Thick Envelope - third communication

I arrived home today to a very thick envelope from UAB. Enclosed was a cover letter acknowledging receipt of my application. It also said that they are going to wait until after Jan 1 to offer interviews. There is a copy of the curriculum for plastic surgery residents, a policy and procedure book and a handout from the GME at UAB. There was also a sheet listing salaries.

It wasn't quite the thick envelope I was hoping for but it sure is a lot better than a rejection! Plus it will give me something to read later.

Vacation next week

I am about to take a week of vacation. I'm going to visit some relatives and my wife is going to a baby shower. I will spend the second half of next week camping on a lake. I do that every year and I look forward to it all year long. So there probably won't be any entries from me for a while.

I have finished my snooping efforts for a while. I think I have gathered about as much info on each program as I can without actually visiting. Some of the websites had been updated since the last time I checked but not many. You would be surprised the kinds of things that you can learn about a program if you really dig. For instance there are several programs on probation but you would never know it from their sites. Several programs have a habit of taking people from their own general surgery programs. Unless you really dig it is hard to figure out which ones beyond just listening to rumors. It is also really important to contact people that you know from the various places, even if they are not in the plastics programs. They will often have more valid information and perspective than you will be able to get elsewhere. I try to keep track of what I find in a notebook. I have decided not to post that information here. Some of it could be damaging, and the last thing I want to do is write something negative down that will be on the internet forever. Sooner or later the problems will go away but this site will be here forever. Besides, the nitty gritty is really only relevant to this year's match. If I can figure stuff out about different programs then certainly everyone else can as well. I am not that clever.

I will post interview dates for different programs as I hear of them. I found out that UT-Chat is holding interviews on Saturday March 12th and Saturday April 9th. They won't be offering interviews until early January. Anyway thats it for now. Good luck!

Second communication from a program

Ahh yes,
I knew it would come. I got the thanks but no thanks letter from Tulane. Apparently I am not in the elite group of applicants who will be interviewing there. Here is the meat of the letter:

"It is our desire that each applicant train in the program best suited to his or her needs. Therefore, after careful consideration, we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you an interview."

I wish I had gotten an offer before a rejection but thats the way it goes. It was good of them to let me know and not just flush the application. Its not like this is the first rejection letter I have had in my life and things have turned out just fine so far. Best of luck to those who are interviewing at Tulane.

More snooping.

I have been doing some more advanced snooping into the various programs. I have been talking to friends who are at the institutions when possible. I have also been trying to figure out who the faculty are at each place, where they came from etc. Another important thing I am trying to figure out is where they get their residents from. If I can figure out those places that historically only take people from their program or from a certain geographic region or from certain schools then I will avoid them if I don't fit the profile. Who wants to spend 3-5 hundred dollars to interview somewhere that has never taken anyone but graduates from their general surgery program? Not only is this about matching, it is about limited time and resources. There are only so many weekends between January (when most programs start offering interviews) and match day. I only have a little bit of money as well, so that complicates things even further. There is much work left to do before I have my chances optimized.

Moving along in the season.

It seems that the combined/integrated interview season is about to bloom. So far I have heard of interview offers at Loma Linda, UCSF, Kentucky, Southern Illinois University and Cincinnati. I haven't heard of any interview offers for independant (fellowship) spots yet. A couple more weeks and we'll be in November!

Absite Killer Guy Found

Someone sent me a link to the practice of the guy who wrote the Absite Killer. Here he is:
Absite Killer Author's Site

First Communication from a Program!!!

I got my first communication from a program yesterday. It wasn't an interview offer or a thanks-but-no-thanks letter. It was a postcard from Vanderbilt that said:

"This will acknowledge receipt of your application packet for the 2006 plastic surgery match on October 4, 2004"

It was signed by R. Bruce Shack, M.D. Professor and Chairman. Both my wife and I thought it was very nice of them to send a card. This is especially true because they probably get over 200 applications.

Absite Stuff

I have been getting a fair number of requests for advice concerning the absite. The single most useful study guide for the ABSITE that I have seen is the Absite Killer. It is like 20 pages and it WILL raise your scores dramatically. It was put together buy a surgery resident who wrote down all the info that he could remember from the exam every year. At the end of residency he put it all into a book and sold it for $20. I have been unable to find his address to order more copies, and my copy was stolen from my filing drawer. When I was studying the Absite Killer the first time I typed it all in to Microsoft Word, so I have an electronic copy of it. I wish I could find the guy, because the book is worth 10 times the price for how much it will raise your scores. I have seen people go from 25% to 85% after reading the Absite Killer.

The other thing I read and that I find helpful is a book called Pass the Absite. It has very high yield information and is small enough to fit in your pocket. You can click on the link and it will take you to Amazon.com. They have it as cheap as I have seen it anywhere.

The third resource I use is the Michigan State Review for the Absite. You can purchase it through this link:
Michigan State Review for the Absite.

I also do questions from the SESAP review. Using these resources I have been able to score pretty well with manageable effort.

The Golden Ratio and Proportions of Beauty

It turns out I was right. There is an letter on page 1009 (volume 114, number 4) of PRS about the number Phi (1.618) and its relation to various ratios expressed in the human body. The author's point was that we should keep those ratios in mind to help guide the decision making process. There are 3 references listed, mostly in French and Greek. I will have to search pubmed to see if there are any other references when I get some spare time. It is an interesting concept to say the least.

One last confession

The other thing I read today was the first few chapters of the Da Vinci Code. I got to the whole point where they were talking about Phi and the number 1.618. Can you say freaky? It seems like there was an article in the back of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery that was talking about the ratio of various human proportions being in the ratio of 0.618 to 1. I will have to read the article a little closer.

Slow day

Its a slow day in the OR, so I have mostly just been in the library reading for the absite. I have to confess that I walked by the journal rack and I just couldn't help picking up Plastic and Reconstructive surgery. I only read one article and the editorial, honest. I know I am supposed to be reading general surgery, but hey, it was a moment of weakness.

Big news for my program.

My program switched program directors yesterday. I am not sure how that will affect things. We had to list our program director on our applications etc, and get the program director to write a letter. I guess I will have to let places that offer me an interview know who the new guy is and give them his phone number etc.

Today I also talked to one of the guys who was a plastics fellow when I was an intern. I am doing a rotation out in the private sector and he does some cases in the surgi-center. We talked about the programs that he interviewed at and some of his impressions from each place. He basically confirmed some of the things that I had heard previously. He did have one interesting point though - and that is that at least in years past if you went to 12 interviews you were almost sure to match. I am not sure how that number changes given the recent surge in number of applications vs. number of spots, but I am sure it has to be somewhere around there. How in God's name would you even have time or resources to do any more than 12? Another thing he mentioned was that he didn't remember exactly when he started getting interviews, but that he remembers it being late fall/early winter. So to me that translates late November, and December should be the early times to start hearing.

I guess Cincinnati sent emails to offer interviews to medical students. I remember that all but a few of my interview offers for general surgery came through email. That is by far the easiest and quickest way to communicate for me. Well thats it for now.

Reading for plastics

I have been gearing up for the absite again this year. If anyone wants some good study guides let me know by email and I'll send them to you. I've been doing a few years of the Michigan State Review for the absite every year and this thing called absite killer. All I can say is its high yield stuff, easy money.

My reading for plastics has thus taken a little hit. I have to consider it pleasure reading at this point, because let me tell you, it is shear pleasure. I have been reading Grabb and Smith. I put a link to it on amazon at the right of the page. I talked to a few of the fellows and a couple plastic surgery attendings and that was the book they recommended as a good starting point. It gives a really good overview of each area of plastic surgery. I am about a third of the way through it right now. It is really easy reading compared to a lot of the GS texts. I would put it on par with the new Sabiston's. Lots of pictures.

If (crossing fingers now) I match into a fellowship the next book I will get is Operative Plastic Surgery. I also put a link to it at the right of the page. It is supposed to be the plastic surgery equivalent of Mastery of Surgery.

Also if I match I will get plastic surgery secrets. I see a lot of fellows carrying that around as good reading in between cases. It fits nicely into a pocket as well. I'll add a link to that when I go to buy it.

As far as interviews go I haven't heard anything yet. I don't really expect to for a while. I was talking to some of the fellows and they remembered first hearing things in December for January interviews. Just a couple more months. Hopefully October will go by as fast as September did.

Cincinnati

On September 30th, Cincinnati offered interviews to a few of the medical students applying for plastics. The dates that they are interviewing medical students are all on a Wed. November 24th, December 15th and January 5th. As you know they are offering a fellowship spot this year. It is a 2 year program. It says on their website that they recently reinstituted the independant tract at Cincinnati. I think they are only offering 1 spot.

Added search function

I added google searching to the top of the page, so if you can't find something on the site or one of the links is out of date you can just find it using the search bar.

Details on the 2 new programs

As it turns out, UMDNJ - Camden was the one that dropped earlier but is now back. I'm not sure why. It is fully accredited and is 2 years in length with one spot.

The UT - Medical branch program is in Galveston. They are traditionally an integrated program but I think someone must have dropped out. I am not sure what the number of years of training would be, or how many spots are being offered here, but probably only 1.

I updated the links to the right of the page.

2 new programs

There are 2 new programs:
UMDNJ
University of Texas, Medical Branch. I don't know anything about them yet, but I will look into it and post the info soon.