General Does a relationship affect matching?

[Mr.Smile12]

Do relationships that you are in have any impact on the matching process? If you're in a long-term relationship with someone at a medical school, and you're trying to match there, does that make a difference. To be clear, I'm not talking about couples matching. My girlfriend is a year behind me in medical school in a different state and I'd like to match to her for Residency. Do programs care about being in a relationship? If they do, does being engaged carry more weight?

I don't think just being in a relationship would be a major factor when the final decisions are made in your situation (one year ahead of the partner). I think that if things are serious a year from now when your girlfriend is contemplating options, she would need to talk with her med school advisors about how to develop a residency application strategy that works with what happens with you. Nowadays I find that the residency matching outcomes can be a little more complicated in that more one-year intern opportunities are being talked about before you get placed on a contingency basis to another program for a year or two. (Someone else with more knowledge about this?)

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[gutonc]

I wouldn't say that this will necessarily help you at a program if you're not already a good candidate for that particular program. But if you are, and they like you, a "hook" that would make you more likely to rank them highly/#1 may be beneficial.

 

[Daiphon]

Agree with Gutonc; one other thing to consider as well is that while you might match to where she currently is, she may not match to where she currently is... so you would move to her, and then she might move away.

It might be worthwhile to have a serious discussion with her regarding ultimate goals & desire for residency, and whether or not you both are willing to continue a long-distance relationship (as it sounds you are right now).

That said, residency committees don't typically put much weight into the GF/BF dynamic; but engagement/marriage does indeed carry more weight - typically it might help a student land an interview or position in the area where the already-matched resident is currently training... so if you both are in this for the long haul, trying to match to where you & she would be ideally trying to go might be a better avenue to approach.

Good luck!
-d

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I think the above posts cover most of the details.

Being in a committed relationship with someone who has a long term commitment to a specific area can be a positive. It's unlikely to get you an interview if you don't meet their minimum criteria.

It may be more of a factor if the area you're looking at has few residency programs. For example, if your GF is in Boston at Tufts, they may assume you'll have lots of choices of other programs in Boston that would allow you to live together.

As mentioned, as she only has one year left, this could be seen as a negative. She would be stuck matching at that same location, or she'll match elsewhere and then you'll want to transfer, which is a huge pain for programs.

One other option is to take a gap year, so you can use the couple's match. Your gap year might be a research year at her location, for example.