Friday, February 24, 2006

Phone Tree Day--I Mean, Match Day

Yes, I got a placement.

7 of 10 of our applicants got placed, so our program is now officially up-and-coming in the world of Psych PhDs. I am really surprised at some of the non-placements, who I really thought would place above anyone else, especially me. So who knows what the heck these sites are looking for?!

Of course, I won't know until Monday what site I was matched with, which is maddening.

There is a perfectly logical explanation for why they do it this way, which makes sense every time I have read it, but then when I go away from it, I can't remember its logic at all.

6 comments:

argotnaut said...

Well, DUH! _I_ knew you'd get a match!

Anonymous said...

Looks like my pressing of the thumbs works afterall*.

Congrats!

*disclaimer: this melanie character in no way actually believes that the pressing of her thumbs got dr. lizardo her match.

Tim said...

Congratulations.

Now, here's a question. If you get chosen for a site that you don't want, can you say no? If you can (and did) what would be the down side?

liz said...

Basically, if you would not accept a particular site, then you shouldn't rank it at all.

Confirming your rank list is a binding legal agreement to accept the final determination, so bad things could happen.

You'd be dooming the rejected site to rushing around trying to find a replacement *after* all the choice interns were taken, when you had chance after chance to reject them before the Match.

For one thing, you'd have to do the entire application process over the following year, which is about a 4-month pain in the butt.

AND this time you'd have to select the "YES" box for the application question that asks if you've ever reneged on a site match (other people, such as your clinical training director, have to sign off on your applications, so they would be in hot water about this, too.)

I don't think many sites would still consider you at that point.
It'd be like saying you used to steal from your past jobs all the time, during a job interview. Basically you'd be blacklisting yourself.

argotnaut said...

I know the logical reason for doing it this way -- it's because this program has been designed to torture you from start to finish!

liz said...

That is certainly the functional reason, if not the stated reason.