When it comes time for programs to rank, what is the most important factor?

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yellowcocopuffs

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When it comes time for programs to rank, in general, what is the most important factor? Is it step 1 scores, step2 scores, honors in rotations, LORs, etc? Or mostly the interview day and the feel they get from you? This question applies to the conventional, less competitive specialties.

Also, if they're discussing and ranking students as they come, then is there any advantage or disadvantage to interviewing at a certain time in the cycle? Or it doesn't matter because they have been doing for so long that they already know where you belong on the ROL?

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When it comes time for programs to rank, in general, what is the most important factor? Is it step 1 scores, step2 scores, honors in rotations, LORs, etc? Or mostly the interview day and the feel they get from you? This question applies to the conventional, less competitive specialties.

Also, if they're discussing and ranking students as they come, then is there any advantage or disadvantage to interviewing at a certain time in the cycle? Or it doesn't matter because they have been doing for so long that they already know where you belong on the ROL?

There's no way to answer for all programs--each one sets its own priorities so it varies by specialty and by programs within specialties. The advice I always give is to not focus on how you think the program is going to rank you since it's the thing you have the least control over. Concentrate on being prepared for your interview, knowing what you are looking for in a program, being pleasant, being observant, making eye contact, maintaining a good energy level, smiling, showing appreciation, etc. Make notes as time allows so you'll remember your impressions of each program (they'll start to run together after a while if you don't). Then rank the programs you visited according to how happy you would be to match there. Trying to second guess where you'll fall on a particular program's rank list will end up making you crazy and/or unhappy.

I can say that I don't believe there is an inherent advantage or disadvantage to interviewing at a certain time. Do well in an early interview, and you've set the bar that other applicants have to surpass. Do well in an end-of-the-season interview and you are fresh in everyone's mind at the rank meeting. Do well in the middle and you'll still be remembered as the applicant we'd love to have. Years ago I tried to determine if there was a pattern, and I came up empty. Over time (and I've been doing this for a while) the distribution of matched applicants by interview date was pretty even across the interview season.
 
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Years ago I tried to determine if there was a pattern, and I came up empty. Over time (and I've been doing this for a while) the distribution of matched applicants by interview date was pretty even across the interview season.
IIRC, aPD did something similar and found the same result.
 
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In my programs, it is always about who fits in with our group and how well they will perform.

I mentioned somewhere else here (for those who may think I'm repeating myself), one of my programs interviewed a candidate who looked great on paper, but turned out to be a jerk. Not one faculty liked the applicant and we rated the applicant 24th out of 25.
 
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In my programs, it is always about who fits in with our group and how well they will perform.

I mentioned somewhere else here (for those who may think I'm repeating myself), one of my programs interviewed a candidate who looked great on paper, but turned out to be a jerk. Not one faculty liked the applicant and we rated the applicant 24th out of 25.

:(
 
I've always thought the PD survey is pretty meaningless. "Interest in an academic career." Probably matters across specialties at Hopkins and not at all at Kaiser programs. As far as "relative importance," my guess is that this is dependent upon your applicant pool. Are you a program that matches mostly low step 1 US grads? Is step one important? No. Is US grad important? Yes. Are you a program who "gets stuck with" all FMGs? Is step 1 important? Yes. Is US MD? No, it's not importance since none of them applied! Other complex factors may apply as well... for example: LORs might be the most important factor in ranking someone low, but not lead to high ranks (since they tend to be inflated). Step 2 might be extremely important but only if you're an IMG or US Sr. with a low step 1; otherwise they might not even care if you send it.

It would be more informative to know: at the quality of program that I am competitive to match, how will different factors contribute to my rank. I think charting outcomes does a slightly better job helping with this. However, the only *real* way to know would be to analyze the relative contribution of different factors to rank lists specifically.
 
Lets be honest guys, what matters the most is your medical school and not so much of your personality. Are you telling me that U.S medical students that have 99% match rate have that great of a personality that programs just love them? Or is it because of the fact that they graduated from U.S medical schools? I think the personality only matters for IMG applicants in my opinion.
 
Lets be honest guys, what matters the most is your medical school and not so much of your personality. Are you telling me that U.S medical students that have 99% match rate have that great of a personality that programs just love them? Or is it because of the fact that they graduated from U.S medical schools? I think the personality only matters for IMG applicants in my opinion.

No. If a US grad is smart, they'll apply to enough programs that someone will click with them. People don't have reservations about US grads because they tend to not have any Ed flags in their application and the program tends to have a track record with students from that school. But to say that personality doesn't matter at all is kidding yourself. There are lots of people who have mediocre scores, but rock the interview and thus match exactly wher they want to. There are people with great scores who no one wants because they don't come off as a team player. Most people tend to fall somewhere in the middle, but not clicking with at least one of your interviewers means that you will be ranked lower on the list.
 
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Lets be honest guys, what matters the most is your medical school and not so much of your personality. Are you telling me that U.S medical students that have 99% match rate have that great of a personality that programs just love them? Or is it because of the fact that they graduated from U.S medical schools? I think the personality only matters for IMG applicants in my opinion.
Well I think med schools factor in but not how you are thinking. Most programs will have had good experiences with grads of some places and bad experience with others. So that impacts or taints impressions of future applicants. PDs aren't looking at schools based on US news or prestige, they are going on personal experiences with residents from prior years. I've seen grads from very prestigious med schools get ranked very poorly or not at all because prior grads from that med school were just not very good, and vice versa.

But outside of that framework somebody has to actually have liked an applicant for them to get ranked highly. I've seen people with amazing stats from amazing schools sink deep into rank lists because they rubbed residents the wrong way. I've also seen people get ranked higher than you'd expect because everyone liked them. So yeah, personality is big.
 
Ranking is a combination of academic success in medical school, personality during interview, and fit (goals, interests, etc) with the program. How much each of these affects ranking will depend on the program. Highly competitive programs get many academically strong applicants, so the latter two aspects may hold more weight. Very small programs may put more weight on a good fit. Larger middle-of-the-road programs may rank primarily by academic success using the other factors as secondary factors. Certainly a poor interview can sink even very competitive candidates. Bottom line is you have no control over this at all, nor is there any way to know how any program will rank. So do your best in medical school, do your best on your interviews, and rank programs in the order you want to go to them. Everything else is noise.
 
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