How does one analyze a school's match list?

[qweewq11]

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So analyzing the "quality" of a school's match list is a common method to determine the quality of the school. How is this done? Should I look for schools that have a high number of people going into the most competitive specialties? Schools that have a high number of people going to Hopkins for residency training? Is there a list of the most competitive specialities and the best places to do residency training?

Any help on how to analyze match lists would be great.

Thanks!

 

[Street Philosopher]

the way i do it is like this...

first i look at how many people matched at competitive residencies like radiology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology.

second, i look at the hospitals. the ones i'm familiar with are the ones affiliated with major medical schools. like mass general hosp, ucla, etc.

then i look at how many people are during transitional years.

it's not an exact science, but i can get at least a vague feeling for the quality of a match list.

 

[surfdevl02]

So, street, what are the top schools with regards to residencies according to your algorithm?

 

[Street Philosopher]

i don't think my "system" can really rank 1,2,3. just good vs. ok vs. not so good. the ones i remember that were really strong (of which i've seen, because i only saw a few) are yale, stanford, ucsf. these are just the ones i remember as being particularly impressive. i just don't remember the others.

 

[Premed2003]

what does transitional year mean? Good or bad?

Do some specialties require a transitional year?

 

[Mike59]

To me, match lists are irrelevant and my decision to attend/not attend a particular school would not change even if they withheld all match information from applicants.

Top tier schools may have a greater percentage of placements in "competitive" residencies, but even low ranking med schools have many students place into derm, neurosurg, opthalmology and rads every year.

As beaten to death hundreds of times on this board, it all comes down to individual effort in med school (assuming you'll graduate from an accredited on shore med school). For that reason, I don't think its necessary to analyze match lists at all (also, due to the fact that I'm an FP hopeful)

 

[tatabox80]

I wish I had the luxury of having more than one acceptance (or any acceptance at all) to compare match lists 😛ity: 😛ity:

 

[DarkChild]

OP - try posting this in the allopathic and residency forums. I'd really like to hear what med students thing are really strong residency programs...
on this board (and I am so guilty of this too) I think most of us just look at strong residencies as those which are associated with strong med schools - i.e. Harvard's Mass General and Brigham Women's; anything Hopkins, UCSF, Columbia/Cornell's NYPresbyterian...
but I really dont know if that is all there is to evaluating a match list.
I also second SP's comment about looking at the competitive residencies - neurosurgery, derm, rads....
also to the previous poster who mentioned that looking at match lists is somewhat futile - compare the match lists of Yale and say Tulane. There is definately a correlation between certain med schools and their residency placements. Of course - people will always say that even Podunk Med places people in to Mass General. True. But would you rather be the exception or the rule?
take a look at their match lists:

Yale

Tulane

 

[Jalby]

One peace of advice when analyzing med school match lists. Not everybody is going to be on the top of the class. If you are in the top 15% of the class, you are going to be able to get Radiology, Ortho, etc. But the other 85% normally doesn't get that. So you should really check out where the normal people go, because chances are, that is where you will fit in. So if you are really worried about residency, you should go to school where you most likely want to end up. Most schools favor their own students in residency programs (just look at the matchlist). You would also have your best shot at your best residency at your own school. So that is another thing to factor in when you are considering match lists. K, back to vacation.

 

[Jalby]

Here is our match list:
http://www.studentdoctor.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56787

 

[Joe Joe on da Radio]

Originally posted by Premed2003
what does transitional year mean? Good or bad?

Do some specialties require a transitional year?

Uncategorical Transitional matches are generally viewed as "bad," in that these students don't match into a field (they have to go through the match again next year) and basically repeat the clinical years for their transitional year. Granted, there may be a few students who truly don't know yet what they want to specialize in by the time they apply for the match during 3rd year, so these students will elect an uncategorical transitional match to figure a field out. In general though, if a school's match list has a lot of these transitional matches, that should raise a red-flag.

You're right that some specialities will require a transitional year, i.e. radiology. However, if a student matches into such a program, it will be evident in the school's match list, i.e. "Transitional- Radiology, or Preliminary- Medicine" which specifies that this is a categorical match.

JJ