Match Question

[silvercholla]

I am pretty ffffaaaaaarrrrrr from that wonderfully stressfull day but I am curious, when you interview for residency programs can more than one program choose you, giving you a choice on where you can go or are you stuck with(depending on your prospective) what the match system gives you? In other words is it like applying for med school were you can get more than one acceptance and choose where you want to go or just one acceptance and have to go there because no one else wanted you?

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[redleft123]

Well....I was going to send you to the NRMP web page that specifically addresses that issue, but its down right now.

In concept, after all of your interviews, those programs will rank you based on how well they think you will fit in there and based on the others they want to join the program. It is possible, if you are THAT good, that several programs will rank you first on their list.

You also will rank the various programs you want to join. Obviously, you can only rank one first, then a second choice, and so on.

Then, the computer system will take all of the programs' ranking.....take the choices for all of the residents who are praticipating.....and do many runs thru the two lists.

When the match list comes out, it will rank you ... and that's where you will go.

There is a very good description of this complex procedure at <a href="http://nrmp.aamc.org/nrmp/" target="_blank">http://nrmp.aamc.org/nrmp/</a> ; however, right now I can not give you the actual page within the site.

Cheers

 

[silvercholla]

Okay so then that means that you can only go to the place that you are matched with. Which then brings me to my next question what happens if you don't match?

 

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

If you don't match, you "scramble" into a program that did not fill all of their spots. There are different percentages of different specialties that do not fill with more competitive residencies having very few spots (only 3 for ortho, 19 for radiology last year). Usually there are plenty of FP, internal medicine, and some other specialties open.

A couple days before the match, the NRMP will email you telling you if you did or did not match. The next day, they release a list of programs that did not fill and, with the help of their school (if US seniors) people who didn't match send applications to these programs and interview over the phone in a mad dash to grab these spots.

 

[md03]

Let me just add that, when you do match, you are obligated to go to that program. It's considered a violation of the match if you don't. May not seem like a big deal, but realize that many fellowships are also handled by the NRMP. So, if you violate the rules, and are banned from the NRMP, you may have a difficult time should you decide to do a fellowship. That's why you should be careful when you make out your rank-order list. Don't rank a place you'd be miserable at.

According to the explanation of the algorithm on the NRMP site, the biggest reason by far that people don't match is that they don't rank enough programs. Just be a little smart about how you go about it, and you should be fine

 

[Winged Scapula]

Moving to Rotations and Residencies...