Chances of matching in a place after passing an away there?

[Vano]

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I am going into EM and did an away at one of the places that was going to be at the top of my list but got a Pass grade there. I didn't do anything stupid, or kill a patient or anything, I guess just didn't really stand out.
Is it still worth ranking it high if the interview goes well or is it essentially a 'no' from them and is not worth spending a high rank on? Any input, especially if you know/are involved in the inner workings of ranking/matching applicants? Thanks for the input.

 

[ccfccp]

Rank programs where you want to go first. If this is the place you most want to end up in, rank it first. The worst that can happen is you match lower down your list. The match works in your favor that way. What I would do is re-evaluate yourself and figure out why you didn't achieve better at the rotation. Is there something inherent in the place, or did you have a hard time getting along with the people? Those would be reasons to rank a place lower. In the end, it's a little like dating. If you want to be there, rank it high.

Unless you are obsessed with matching at your "first" choice (even though it isn't really your first choice,) I don't see how you can do it any other way. It's impossible to "waste" your choice if that's where you want to be.

 

[Emergency!]

Agreed. There seems to be some myth out there that if you think you're unlikely to match somewhere you shouldn't rank it highly, even if it's your favorite place. Think about it this way: place A & B both rank you high enough to match. You really, really like A, but don't think that you have a chance of matching there, so you rank B higher than A. You will match at B and will never know if you might have matched at A. Flip side is A doesn't rank you high enough to match, but B does. Even if you rank A higher than B, you will still match at B. It comes down to "maybe" matching lower on your rank list vs the chance to match at the place you really, really like.