Can anyone explain the match process to me?

[ravin]

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I looked at some of the FAQs, but didn't find a comprehensive set of instructions for how residency programs work.

thanks!

 

[angel80]

It's pretty complicated. You, as a student, decide which specialty you want to go into. Then you decide which programs you want to apply to. Most people then use the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS), to apply to the programs. If you excced the program's criteria for interviews, the program will call you up and invite you for an interview. You then spend a few months going on all of your interviews. When you are done, you have to rank all the programs that you liked in the order of preference (with #1 being your first choice). You don't have to rank all of the programs where you interviewed, just the ones you would be willing to go to for residency. Meanwhile, the programs are doing the same thing, and ranking the candidates that they interviewed in order of preference. Both sides submit their Rank Order Lists to the National Residency Match Program (NRMP). The lists get entered into a computer, which runs an algorithm, trying to match the candidates and the programs together. On the Monday of Match Week, you find out whether or not you matched into a program on your list. On Thursday of that week, you find out where you matched. The algorithm is tough to explain, but you can read about it yourself on the NRMP website:
http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/about_res/algorithms.html

 

[liverotcod]

To paraphrase angel80, it pretty much sucks.

 

[mlw03]

to quote Winstone Churchill, "capitalism is the worst economic system there is... except all the others." to me, the match is the same thing - sucky, but better than anything else. students may complain about the match, but it sounds a lot better than it was before the match was created, when students could be pressured to committ to a program early or face having no shot at that program later on. the match algorithm is supposed to favor candidates, based on what i've been told by administrators. i personally would have preferred a match-style system for med school admissions, instead of the waiting and jockeying we all had to go through.

for anyone that wants to complain about the match, i'd like to see a better plan for EVERYONE. don't argue that the match hurts super-strong candidates who could negotiate themselves 200K/year in residency because i agree on that point, but to be fair to everyone (including the residency programs that count as residents to serve as labor), i can't think of a better system.

 

[jameslynton]

Thanks - that was really interesting. Liked the link also. 😀

 

[DukeDoc08]

maybe it's late or maybe I'm confused
if candidate is favored:
let's say you ranked a program 20 and they ranked you #1 and you didn't rank at anything else in your top 19
you end up at the program that ranked you #1 even if someone else ranked them #1 and they ranked that person #2?
assuming they only have 1 spot

 

[DW3843]

maybe it's late or maybe I'm confused
if candidate is favored:
let's say you ranked a program 20 and they ranked you #1 and you didn't rank at anything else in your top 19
you end up at the program that ranked you #1 even if someone else ranked them #1 and they ranked that person #2?
assuming they only have 1 spot

I don't have an answer but I would like to hear one. I have had this question as well, and it seems like in an "applicant favored" match it should happen.

 

[angel80]

maybe it's late or maybe I'm confused
if candidate is favored:
let's say you ranked a program 20 and they ranked you #1 and you didn't rank at anything else in your top 19
you end up at the program that ranked you #1 even if someone else ranked them #1 and they ranked that person #2?
assuming they only have 1 spot

Yes, you would get the spot over the person who ranked them #1, because the program ranked you higher.

 

[neutropenic]

maybe it's late or maybe I'm confused
if candidate is favored:
let's say you ranked a program 20 and they ranked you #1 and you didn't rank at anything else in your top 19
you end up at the program that ranked you #1 even if someone else ranked them #1 and they ranked that person #2?
assuming they only have 1 spot

Yes.

But let's be even more extreme. Let's say you wanted to go into peds and interviewed at 1 place. And for kicks you ranked 20 plastic surgery programs 1-20 and your 1 peds place 21. The peds place ranks you 1 and your friend "Bob" 2. Bob ranks peds place 1. You still get in before Bob. And if the peds program had only one slot you would get it and Bob wouldn't match there.

 

[beefballs]

holy crap this sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare

 

[neutropenic]

so you don't really "apply" to specific programs, they just see your application and invite you to interview if they like you? what if no places wanted to interview you?

also, do they pay for your transportation to get to the interview? i'm hoping yes, guessing no.

Yes, you apply to specific programs which are transmitted through eras or another service (the SF match for neurosurg et al I believe. You get invited if they like you, hear nothing if they didn't, some will send rejections too.

Some will invite their most preferred candidates early on and their less preferred candidates later on.

Transport is variable by field applied to, some will pay for costs, most will not. Some will pay for a night of lodging.

 

[bigfrank]

holy crap this sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare

Don't be too doomsday. It is a complicated process that no one really understands (!), but keep in mind that virtually all students that go through the match do, in the end, MATCH.

 

[8744]

Read my humble blog for an explanation of the match.

 

[deuist]

An alternate system to the match would be an application process much mike we have for med school admissions. Many will jump up and say, "But good applicants can be pressured into taking sub-par residencies." My solution would be---much like medical school---to allow people to hod as many acceptances as they wish until March 15. At that time, the wait list will begin moving and others can go where they want. Also, students could use this time to force hospitals to compete against each other so that they (the applicants) can push for higher salaries and more benefits.

 

[india7]

here is my question (this is based alot on location due to husband/family),
i completely want to go to state A and like all the places there so i rank them #'s 1-3 or whatever. but i understand i should probably rank more than just 3 places, so i rank more at other states where i would go too, but not nearly as much as i'd like to go to state A. I put places in state A as the first few, but if these other places not in stae A have me ranked higher, would i wind up there? if so, then should i not have even ranked them in the first place and then would have wound up in state A where i wanted to be all along? (assuming state A ranked me, just not as high as the other places). i hope that made sense. thanks......

 

[liverotcod]

India7, you'll go to the highest ranking program on your list that has you anywhere on their list.

The algorithm isn't really hard to understand, but it's a little tricky to describe. Their web site does a pretty good walk through of it.

 

[brightness]

What if, lets say, you happen to be married to or dating another doctor who needs to match as well? This isn't my situation, as I'm not even in med school, but I'm just curious- it seems very likely that people would find someone to date or marry in med school.

 

[liverotcod]

What if, lets say, you happen to be married to or dating another doctor who needs to match as well? This isn't my situation, as I'm not even in med school, but I'm just curious- it seems very likely that people would find someone to date or marry in med school.

There's a couples match process as well.
http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/faq//us_seniors_faq.html#7

 

[derf]

India7, you'll go to the highest ranking program on your list that has you anywhere on their list.

The algorithm isn't really hard to understand, but it's a little tricky to describe. Their web site does a pretty good walk through of it.

o.k., how about this scenario

Candidate A ranks Program Y #1 , but the Program Y ranks him/her #2

Candidate A ranks Program Z # 2, but the Program Z ranks him/her #1

Z is NOT the candidates first choice obviously

Where does candidate A end up? Does the applicant get screwed merely due to a single rank difference by the programs? I know the easy answer would be the candidate is going to Program Z, but I wanted to know if anything is inherently built into the formula to give candidates the benefit under close situations.

 

[liverotcod]

o.k., how about this scenario

Candidate A ranks Program Y #1 , but the Program Y ranks him/her #2

Candidate A ranks Program Z # 2, but the Program Z ranks him/her #1

Z is NOT the candidates first choice obviously

Where does candidate A end up? Does the applicant get screwed merely due to a single rank difference by the programs? I know the easy answer would be the candidate is going to Program Z, but I wanted to know if anything is inherently built into the formula to give candidates the benefit under close situations.

Depends on how many spots there are at at Program Y. If there are two or more spots, or if the candidate Program Y ranked #1 winds up somewhere else (because she matched at a program she ranked higher that had a spot for her), then A will go to Program Y.

The candidate is always getting the benefit, under all situations.

 

[derf]

Depends on how many spots there are at at Program Y. If there are two or more spots, or if the candidate Program Y ranked #1 winds up somewhere else (because she matched at a program she ranked higher that had a spot for her), then A will go to Program Y.

The candidate is always getting the benefit, under all situations.

thanks for the response. all this stuff is still new on my end, but starting to make sense 🙂

 

[liverotcod]

thanks for the response. all this stuff is still new on my end, but starting to make sense 🙂

I have the benefit of a career in software design - you spend a lot of time walking through algorithms and making sense of them.

 

[india7]

India7, you'll go to the highest ranking program on your list that has you anywhere on their list.

The algorithm isn't really hard to understand, but it's a little tricky to describe. Their web site does a pretty good walk through of it.

thank you so much for explaining! very good info to know....thanks for clarifying...

 

[njbmd]

Yes, you apply to specific programs which are transmitted through eras or another service (the SF match for neurosurg et al I believe. You get invited if they like you, hear nothing if they didn't, some will send rejections too.

Some will invite their most preferred candidates early on and their less preferred candidates later on.

Transport is variable by field applied to, some will pay for costs, most will not. Some will pay for a night of lodging.

Hi there,
The above is not entirely true. Most places have ranking meetings after every interview day and one final ranking meeting overall. If you are an excellent candidate for a program, whether you interview on the first day of interviews or the last day of interviews, you will still be ranked highly by the program.

Also, many programs only have three or four interview days and thus everyone cannot interview on the first day. They will continue issuing invitations until all of the days are filled. If you sent in your application early, you are at an advantage with programs that have only a few interview days. In the MATCH, early is better.

njbmd 🙂

 

[neutropenic]

Hi there,
The above is not entirely true. Most places have ranking meetings after every interview day and one final ranking meeting overall. If you are an excellent candidate for a program, whether you interview on the first day of interviews or the last day of interviews, you will still be ranked highly by the program.

Also, many programs only have three or four interview days and thus everyone cannot interview on the first day. They will continue issuing invitations until all of the days are filled. If you sent in your application early, you are at an advantage with programs that have only a few interview days. In the MATCH, early is better.

njbmd 🙂

I meant the order of invitaitons, not the day you interview.

A certain prestigious institution in Minnesota, e.g. invited many other people weeks before I was invited and gave me less dates to choose from than those other people. I had heard from almost everywhere else I applied by the time that MN place invited me. So I know they were not that enamored with my application (but was decent enough for an invite). Some others had already been rejected by this MN institution by the time I got my invite which was "late."

But it is true that getting your app in early is always better since invites are generally rolling and they may "run out of spots" later in the process.