The Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP)

SOAP is highly competitive and requires an applicant to be readily available to interview with programs and respond to offers. The SOAP process can be broken up into 3 phases and occurs over the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). The first phase is the application. The list of unfilled programs will be released at the same time applicants learn whether or not they matched. Applicants will then have an hour to research programs until ERAS opens and applications can be submitted. Programs do not look for new candidates after the first round of offers so it is generally recommended to use all 45 allotted applications at once. The second phase is interviews. After submitting their applications, the candidate waits for programs to reach out for interviews which typically occur over the phone or on Zoom. Programs can reach out at any time and may do so without warning so it is vital for applicants to be vigilant. This interview period lasts for 2 days so applicants have a short period of time to prepare for these interviews. Applicants should be ready for difficult and high stakes interviews. Programs have been known to ask applicants difficult questions such as why they think they did not match. Thinking about these questions beforehand can help applicants be prepared and avoid getting flustered. The third phase is the offer rounds. Every 2-hour round, applicants receive and then accept or reject offers. Rounds are separated by a 1 hour break. Typically a majority of positions are filled in the first round and fewer positions remain available each subsequent round. As a general rule, if an applicant receives an acceptable offer, they should take it as the odds only decrease every round. Offers will expire at the end of each 2 hour round, so being on ERAS at this time is a necessity. After the final round, a list of unfilled programs will be released and unmatched applicants can contact programs directly to try and fill the remaining positions.