In this issue:
- Action Required: MATCH/SOAP Planning Survey
- NRMP Rank List Deadline Reminder
- Action Needed: Release for Public Match Results
- American College of Rheumatology program for medical student
Action Required by Feb. 23: Match/SOAP Planning Survey
All graduating 2025 students (including the early matches and December 2024 graduates) must fill out the Match/SOAP planning survey before 11:45pm PT on Sunday, February 23. This survey includes an RSVP to the school-hosted match ceremonies and some required SOAP-related questions. Because of the nature of this event, we must have an RSVP from everyone so we can accurately account for all yes’s and all no’s. The SOAP-related information will only be used in the event you end up needing it, and is for you, your career advisor, and Student Affairs’ reference only. The match information will be used by Student Affairs to send match results packaging and information to sites for their event planning. Reminders will be sent to all students who have not completed the survey.
NRMP Rank List Deadline Reminder
The rank list deadline closes at 6pm PT on March 5. You must certify and submit your rank list in order for it to be considered complete. Do not wait until the last minute on March 5 to certify and submit your lists – the system has been known to slow down as more people access it, and that 6pm PT deadline is FIRM. Be sure to submit early!
Action Needed: Release for Public Match Results
The University of Washington considers match results to be FERPA protected. Therefore, only de-identified, aggregate match results are shared with the class, the broader School of Medicine community, and the public. Due to student and faculty demand, the School of Medicine has created a publicly available, identified match list, which will include matched students’ names, specialties, residency programs, cities, and states. Your information will only be included if you choose to opt-in*. You can choose to opt in or out at any time before or after Match Day via the following link: https://forms.office.com/r/Bxf1y3jUTp.
Changes in opt in/out status will take 1 business day to process (so changes made on Friday would be reflected the following Monday). More information about where the public match list will be located and how to access it will be provided closer to match day when we have more information from IT and the web teams.
*If you don’t want your information shared, please still complete the form stating that you are opting out – IT would like this information to determine future support/development of this report. They have stated it’s helpful to know if someone is actively choosing not to share their information vs if someone is just forgetting to fill out the form.
SOAP Prep Presentation
If you were not able to attend Monday’s SOAP Prep Session and are interested, the recording is now available for your viewing. The slide deck for this session is also linked here: SOAP Prep Session for Students
This session was hosted by the Specialty Career Advisors in General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Family Medicine with Student Affairs and Career Advising. If you want to talk further about SOAP prep, please schedule an appointment with Career Advising.
Before we get into information to help prep for SOAP… a note to all students: UWSOM will verify your graduation status in NRMP the week of February 24. There is NOTHING you need to do to ensure this process will happen.
The AAMC and ERAS announced an upcoming MyERAS SOAP Q&A Session. This interactive webinar will take place on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 10am PT. Click here to register if your contingency plan includes applying to unfilled programs in ERAS.
Here are your advisor’s suggestions on Common Mistakes Students Make related to SOAP:
- Not listening to this video and thus not being prepared ahead of time. This includes emotional preparation as well as document preparation (Personal Statement, LoRs and transcripts).
- If you would consider applying to multiple specialties in SOAP, prepare Personal Statements and secure Letters of Recommendations for all possible specialties in advance.
- If you and your Specialty or Career Advisor decide it’s to your benefit to update your transcript as part of preparing for a SOAP application, please order your updated transcript and submit it to Sarah Wood, sewood@uw.edu, by end of day on Wednesday, March 12. This will ensure she can upload into your preferred application systems before March 17.
- Students who successfully navigate SOAP are the ones who emotionally processed leading up to and during SOAP Week. Take the time you need over these next few weeks to reflect on what could be meaningful career paths if you find out you need to pivot to a contingency plan.
- Don’t be located away from your home base the week of March 17-20. Have reliable internet connectivity and phone service, and identify a quiet location from which you could conduct virtual interviews. Have interview clothes ready to go and with you.
- Not identifying a personal support plan: who in your life can be there to support you, make sure you eat/stay hydrate/exercise, as well as attend to tasks such as emails/picking up phone calls on your behalf if you need a break?
- Don’t make decisions without first talking to advisors (i.e. not participating in SOAP or expanding your medical education)
More information about SOAP can be found on the Career Advising SOAP webpage and you can email us with questions. Career Advising is here to support you.
Project LEAD is now recruiting!
With the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) efforts to advance the diversification of the rheumatology pipeline and workforce, the ACR Collaborative Initiatives (COIN) has joined forces with the Rheumatology Research Foundation to launch the 2025 version of its initiative known as “Leadership Education and Development of Underrepresented Medical Students” or Project LEAD.
The primary objective of Project LEAD is to engage and educate medical students from underrepresented backgrounds.
This will be achieved through a series of 3-4 virtual roundtable discussions, focusing on the field of rheumatology, the requirements for rheumatology training and practice, and related topics.
Please assist in our outreach efforts and send this opportunity to current medical students and/or medical professionals/programs within your network.
Students may use the following link for more information and apply to the 2025 cohort.
https://rheumatology.org/project-lead
The deadline is February 21, 2025, with a projected cohort launch in March 2025.
Should you have additional questions, please contact Chambree’ Harris at charris@rheumatology.org.
ICYMI: Here is the previous issue of the student newsletter for MS4s.
Have a wonderful week!