I'm pretty sure it's not "see how many kids they have in derm, anes, radiology, etc."
How Do You Tell How Good A Match List Is?
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Either look for specialties you might be interested in, or the more competitive ones (which include the derm, rad, etc.). I think looking at surgical specialties vs. general surgery is a good indicator as well, as the specialties are usually more competitive (but then again, I'm interested in surgery rather than medicine). If you have the time to research which programs are known for being difficult to match into, you can look at that as well, but frankly you shouldn't worry too much about it.
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You really won't have the skills to do this at the premed level. You can look at certain specialties, but you won't really know what programs are better than what, and which places are reknown for certain fields etc. I mean is radiology in the middle of nowhere really "better" than eg IM at UCSF? And you cannot know by match lists whether no one went to derm because no one matched or because no one was interested. And most people change their mind about specialties in med school anyhow, and so the fact that a school doesn't place many people into opthalmology may not be relevant if you ultimately decide you aren't even interested in that field. So I personally wouldn't really rely heavilly on this in your school decision.
Suffice it to say that all allopathic schools will be adequate launch pads for all the specialties, and that individual performance on things like the boards will play a far bigger role in where you can end up. When you are in med school, you will sit down with a mentor in the desired field you want to enter, and s/he will give you the scoop on which places are the best choices in that specialty -- it's very much a word of mouth, rather than a published rankings, kind of thing.
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I don't think there should be one individual criterion for analyzing match lists, and as Law stated, your interests will probably change and just about any US allo school is sufficient.
I'd try focusing more on the type of curriculum and the location.
But if you really do want to analyze the lists, I'd say that you should look for potential locations (some med schools tend to send more people to particular areas), particular specialties (either ones you're interested in or competitive ones), and also what kind of facilities (academic hospitals, small hospitals, big. rural etc.)
Best of luck,
-Dr. P.
I'd try focusing more on the type of curriculum and the location.
But if you really do want to analyze the lists, I'd say that you should look for potential locations (some med schools tend to send more people to particular areas), particular specialties (either ones you're interested in or competitive ones), and also what kind of facilities (academic hospitals, small hospitals, big. rural etc.)
Best of luck,
-Dr. P.
Very good advice. I would recommend ignoring them at this pre-med stage altogether. Perhaps the only pre-matriculation time they would actually be useful would be if you are having extreme difficulty deciding between 2 schools and have a very strong inclination as to what specialty you may pursue. On the other hand, if the schools are so similar that you can't decide based on factors other than the match list, it's likely that their match lists will be very similar.
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i agree...as a premed you really have no way to evaluate a match list...because, frankly, you don't know enough about the politics of the different specialties in medicine....and i only understand this now that i am in the midst of applying for residency myself. a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away when i was applying to medical school i tried to analyze matchlists thinking i understood the world of the match. now that i am going thru the match myself i realize how wrong i was.
i still do not fully know which OB/gyn programs are "the best" because it changes depending on who i talk to. and i can tell you that big name universities that get a lot of respect, NIH money, and have great usnews medical school rankings are sometimes not anywhere near the top of everyone's list within a certain field.
there are no rankings out there that will tell you which residency programs in a certain field are great. u find out by talking to attendings in the field(word of mouth) and by understanding which researchers are big in a particular field and which institutions they go to. the brightest people do not necessarily choose the "best" programs since there are spouses to think about, family, location, finances, costs of living, desirable/less desirable places to live etc. some programs are academic programs, others are community programs. some people choose community programs over academics. some programs have a lot of research emphasis, some have a lot of clinical emphasis. some programs have their own freestanding children's or women's hospital, others don't. one hospital has more OB deliveries and the other has more gyne surgeries. one has lots of laparoscopic training, the other hospital has more "open" cases, etc, etc, etc, etc. there are a billion and one factors that are involved that someone who hasn't gone through 3rd year of medical school(let alone someone who hasnt been in medical school) wouldnt even begin to think about.
my point is this...if I am confused as to which programs are highly regarded within my particular field of interest for residency even while i am already in the midst of submitting my ERAS application tomorrow, how in the world can a premed who hasn't even spent a day in a medical school lecture hall have any idea how to judge a matchlist?
and i can assure you that it is not just the folks in my class who are applying to OB who are confused...its pretty ubiquitous, from the IM folks to the psych folks, to the ortho folks who are confused. dont believe me? pay yourself a visit to the different subspecialty forums on sdn, and right about now everyone who is applying for residency is trying to establish which are the best residency programs. in the OB/gyn forum there is considerable debate about which programs are "good" and everyone says something different. currently, there is debate regarding how good(or bad) brigham and women's OB/gyn program is. One would think after hearing "Brigham and women's", - ooohhh slam dunk top program! not necessarily so. another poster saying tufts is the best boston ob/gyn program. as a premed, does it make sense to you that tufts is preferred by someone over harvard affiliate hospitals? i imagine every specialty is similar with these types of debates.
really the only way to know which residency programs are great in a particular field is to spend time rotating thru that particular specialty and talking to many different attendings in that field and then actually interviewing at that program. oh yeah and actually going to medical school and going through 3rd and 4th year would go an extremely long way in helping to try and understand the match. one would be better off making their choices for which medical school to attend via us news rankings than trying to decipher the strength/meaning of a school's matchlist.
