Match more competitive?

[Green Grass]

Rumor around here is that our surgery match percentage was real low this year compared to previous years.

Any news on how your schools did?

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[SLUser11]

Rumor around here is that our surgery match percentage was real low this year compared to previous years.

Any news on how your schools did?

That is said every year, regardless of whether it is true or not. Some of the perceived increase in competitiveness comes from increases in the number of program applications sent out by each student. We'll never really know the stone cold facts until the NRMP publishes "Charting Outcomes in the Match 2010."

That being said, ever since 2006 general surgery has been consistently competitive.

 

[Green Grass]

That is said every year, regardless of whether it is true or not. Some of the perceived increase in competitiveness comes from increases in the number of program applications sent out by each student. We'll never really know the stone cold facts until the NRMP publishes "Charting Outcomes in the Match 2010."

That being said, ever since 2006 general surgery has been consistently competitive.

I had a feeling that was the case, especially since yesterday was scramble day and obviously most people probably heard of someone who had to scramble. Thus, rumors were aplenty.

 

[vhawk]

We scrambled more at our school for gensurg than in just about any previous year, despite an average to slightly below average number of candidates. But thats an awfully small sample size so no idea what it means. I mean, I matched, so it cant possibly have been THAT competitive

 

[Green Grass]

We scrambled more at our school for gensurg than in just about any previous year, despite an average to slightly below average number of candidates. But thats an awfully small sample size so no idea what it means. I mean, I matched, so it cant possibly have been THAT competitive

Come on now, give yourself SOME credit. lol.

My school had more applicants than normal. I know it doesn't mean anything in regards to my school's match statistics, but as a whole it could signify that more people entered the general surgery match this year.

 

[vhawk]

Meh, I am a so-so applicant although I applied pretty intelligently, and of the 4 that I know of who did not match at my school, 3 arent particularly surprising, like "ZOMG how did HE not match?" One of them is, although my understanding is that he applied narrowly both geographically and quality-wise.

I do feel like the #applications/applicant was up quite a bit this year, as well as #interviews and #ranked/applicant, which probably had a little to do with it, but I mean there were only 5 spots last year for scramble so its not WAY different. Almost certainly not a statistically significant increase in competitiveness.

 

[Green Grass]

Meh, I am a so-so applicant although I applied pretty intelligently, and of the 4 that I know of who did not match at my school, 3 arent particularly surprising, like "ZOMG how did HE not match?" One of them is, although my understanding is that he applied narrowly both geographically and quality-wise.

I do feel like the #applications/applicant was up quite a bit this year, as well as #interviews and #ranked/applicant, which probably had a little to do with it, but I mean there were only 5 spots last year for scramble so its not WAY different. Almost certainly not a statistically significant increase in competitiveness.

From what I heard around here was that a few people didn't match due to being a little over-confident in their application (i.e. only applying to big name university programs and not ranking enough schools). I don't really consider that a sign of becoming more competitive, but more so a lack of planning.

 

[thedrjojo]

while I haven't heard much from my schools GenSurg applicants, I haven't heard of any of the 15 or so that applied didn't match... Rads at my school went like 20/25 though, and from what I heard the 1 junior AOA, 260+ board score ENT applicant failed to match and scrambled into prelim surg here but from who I have talked to, they think it was cause she couples matched and didn't set it up so one could match when the other didn't

 

[Doctor Bagel]

We had a ton of general surgery scramblers at my school, probably partly because we had more people applying in it and partly because we don't get the best advising. I think a lot of people around here still assume it's easy to match in general surgery, so they under apply/interview.

Only having 2 spots in the scramble also implies a decent level of difficulty in matching.

 

[vhawk]

We had a ton of general surgery scramblers at my school, probably partly because we had more people applying in it and partly because we don't get the best advising. I think a lot of people around here still assume it's easy to match in general surgery, so they under apply/interview.

Only having 2 spots in the scramble also implies a decent level of difficulty in matching.

Yeah this is basically the case at my school. They do a ton to help you, they make calls, they send letters, they have connections, etc. But they also are very....ummm...positive? They repeatedly tell you "Dont worry, everyone in this room is going to match, you are all going to be surgeons" on a regular basis. Which I'm sure is great if you lack confidence, or if you need the boost. I got plenty of confidence and ego, I need the exact opposite: tell me how hard it could be, scare me a little bit. Luckily I didnt take the smoke-blowing at face value and on my own "diversified" my rank list a little...but I honestly didnt tell some of the attendings at my program where I was ranking, because I knew they would basically mock me for it. They would tell me "Dont worry you dont need to rank places like that!" and "Really you should only be applying to high-profile, academic programs....you go here! You can match!"

But at the end of the day, me matching at a lesser known program and me not matching is probably about the same to them, but its WORLDS APART to me, so I made my own decisions.

I know this is coming off as critical of my department, and I dont mean to. They have been amazing throughout the process. Couldnt have asked for more help. And I certainly did still rank high profile academic programs, and got interviews at many. And I may very well have matched at one of them, I dont know. I just know that at least one of the scramblers is a better applicant than I am, and I'm drawing some conclusions about why he had to match.