5 more scramble spots for psych over last year

[americanidiot]

I know this is hardly statistically significant but I was interested to see that there were 11 spots available for last year's scramble in psychiatry as opposed to the 16 for this year.

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[TexasPhysician]

Anybody know where they are?

 

[kev2180]

Its just a regional spread so far. Also, last year, i think only 3 spots out of 11 were "real spots". So those 16 could be very deceiving.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Anybody know where they are?

You can find the regional breakdown at the NRMP site under "My Reports." Only 1 in the west, with the bulk being central and south. I don't think people will know the programs until tomorrow, and then only the people who didn't match.

I don't think the 5 is statistically significant. Most likely, things are about the same as last year.

 

[psychotrope]

Its just a regional spread so far. Also, last year, i think only 3 spots out of 11 were "real spots". So those 16 could be very deceiving.

plus, evaluating the competitiveness(or even trends) by looking at raw numbers of unfilled slots is dicey.

Obviously a super-competitive field isn't going to have 60 unfilled slots or whatever, but EM and anesthesia are both "mid-level" competitiveness I would say based on board scores, %AOA, etc.....and for the last two years now I believe they've had more open slots than psych. Obviously nobody would argue psychiatry is midlevel competitive like anesthesia.

Likewise general surgery I would say is also mid-level competitiveness, but for the last few years there have been virtually no categorical general surgery positions. There are like what....2-3 this year and there were 3 last year iirc.

Also, in evaluating competitiveness, board scores just tell one side of the story. Radiology and Urology have similar board scores I believe, but urology is one of the most competitive matches out there. Radiology, while though, doesn't fall into the derm/urology/plastics group........the difference is total # of slots. It's a lot easier to match into a field with 800-1100 slots with average board scores of x than it is to match into a field with 300 or so slots and average board scores of x.

In terms of least competitive specialties for someone whose goal is to just match, just going by board scores, % AOA, % of students with at least one step failure matching, I would rank them:

1) family medicine
2) pediatrics
3) psychiatry
4) internal medicine
5) neurology

pm&r may fall somewhere in there too....not sure.

 

[psychotrope]

Its just a regional spread so far. Also, last year, i think only 3 spots out of 11 were "real spots". So those 16 could be very deceiving.

one other point- some of the programs that fill last year and sent out signals that they were just going to leave that slot open were offering it to students already matched to another program. I only found this out because I went to the "violations" section on nrmp and you see it listed plain as day.....

 

[psychotrope]

Anybody know where they are?

now the scramble is over and we still don't know what they were? Rumors on other boards are now that it wasn't 16, but actually 10 listed at tuesday at noon when the unmatched candidates had access to it.

 

[whopper]

I don't think the 5 is statistically significant. Most likely, things are about the same as last year.

Even if a stock's current trend is to go up, it'll still flip flop up and down a bit, though the overall trend is the flips up are more than the flops down.

Also take into consideration that several programs this year were wise to the increase in applicants, and thus may have increased their standards in accepting applicants. In short things may actually be far more competitive despite that there were a few more open MATCH spots.

Only time and more data from programs will tell.

 

[Rena]

I know about 1 program in Oklahoma - Griffin Hospital. This is a small community program with kinda ...... reputation. Last year they didn't participate in the Match, all spots were gone for pre-matches. This year they got around 10 applications from US Grads (a lot!), mostly from OU Grads. They gave 1 pre-match, 4 spots went through the Match. Result= 1 unfilled position.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I know about 1 program in Oklahoma - Griffin Hospital. This is a small community program with kinda ...... reputation. Last year they didn't participate in the Match, all spots were gone for pre-matches. This year they got around 10 applications from US Grads (a lot!), mostly from OU Grads. They gave 1 pre-match, 4 spots went through the Match. Result= 1 unfilled position.

Apparently they claim they're not accepting applications now from people who didn't apply before the match. I know they're normally on the unfilled list and weren't last year, but taking all pre-matches explains that I guess.

It was mentioned here earlier that U of Cincinnati has or at least had a spot, and I heard Gainesville has 2 spots.

OU-Tulsa fm/psych only filled one of their two positions, but they opted not to take anyone in the scramble. I think they did the same thing last year.

 

[psychotrope]

Apparently they claim they're not accepting applications now from people who didn't apply before the match. I know they're normally on the unfilled list and weren't last year, but taking all pre-matches explains that I guess.

It was mentioned here earlier that U of Cincinnati has or at least had a spot, and I heard Gainesville has 2 spots.

The clerical error fiasco aside from several years back, I don't think Florida interviews enough people they are confident will go there......

When the number of UF and USF grads who want to go into psych and stay is florida is acceptably high, they do fine. When it's low, they either go way way down their list(what a friend who has been there told me) or have spots......

 

[j48seconds]

Psych Unfilled

UF-2
MCG-1
Indianapolis-1
UK-2
Tulane-1
Mich State Lansing-2
Cincinnati-1
Griffin, OK-1
UT Memphis-1
Burlington, VT-2
Idaho, U. Wash-1
Drexel/Early Child-1