Contiguous ranks ?

good question! I am not really sure, hope that a resident comes in to answer this one.

 

a guess, but it may refer to the median number of programs that applicants ranked, and it shows that for successful matches the number is 8 vs unsuccessful of 3...

Really, I have no idea what it means otherwise (and assuming I looked at the stat you are asking about)....

Edit: I was pretty close - a contiguous rank is determined by the number of programs any individual applicant ranked within one specialty before listing a different specialty, as explained in the same PDF from 2006:

In general, applicants are more likely to be successful if they rank more programs in their de-
sired specialty. To quantify this aspect of applicant behavior, we tallied the number of pro-
grams ranked in the first-choice specialty before a program in another specialty appears in the
applicant's rank order list.

It is quite common for an applicant to include ranks for programs in second- and even third-
choice specialties along with ranks for different programs in the first choice specialty. Usually,
all of the ranks for programs in the preferred specialty precede those for programs in other spe-
cialties, but occasionally an applicant will intersperse ranks for programs in the first-choice spe-
cialty with ranks for programs in other specialties. For example, for those preferring Anesthesi-
ology, 736 applicants ranked only Anesthesiology programs, 207 ranked programs in other spe-
cialties only after ranking all desired Anesthesiology programs, and 71 ranked other programs
interspersed with Anesthesiology programs. These distributions are different for other special-
ties.

 

upon further inspection I think it means you ranked more than one program within the same specialty, and not just different specialties. I.e.

Continuous
1. IM
2. IM
3. EM

Independent:
1. IM
2. EM
3. FM

 

http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/about_res/algorithms.html

I finally figured out the how this work....

So basically it goes from your rank from top to bottom...and you will get a tentative match at the highest rank place that ranked you and have a spot...then you can be bumped out of it at any time if someone who is ranked higher by the institution..then they will try to match you somewhere lower in the rank.. very interesting.

Did they try to do this before the arrival of massive data base analysis+fast computer? wow the process is incredible..with millions of "attempts" must be made to finish the whole process...

So how does couple match work? The couple's ordered list is unified. But the program's list is not...so you both have to keep going down the number until a point where BOTH of you cant get bumped out? That seems to be slightly biased against the stronger candidate.

 

Umm I still don't get it, all the competitive residencies have a higher contiguous ranks. Does this mean the applicants ranked those programs higher than others or does it mean they listed a program more than once in their rankings (what above poster is saying)?

 

"In general, applicants are more likely to be successful if they rank more programs in their desired specialty. To quantify this aspect of applicant behavior, we tallied the number of programs ranked in the first-choice specialty before a program in another specialty appeared on the applicant's rank order list."

Contiguous means being adjacent to, so in this case it is the number of residency programs within the same specialty in a row that you rank before you rank a program within a different specialty. The idea being that if you want to get into a more competitive specialty, you'll need to rank more programs in that specialty before you start ranking your fall-back programs.

 

thx got it.