer interviews. We definitely saw that with derm. So, don't get discouraged if you husband hears of others getting interview offers before he gets many. It really differs between programs and a variety of factors.

I can remember getting emails pretty quickly from the matches. No letters, that I recall.

The DO match and ERAS are two completely different animals and different times of the year which can be good and bad. Bad if you want to match at an MD program, good if you want to know where & what quicker than waiting for the MD matches.

After DH had interviewed, he got a few letters from the places stating their intent to rank him first in the match with kind of an expectation that he would tell them his plans before he ranked them, that way if he was not planning to rank them that they would pass and be able to choose someone else to fill that really wanted to be there. I hope that makes sense.

After DH had interviewed, he got a few letters from the places stating their intent to rank him first in the match with kind of an expectation that he would tell them his plans before he ranked them, that way if he was not planning to rank them that they would pass and be able to choose someone else to fill that really wanted to be there. I hope that makes sense.

This can happen in the MD match too. Programs will send out letters around the time an applicant's match list is due indicating that the program intends to "rank highly" or "rank to match" an applicant. I believe that it is technically "illegal" for a program to pressure an applicant to reveal their rank list. It is OK for the applicant to give that information freely (I think) although I do not advise it. This is a big deal with some specialties and not with others. If you SO doesn't receive a letter from a program post interview or around rank list submission, it certainly does not mean that they won't be ranked highly by a program. These letters cause a lot more pain than they are worth.

BEWARE!! I know of some people who have been really screwed by programs who do this. Some unethical programs will send this letter to more applicants than they have positions open trying to game the system.... And some unethical applicants will try to game the system by telling more than one program that the program is their first choice....

[Auspicious]

BEWARE!! I know of some people who have been really screwed by programs who do this. Some unethical programs will send this letter to more applicants than they have positions open trying to game the system.... And some unethical applicants will try to game the system by telling more than one program that the program is their first choice....

Sooo, bottom line: the applicant is going to get the best result possible for them personally by ranking their programs from "really really want to go there" down to "would be okay with going there," regardless of what a program states or implies, correct? Is there a smarter way to do it?

Sooo, bottom line: the applicant is going to get the best result possible for them personally by ranking their programs from "really really want to go there" down to "would be okay with going there," regardless of what a program states or implies, correct? Is there a smarter way to do it?

Basically, yes. The match algorithm (for ERAS) favors an applicant's preferences over that of the programs. An applicant should rank their first choice as first choice and so on down the line. There are all sorts theories to the contrary (usually generated by nervous applicants ) but I think that ranking on true preference is the way to go.

Actually having to decide what your first, second, third choice, etc is a different story.