I Matched, how can I help someone who didn't?

Introduction

The Monday before Match Day is a chaotic day for 4th year medical students. Many students wait anxiously by their email to find out if they've Matched to a residency position, ultimately knowing if they haven't they'll have to rapid fire applications to unfilled spots before Friday. This can be the worst day of someone's life and certainly one of the most challenging weeks. At the culmination of years of effort, the application process has failed the applicant and they're tasked with scrounging together the pieces to keep their careers alive. It's really not fun.

But, you're likely reading this article because you did Match and you have a weight of guilt about you that's begging you to offer some assistance to your close friends, classmates, or internet strangers. Even if this is as far as you get, thank you for at least checking in. I've decided to write this article to help you help those who didn't Match based on my experience going unmatched, working with literally thousands of other students who also didn't match, and seeing the difference a community can make during this terrible week. Use this article as a field guide and feel free to jump around using the Table of Contents.

Where do I start?

First off, congratulations 🎉 on your Match. You should realize that Matching is not a congruency between being a good doctor; the people you are helping will be as good of doctors as they want to be. Recognize that the Match algorithm is not perfect and is designed to prefer having unmatched applicants rather than blankly assigning them to open positions. This gives the applicants the ability to steer the ship towards whichever land they choose.

Before you can help someone through the SOAP process, you should familiarize yourself with how this whole thing shakes down. If you're interested, I have a sister-article to this one that goes much more in-depth on the nuance of SOAPing, but if you're familiar with the ERAS and NRMP process you should feel right at home reading that article. If you're a non-medical person trying to help out, I recommend you read this article instead, geared much more for family and friends who are not directly familiar with the Match process. Or, you can stay right here and I'll briefly run through it:

Before Monday (Sept - Mar): Applicants have been interviewing with programs and forming a Rank Order List based on their preference of where they'd like to attend
Monday (Mar 17th): NRMP tells applicants IF they Matched to a position. For unmatched, today begins SOAP which involves applying for unfilled positions.
Tuesday (Mar 18th): Residency programs participating in SOAP may extend interviews to unmatched applicants
Wednesday (Mar 19th): SOAP interviews continue
Thursday (Mar 20th): Programs will have 4 rounds to extend offers to unmatched applicants based on the number of spots they have unfilled. Unmatched applicants who receive 1 or more offers may accept 1 offer and are now considered Matched
Friday (Mar 21st): Match Day. NRMP tell applicants WHERE they Matched. SOAP officially is over and the remaining unfilled programs list is available to those who remain unmatched

Get in the right mindset

You need to realize that those who went unmatched could have been 1 spot below you on the program's Rank-Order-List (ROL) and the remainder of their application may be no different than yours. Those who go unmatched are often shocked and surprised to hear they didn't match, while some may have had an inkling for a few months as they maybe didn't receive as many interviews as their peers. Whatever the case, its time to help our peers back up to their feet so they can march ahead.

How can I help?

The most important thing you can do for someone who didn't match is listen to them and hear what they have to say. I'd recommend avoiding opening the firehose of advice on them. My advice to you depends on your relationship with them:

I was worried if I tried to take a nap or cook dinner that I might miss an interview invite. These invites are first come first serve and sometimes the best thing to do is just sit waiting and ready. Most of my interviews had no warning, they would call and hold the interview over the phone right then and there.

I know them personally, and I'm in close proximity

• Offer to bring them food, snacks, and water
• Watch their email/phone while they take a nap
• *Help them sort through available programs and make a list of places to apply to

After I found out I didn’t match, one of my close friends from medical school offered to go on a walk with me and let me vent about the whole process, run ideas by them, and let them know about my plans for getting matched. They ran and grabbed tacos and allowed me to focus on getting my SOAP tasks done.

I know them personally, I'm not very close in proximity right now

• Allow them to open up and vent about this process, they likely want to get some frustration out
• Let them run ideas by you, they may be deciding whether or not to change career paths, specialties, locations, etc. and want to see a plan from another angle

Family members were checking on hospital sites for SOAP Interviews that I had received, helping me vet the locations and come up with a course of action. It was nice knowing I had people to help me through this, even if they weren’t in the same room. I maybe could have done this without them, but it would have been much harder.

I don't know them personally

• Unmatched individuals have a laundry list of tasks dropped on them all at once, you could try helping them by proofreading personal statements, practicing interviewing with a stranger, and listening to their situation

I was amazed by how many people who didn’t know me personally offered to help me. They offered to read my personal statements, help me practice interviewing, or even just lend an ear if I wanted to talk. Additionally, I met other med students who had matched into the field I had applied to, and they were a great resource for checking aspects of my application that I had questions about.

Where can I find people who need help?

A great place to start is by checking in with your local classmates, if you have a shared group chat or Facebook/Discord/etc.. start by offering up your help and services and be sure to keep it anonymous by requesting they DM you. If you‘re still looking to help but aren’t finding anybody this way, don’t worry, there are other places.

You can check on Reddit and Discord, both of which usually have others offering and asking for help. The last two years, SOAPHOPE on Discord housed thousands of med students, residents, family members, etc.. all trying to get through this together. You can join the discord and offer your help here as well.

Am I actually helping?

Yes. It can, at times, seem as though your help is futile, but even the gesture itself can be enough to help those who didn’t match realize that we’re all in this together.

Again, thank you for taking the time to see what you can do to help another.