29 unfilled spots is last years match?

[HEME-ONC]

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I was reading on scutwork.com that in the 2004 match 29 positions in Gas were not filled. Does this mean that everyone that applied to Gas matched and there were left over spots.

What does one do if they dont match? Can they find out these programs that go unfilled on the day of the match and get into these unfilled programs. Does this mean that they would be able to pick and choose from the unfilled programs.

How would the program director go about picking applicants to fill his unfilled program. Or are these programs content with the few that barely filled there programs.

I would appreciate it if anyone can answer some of these questions for me.
Thanks

 

[OldManDave]

Actually, it is much more complicated than that. The Match uses some statistical/computer voo-doo to "best match" candidates & programs. For a much better & in depth explanation, please visit the NRMP's website.

Essentially, there were 29 unfilled slots out of a total of just over 1200 available. To my knowledge, to attempt to extrapolate the who's, where's & why's of who did & did not match from these figures is not valid as there any number of scenarios where programs or applicants can cause themselves to go unfilled or unmatched. suffice it to say, that the only valid conclusion you can draw from these figures is exactly what they are - after completion of the match, there remained 29 unfilled slots at various programs.

For the unmatched, again - the NRMP website will do a much better job of explaining the process: those who did not match undergo the scramble. This is where they roost over a phone & fax machine with all of the app materials & beging contacting programs with openings, chatting themselves up on the phone & faxing the be-Jesus out of their app materials in hopes of landing a contract. Part of the match & scramble process is a release of open slots to the unmatched prior to match day - scramble day.

Program Dir: as a general rule, they prefer to have thier programs filled. Unfilled programs, esp if it is consistent year after year, begins to look bad & thereby raises questions in the applicant pool potentially dropping the level of quality of those who appl to the program. Also, if funded slots go unfilled for x-number of years, the funding gods can stop funding those slots. Furthermore, underfilled programs generally makes for less than ideal working/learning environments for the residents & unhappy residents do not make good liaisons with the application public. OTOH, if the PD fills with the bottom of the applicant pool, then the program can still damage their reputation & subsequently their applicant pool. All in all, it is a balancing act for them.

 

[HEME-ONC]

You'll find that the biggest reason for programs to go unfilled and applicants to go unmatched are having ROLs of insufficient lengths. NRMP has some tables and statistics on their site about how the length of an applicant's ROL correlates with their ability to match. The long and short of it is that most people who don't match do not have long enough ROLs. Data essentially points to your ROL having to be anywhere from 5-7 programs long in order to match. Advisors and residency director backed that up for me when I asked. So they said it's typically good to go on 8-10 interviews because then you see enough programs that you can potentially not like anywhere from 3-5 of them and still have a long enough ROL without them.

From the program perspective, it is essentially the same thing, with not ranking enough applicants on their ROL (that's why most programs interview from 8 to 10 times more people than they have positions). Since the bottom dropped out in the mid-90's this led to a situation with there being more spots than applicants in the pool. In situations like that, the algorithm works out more to the advantage of the applicants and less to that of the programs. So, if a program was generally not too attractive to applicants on the whole (whether it be a rep of being malignant, unhappy residents, undesireable location, etc) then it was at a much higher chance to go unfilled even if they interviewed a ton of people and had a long enough ROL. Now, with the numbers of applicants coming up over the years to reach a sort of 1:1 parity the match algorithm will be "fair", or at least will work as it was intended. Now, if the applicant pool size eventually exceeds the number of spots then the advantage shifts in favor of the programs and you have a whole different ballgame than what we've seen over the past few years.

What is an ROL?
Thanks

 

[Krafty]

What is an ROL?
Thanks

It's the list of programs both the applicants and the programs put into the algorithm during the NRMP match.

Also

For number's purposes, last year there were 1289 positions available of which there were at least ~40 spots left unfilled (I'll have to go back and look at my post on this with the actual numbers).

There are more residency spots in anesthesia than in either
1) ER
2) OB

Which is one of the reasons the field has not gotten overly competitive. I do believe the competitiveness for the top programs has gone up.
However matching into anesthesia is more attainable than radiology or the surgical subs.

So all you wusses with "Will I match?" and "What about these numbers?" or "My mommie still breast feeds me, can I get into anesthesia?"

Here's some advice, stop freaking out an apply, you might be very pleasantly surprised.

"do or do not...there is no try."
- Yoda

 

[Krafty]

03-16-2004 - Match stats 1999-present

2004* 2003**
Offered Unfilled Offered Unfilled
Categorical PGY-1 443 29 431 16
Advanced PGY-2 846 60 833 37
Total 1289 89 1264 53
%Filled 93.10 95.81
%Unfilled 6.90 4.19

* Table 10 - Programs, positions ranged and filled in 2003
(All applicants)
** This year's regional match results (from NRMP website)

Also if you look at the Table 6, positions offered and percent filled by us seniors and all applicants 1999-2003 you'll notice an interesting trend

`99 `00 `01 `02 `03 `04
Categorical - 77 - 84 - 90 - 95.7 - 96.3 - 93.4
Advanced - 64 - 78 - 87 - 95 - 95.6 - 93
(percent filled by ALL grads)

So for everyone that's going into the field. It seems this is about the most competitive it might get. The hype is out there, so people think we're on par with rads or optho (at least the jokers I've talked to).

Cheers to the future anesthesiologists, whether you match now, or in the future. Remember the more people in the field ==> better for the specialty.

---
The tabs are kind of messed up - so just extrapolate from the numbers
(2003 - 4% unfilled, 2004 - 7% unfilled).

To all medical students -->
RELAX!

I'll post this in the general forum too. Anesthesia all the way.