Competitive specialties 50%+ still match???

[cbennett]

I read ultimate guide to choosing a medical specialty and in it or another book i read(cant recall) they defined competive specialties as specialties with match rates below 90% for us allo. seniors. Take radiology for example, in the book it said 87% of us allo. matched and therefore would be defined as a competetive residency. Am i reading/interpreting something wrong because 87% match rate certainly does not seem competive AT ALL. Also off the top of my head i believe the match rate for US allo seniors was about 50% for derm. (lowest match rate i could find in the book). Once again, I do not feel that a 50% match rate is that comp., so i obviously must be missing something. There was a statement in the book beside most of these match percentages stating *results based on us seniors who only ranked _________ as their desired specialty. Are match rates realy that high or am i just misunderstanding something?

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[8744]

I read ultimate guide to choosing a medical specialty and in it or another book i read(cant recall) they defined competive specialties as specialties with match rates below 90% for us allo. seniors. Take radiology for example, in the book it said 87% of us allo. matched and therefore would be defined as a competetive residency. Am i reading/interpreting something wrong because 87% match rate certainly does not seem competive AT ALL. Also off the top of my head i believe the match rate for US allo seniors was about 50% for derm. (lowest match rate i could find in the book). Once again, I do not feel that a 50% match rate is that comp., so i obviously must be missing something. There was a statement in the book beside most of these match percentages stating *results based on us seniors who only ranked _________ as their desired specialty. Are match rates realy that high or am i just misunderstanding something?

There is a huge element of self-selection. Forget all of the statistics in Iverson's. They are defining "competitive" without taking into account the most important factor.

 

[Nerdoscience]

That's actually very competitive. what that statistic does not take into account or make clear is that some of the percent that match have to go to institutions that they did not really want to go to, or that are not reputable. This makes the most reputable programs far more competitive than the overall number. Also, the ramifications of not matching are great as well.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

Umm, if you have no chance of matching into rads or neurosurgery, your dean will tell you... also, your step 1 scores will be a good indication. People are weeded out even before they apply and rank programs. This is what you are missing.

 

[100041]

an occasion on which a winner is selected from among two or more contestants

Competition happens any time there are more players than winners. Musical chairs is a competition to see who can sit down first, even if there is only one loser each round.

This is without even considering that a lot of the "losers" in this process are out of the game before the Match. That 87% would be much lower if you included all of the people who didn't think they could match because of their low scores or grades or whatever.

 

[Law2Doc]

Umm, if you have no chance of matching into rads or neurosurgery, your dean will tell you... also, your step 1 scores will be a good indication. People are weeded out even before they apply and rank programs. This is what you are missing.

Agree. A specialty could be ultra competitive and have matching be even close to 100% if candidates got good advice. You don't get to shoot for longshots, like you might when applying to med school. Your advisors, mentors, deans etc. should be steering you clear of residency paths at which you have no chance. Thus those that remain on those paths either match or they got bad advice.

 

[ZAZA67401]

Is peds competitve? What sort of scores, CV do you need for peds?

 

[Miami_med]

Is peds competitve? What sort of scores, CV do you need for peds?

It is not competitive. You need to not fail. If you want to go to Harvard, it might be a bit more difficult.

 

[jocg27]

It is not competitive. You need to not fail. If you want to go to Harvard, it might be a bit more difficult.

I hear this a lot, but its still sort of hard to get an exact sense of what it means. Is the level of competition to get a spot in, say, top 3 or 5 peds programs in the country (harvard, chop, etc) ~ comparable to the competition to get any spot in the country in something much more competitive?

ie is it harder to get a spot in the least well regarded derm/rads program around, or a top peds program?

 

[Law2Doc]

I hear this a lot, but its still sort of hard to get an exact sense of what it means. Is the level of competition to get a spot in, say, top 3 or 5 peds programs in the country (harvard, chop, etc) ~ comparable to the competition to get any spot in the country in something much more competitive?

ie is it harder to get a spot in the least well regarded derm/rads program around, or a top peds program?

Derm and rads are not on par in terms of competitiveness, so the answer is probably different depending on which one of these you use as your example.
But yes, there is a lot of overlap.

 

[thesauce]

It is not competitive. You need to not fail. If you want to go to Harvard, it might be a bit more difficult.

I can't agree with this. My peds preceptor last year told me that she failed first year twice, then finally passed and matched just fine. You can fail and still get peds

 

[MD2b20004]

I can't agree with this. My peds preceptor last year told me that she failed first year twice, then finally passed and matched just fine. You can fail and still get peds

What school did she go to to allow her to fail first year twice without being dismissed? Sounds out of the ordinary...

 

[8744]

I hear this a lot, but its still sort of hard to get an exact sense of what it means. Is the level of competition to get a spot in, say, top 3 or 5 peds programs in the country (harvard, chop, etc) ~ comparable to the competition to get any spot in the country in something much more competitive?

ie is it harder to get a spot in the least well regarded derm/rads program around, or a top peds program?

Most primary care specialties (with the exception of Emergency Medicine) are non-competative and almost everybody who hasn't been videotaped molesting a patient can match somewhere.

But as you correctly observed, some individual primary care resideny programs are very competative. Still, for the purposes of salary and lifestyle (except for those who want to go into academics) board certification is probably all that matters and it doesn't matter if you were trained at Duke Family Medicine or the East Sisterboff, Arkansas Family Practice Program and Bait Shop, assuming the program is accredited.

As to your specific question, who knows? Surely most people who apply to CHOP and rank it first don't match there. They do, however, match into a pediatrics program somewhere so their disappointment is probably mild compared to someone who didn't match into any Derm program, even the least well-regarded which they ranked last.

Maybe a good measure of competitiveness of a specialty would be how happy people are to have matched in the bottom third of their rank list.

I didn't match at my first choice this year but I was still hillariously happy to have matched.

P. Bear, MD
PGY-1 Emergency Medicine
Somewhere in the Midwest

 

[thesauce]

What school did she go to to allow her to fail first year twice without being dismissed? Sounds out of the ordinary...

I knew someone would ask. She went to my school. The rule (according to her) is that you can't fail the same CLASS twice. She failed neuroscience then had to take the whole year over again and then she failed another of the classes that she had previously passed.

The wierd thing is, she doesn't mind telling her patient's parents about her horrible med school grades or MCAT scores. No surprise that she only gets 2 patients an hour while the other peds in the office see 5 or more.

She graduated about 5 years ago, so the rules may have changed, but I highly doubt she would lie about failing.