Horror stories of the UNmatched

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

DrQuinn

My name is Neo
Moderator Emeritus
15+ Year Member
20+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2000
Messages
4,226
Reaction score
17
I have a good topic that I think deserves some discussion...

We all obviously have the fear of being unmatched during Match Week. Who doesn't. So perhaps we can learn from the mistakes of previous years...

For those students who were unmatched (or people who know the stories of those unmatched students)... what was the likely reason? Was it lack of interviews? Lack of ranking (only ranked a few programs)?

Do people get unmatched if they play their cards right, interview at 10-15 places, and rank 8-12 or so? Are there any known stories of these applicants not matching?

From my talking to interns/residents, I know one intern who went unmatched (DO student) at MD places and some DO places, but did her internship year then matched at a DO place. She admitted to only interviewing at a few places (and had sub par board scores). But that is all I know, I wish I had more anecdotal stories. So I'm hopign we all can share.

Members don't see this ad.
 
Originally posted by QuinnNSU
I have a good topic that I think deserves some discussion...

We all obviously have the fear of being unmatched during Match Week. Who doesn't. So perhaps we can learn from the mistakes of previous years...

For those students who were unmatched (or people who know the stories of those unmatched students)... what was the likely reason? Was it lack of interviews? Lack of ranking (only ranked a few programs)?

Do people get unmatched if they play their cards right, interview at 10-15 places, and rank 8-12 or so? Are there any known stories of these applicants not matching?

From my talking to interns/residents, I know one intern who went unmatched (DO student) at MD places and some DO places, but did her internship year then matched at a DO place. She admitted to only interviewing at a few places (and had sub par board scores). But that is all I know, I wish I had more anecdotal stories. So I'm hopign we all can share.

The most common stories I've heard are that people do not rank enough places. This is purely anecdotal, but in all the stories I've heard, the magic # was like 5-6. So, if you have the means, rank >10 and be safe. People in the stories have not ranked many places secondary to not getting interviews and also TRUSTING PRODGRAM DIRECTORS who make promises and only rank 2-3 schools. The unmatch rate for EM is not really high so if you apply to enough programs and a good range you should be okay. I personally am setting my rank limit absolutely at 15, since you've got to pay per program for each one above that.

mike
 
One student at my school had to scramble into a somewhat subpar program last year. He had only two interviews, despite above average board scores and grades. He attributes it to a bad letter that was shown to him at one interview. Careful who you pick. Being the paranoid person I am, I didn't send any one letter to all my programs. At any rate, I've got plenty of interviews at this point, my question is only how many interviews to go to. Right now I'm looking at 19 total, and I'll probably add UCLA-Harbor to my list of they change their mind and decide to send me an invite.
 
Top