54 versus 18 spots

[gogogas]

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I talked to an anesthesia applicant who is an FMG rotating in our program. He did not match and was not able to scramble for a spot either. He told me that there were only 18 available spots for scrambling. I told him that this could not be possible because there were 54 spots (per this discuission group). He said that the other spots may have been pre-filled outside the match. I think that this would make more sense in explaining why anesthesia appeared to have so many open spots. I know of a university program that reserves 2 spots for disgruntled surgery, ENT, medicine, etc residents each year. I think the reason why programs like to get these people is that they are already part of the hospital system and have proven their worth somehow. Some of them do research with an anesthesia faculty and then work their way to an outside the match spot the following year. Point is, there is a lot of disgruntled residents (in gen surg especially) whose fall back is anesthesia (because they see how happy we are and covet our lifestyles as residents). These people have an "in" in the program by the very fact that they are already in the same hospital albeit a different program. PD's then tend to save spots for them because they are likely to be solid residents who work hard and it is an assurance for them versus an MS4 whom you know very little about.

 

[UTSouthwestern]

Beat me to it. Talked with a couple of students that scrambled, also without luck, and it was 18 spots they were scrambling for, not 54

 

[usnavdoc]

I talked to an anesthesia applicant who is an FMG rotating in our program. He did not match and was not able to scramble for a spot either. He told me that there were only 18 available spots for scrambling. I told him that this could not be possible because there were 54 spots (per this discuission group). He said that the other spots may have been pre-filled outside the match. I think that this would make more sense in explaining why anesthesia appeared to have so many open spots. I know of a university program that reserves 2 spots for disgruntled surgery, ENT, medicine, etc residents each year. I think the reason why programs like to get these people is that they are already part of the hospital system and have proven their worth somehow. Some of them do research with an anesthesia faculty and then work their way to an outside the match spot the following year. Point is, there is a lot of disgruntled residents (in gen surg especially) whose fall back is anesthesia (because they see how happy we are and covet our lifestyles as residents). These people have an "in" in the program by the very fact that they are already in the same hospital albeit a different program. PD's then tend to save spots for them because they are likely to be solid residents who work hard and it is an assurance for them versus an MS4 whom you know very little about.

The prefilled match spots are not even in the numbers programs turn in to the NRMP. Otherwise a program would be in violation. More likely is that the programs who did not match decided not to scramble those spots and held out for possible matching with Non-traditional grads.

For example here at emory we match 16 each year. But we only turn in 14 to the NRMP the other two are nontrads with various backgrounds(military, former residents in another specialty, ETC....) who match with us outside of the match through an internal screening and interview.