How many radiology applicants match top choice?

[sleepydoc101]

Is there any specialty-specific data to how far applicants are falling on their rank list? If not, anecdotally, do US radiology applicants typically get their top choice programs? Or do you presume the data is in line with overall matching data, e.g. 80% of all applicants matching one of their top 3?

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[Dave1980]

what an odd question

 

[SeisK]

I think I remember some stat flying around that said of all specialties, 40% match their #1, 70% match in their top 4.

Generally rads can be expected to be slightly worse than this, but not by much.

 

[Dave1980]

AFAIK 100% of med students don't match at their top 3 (N=1 me)

 

[DOFOSHO]

i never understood why someone would be upset about not matching a place that ranked them low.

 

[JRY6788]

Is there any specialty-specific data to how far applicants are falling on their rank list? If not, anecdotally, do US radiology applicants typically get their top choice programs? Or do you presume the data is in line with overall matching data, e.g. 80% of all applicants matching one of their top 3?

The answer to your question is 14.

 

[SeisK]

i never understood why someone would be upset about not matching a place that ranked them low.

The same reason people are hurt when their crush rejects them. They don’t feel bad necessarily only because of the missed opportunity, but because they feel it says something about them as a person.

 

[Cognovi]

This is a common question and easily answerable by the NRMP but they have not found it interesting enough to report in their match data. They report specialty-specific match by rank for the fellowship matches. For residencies it's a tiny bit more complicated because you have to report preferred-speciality-specific (ie, if you ranked an IR program first but a DR program second, your match by rank gets tabulated for IR but not DR). You should write the NRMP director of research to ask about this specifically.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

AFAIK 100% of med students don't match at their top 3 (N=1 me)

Excluding the IR programs, I matched into my 9th ranked program.

2016 was an odd year.

 

[yungspleen]

what an odd question

Not really...

 

[90sportsfan]

what an odd question

I don't see what's odd about the question. I think he's trying to gage the likelihood (based on specialty) that you will land a spot in your top few rank choices. It would just be a guide, but it if there is data, it would be somewhat comforting to know that 70% of radiology residents match into one of their top 3 choices.

Of course there are several variables. It assumes you are not reaching, based on your stats. There are lots of other factors at play so that those stats would not be Gospel, but it would give you a general sense of your prospects of matching into one of your top choices (again, assuming you are generally competitive for the program).

I'm not seeing how it's an odd question.

 

[Kr#36]

Its somewhat odd partially because of the variables you listed. In addition, I would bet 99% of rank lists would change if you asked the applicant to re-rank his list after 2-3 years of residency. Any kind of data attempting to answer this is sort of a giant cluster #$!*

 

[Cognovi]

It's not odd because you can assume people rank programs based on their preferences rather than their competitiveness. It doesn't matter if they would change their mind 3 years later. The statistic is about the average Match participant's chance of matching to their top ranks. This is relevant to the anxiety felt the period of time between rank list deadline and Match day.

 

[Kr#36]

It's not odd because you can assume people rank programs based on their preferences rather than their competitiveness. It doesn't matter if they would change their mind 3 years later. The statistic is about the average Match participant's chance of matching to their top ranks. This is relevant to the anxiety felt the period of time between rank list deadline and Match day.

Doesn't your last sentence prove how silly it is? We're pontificating about whether applicants match to places they know nothing about, trying to answer a question that doesnt matter, and doing it all to appease someone who can't just have a beer and chill out.