The Match

[SuzySunshine]

Ah, the match! When we matched last year I had my doubts about my DH's first choice. Location and career choices were my biggest issue but we've now been here for 7 months and are both very happy. The neurosurgery match is tomorrow so my DH is anxious to find out who his new counterparts will be. I wish you all lots of luck and congrats to those that have matched already. My best piece of advice is to not go into the day "positive" you're going to match somewhere because 9 times out of 10 you won't and whether that is good or bad varies.

Good luck!

As of yesterday, dh matched in neurosurgery. It was a rough night the day before yesterday, but we are so relieved that it is over!!

[BonBon]

Shawntelle, that is such wonderful news! You must be so relieved. I'm glad I missed out on that fun with my DH. My nails would have been chewed to nubbins. Are you guys staying in FL?

How's work on the PhD coming?

Congrats to everyone who has matched! :ra:

I remember celebrating the night of the match and it felt like such a huge weight had been lifted off of our shoulders.

Shawntelle, that is such wonderful news! You must be so relieved. I'm glad I missed out on that fun with my DH. My nails would have been chewed to nubbins. Are you guys staying in FL?

How's work on the PhD coming?

We are headed to St. Louis (SLU) from our current location in Nashville. Just a five hour drive. But still a drive from family...

I have told myself that we need to make some good lemonade from all these lemons we are getting.

The Ph.D is going fine. The semester is almost over and I hope to get all As if I get off my butt and finish my papers. I have two more semesters and then I start the super paper.

Job for me in new home?

DH is doing the March match and I am trying to figure out how to look for a job in our new home without knowing for sure where it will be... We may stay where we are (Texas), but that's not number one of the list right now. Is anyone else struggling with this also? I am a new lawyer, so I am expecting to take another bar exam, too.

[SuzySunshine]

tiny_e - looking for a job before you match is really a waste of time unless you're just browsing. My husband was an early match, he found out in January, but I didn't get any serious interest from companies until March/April. I think the best bet is to just start looking as soon as you know.

Good luck!

Unfortunately, luck was not on our side and DH found out a few weeks ago that he didn't match in ENT. This was after 11 interviews! Needless to say, we were both really disappointed. On the bright side, he's been granted an interview at one of the two open scramble spots, so I suppose it isn't over yet. If this spot doesn't work out, we've decided he'll take a year to do more research here where we live now, and try for ENT again next year, concurrently applying for another specialty as a back-up. We're both 30 years old though, and were hoping to get a start on this 5-7 year residency NOW though.

It's amazing how competitive this year's match was, partly due to over 25 people from last year's match who hadn't matched last year getting it on their second try. DH was part of the 23% who didn't match.

I think it was such a shock for me because here I'd spent all these months mentally preparing myself for what I *thought* was a worst case scanario of ending up in one of the places at the bottom of his rank list where I really didn't want to live, and now I'd give my right arm for him to be able to do residency there. I am a big planner, and had spent way too much time on realtor.com and monster.com looking for houses and jobs in several different locations, just scoping things out... I even had a call into our realtor to help get ready to sell our current house. Ah well. Such is life.

We're trying to stay positive now... at least this means another year of me working at a good rewarding job, where they let me work from home with my toddler present a couple days per week. I enjoy the schlep to the office on the days I go in, to be around friends and away from mommy-land for a bit. And we have some amazing friends in this area who we were sad thinking about saying goodbye to... now we get another year here.

[SuzySunshine]

Amy,
That is really hard, while we've been fortunate I know some friends who weren't as fortunate and it really makes you think about what you're doing. I wish you and your husband luck in the scramble if that's what you want.

Good luck!

[Vishenka69]

Good luck to everyone still waiting for the match in March. Ours was 2 years ago and ever since I've been trying to convince DH that getting #6 isn't the worst case scenario.

[Meenah]

I'd pay all of our debts (medical spouse members!!!)
Luanne