There will come a time when you have to choose what med school you'll be going to after getting multiple admission offers, or when you'll need to make your rank list for the residency match. This is a save-in-your-back-pocket-for-when-that-time-comes post.
Throwback to late February 2020. It was a few days before final rank lists were due and I was unsettled about the arrangement of my programs. There was one program that checked literally EVERY box in terms of the list of things that I wanted from a program. But I could not bring myself to rank it highly. It seemed like an outright stupid choice because I could not verbalize why I wasn't highly ranking this program that seemed like the perfect program for me. I worried that not ranking them highly would somehow cause me to fall through the cracks and end up unmatched - such a wild thought in retrospect but these worries seem so real in the moment.
The following day, I played musical chairs with my top four programs but still could not bring myself to rank said "perfect program" highly. Afterwards, I decided that I would not make any further changes to the order, and just trust that I'd end up right where I needed to be. Match Day rolled around a few weeks later and I'd matched at one of my top programs and I felt very at peace. Barely gave a thought to the rest of my top programs and life continued. There have been several moments since Match Day when I felt reaffirmed that I'd ended up right where I needed to be.
Just last week, I randomly ran into a former resident of the "perfect program". She also happened to have interviewed me. I immediately blabbered about how perfect I thought their program was, and then tried to make some small talk about how nice folks there seemed. She politely interrupted me and said "Be glad you didn't match with us, it was a toxic program". I was surprised by her candor, and immediately catapulted to the moments in which I was kicking myself in the foot for not ranking that program highly. All I could think was how an unexplainable gut feeling saved me from ending up at a reportedly toxic program.
So for this application cycle, when you get to the point where you need to choose what med school you'll be going to after getting multiple admission offers, or when you need to make your rank list for the residency match, I urge you to trust your gut. Of course, be objective like the scientist that you are, but do not neglect your gut feeling about a place especially if it's not a good feeling. Four years is a long time to be stuck at a med school/ residency program that makes you miserable. All the best as you gear up for this next application cycle.
Kind regards,
Tinu
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