Internship ranking of candidates

[erg923]

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This might have been covered somewhere or asked before, and I am sure the answer varies by site, but in general, what percentage of those interviewed does a site usually rank? For example, if a site invites 30 people to interview for for 5 spots, will they only rank 8 or 9 people, or will they likely rank all 30 (assuming one wasn't a total jackwagon)?

One reasons I'm asking is that I am seeing some program that are interviewing 50-60 people (sometimes more) for just a handful of spots.

 

[psychmama]

I think it varies with the site (as you said), but in general sites tend to rank a bunch more than the spots they have available. They never know if they'll get their top ranked candidates -- after all these are probably the most desirable candidates at lots of sites -- so the sites rank a lot of folks in case they need to go deep into their list to get a match.

P.S. - Jackwagon? That's a new one on me (lol)...

 

[docma]

Sites will often rank everyone they interview that they would be happy and willing to train. Just as you want to match, they want to fill their slots. While more competitive sites are most likely to fill with their top choices, they also know that their top choice may have a different top choice so even they have to "go deep".

Because of the supply/demand imbalance, sites have more range of choices but this does not guarantee securing their top picks. If you look at the Match stats on the APPIC you can see that sites ranking fewer than 8 students risk not filling and that on average students were ranked by 5 programs.

If you interview 30 people for 5 spots you would likely rank them all that were acceptable. The most highly ranked programs may have algorithms and a record that allows them to cut more precisely but I'm guessing on average most programs keep a long list and only notify those interviewees who were truly not a good fit or poorly qualified for their program.

I think that the majority of students who were disappointed in the Match were in the difficult position of not having received a sufficient number of interviews to then lead to 5 or more possible sites to rank. If you look at the APPIC Match stats you can see that if you have enough sites to rank your odds of Matching increase significantly. So getting to the interview is the primary aim; then you do your best and trust the ranking process.