Percentage that matched in top 3?

[Doctora Foxy]

OK, this is a statistic I have heard all over SDN today. What does it mean?

The school I will be attending has a 95% match rate in the top three choices for residency, yet everyone says it's one of the worst schools. So does this percentage have any weight?

Some schools have high percentages because their graduates are advised not to choose competitive specialties. So is the number important when deciding between schools?

What's the deal? Is anyone basing their decision on such numbers?

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[Spudster]

I would have to say that the percentage in and of itself has no real meaning, other than indicating how good is the school's residency advising program. What is much more valuable than that statistic, which can so easily be manipulated, is the match list itself. One cannot so easily manipulate where one's graduates match year after year.

 

[moo]

I try not to read too much into match lists because they are very subjective and offer little except to reassure you that, yes, indeed the school you are going to attend will be able to get you where you want to go provided you work hard and do your homework. As has been the theme across this board, where and what you match into depends little on the school and much more on what YOU present to PDs. Yes, there are people at Finch that match into tough specialties. Heck, if you exam the match list for carib schools, I'm sure you'll find people that match into derm, optho, and some of the tougher specialties at very prestigious places. I don't think one should worry about examining match lists and trying to evaluate them, rather focus on your education and doing well on the boards.

 

[Inspector Gadget]

Moo. Cool picture. Homer rules! Also I have to agree. It has more to do with you then where you went to school. Do well and the rest will take care of itself.

 

[Resident Alien]

The NRMP is getting rid of that statistic this year......tells you how useful the figure is.

 

[mpp]

I do think that the match rate is helpful in that is shows that the school advises its students well in choosing residencies that suit the applicant. Part of a strong program is the caliber of its career advising.

I might use the match rate in basing decisions provided that I could also compare match lists. The match rate is just another of a multitude of criteria on which to base your decision on where to attend. If the match rate had no bearing on the medical school program, it would not vary as much as it does (from the low 70's to high 90's for the U.S. News Top 50 Research Schools).

 

[mr.annoying]

The match rate also needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because from what I understand students rank order their preferred residencies AFTER they interview there, right? If I'm wrong about this, then sorry! Anyways, if they rank the residency programs AFTER interview, then that means they are ranking only the programs that invited them to come interview. So maybe they were rejected straight up by lots of programs before the rank, and the ones they ranked are less competitive ones. Anyways, I'm half awake and that probably didn't make much sense. Hopefully somebody can understand my point :wink:

 

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

I think that statistic is pretty damn useless. Mr.annoying is right in that you can only rank where you interviewed, so your first choice on your rank list could be your 10th choice overall, but you didn't get interviews at your top 9. If the only place you got an interview was Backwater Community Hospital, which is on probation, and you match at it, you still fit this stat.

These stats are not released anymore by the AAMC, most likely because they too realized how useless they were.