Pros and Cons of the "The Match"

[johncusack]

Now that the board is not as busy as it was, I have a question. Who does the the match give advantage to? There are definite pros and definite cons to the match. How do you feel about the way it is organized?

The match is designed to "protect us" from getting an invitation to join a program with the dealine for a yes or no expiring before you have a chance to see every program that wants to see you I suppose. Supposedly.

Personally, I feel that (for dermatology) it takes all power away from candidates and gives it to programs. I feel this because I would rather have someone offering me a spot somewhere I found "good enough" even if I had not interviewed at my top institution yet. Maybe I am selling myself short. I don't know.

So what do you think?

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[N-Surge]

It took me a bit to understand the Match when I went through it this past year. It came down to the following for me.

1. You decide WHERE you Match.
2. The programs decide IF you Match.

In other words, if Program A and Program B have ranked you to Match and you put Program B before Program A then you will end up at Program B. However, if Program B did not rank you but Program A did then you will end up there as long as you ranked them. Now, if you didn't rank Program A you end up not matching even though you had been ranked to do so by Program A if you only listed Program B.

The power of controlling IF you Match is a bit stronger, imo. But you still get to make the ranked ordered list to help give you a shot of ranking WHERE you want to go.

This may not be exactly what you were asking. But since it took me a bit to get my head around what is made to sound complex (when in fact it isn't) I thought I'd at least share that much. 🙂

 

[dermhopefully]

This is a very interesting thread to me, I have a few quick questions.

Say like I rank one program #1 and another #8. Now say another person takes my #8 and ranks it their #1, does that mean they could "steal" it from me? Essentially what I am asking is should I rank high the program that I think will rank me high? Or can I take some shots at "reach" programs and rank them high then rank my more likely programs at lower #'s.

Sorry if this is confusing, I can reformat with letters if need be.

 

[Fidicinal]

It's really amazing how many misconceptions there are about the match.

No, someone cannot "steal" your match from you. You should not rank programs based on how high you think they will rank you. You should rank programs ONLY based on how much you want to go there.

Let me add a few criteria to your scenario. Let's say you rank 8 programs and they all have 3 spots, for simplicity's sake. If your #1 ranked program has ranked you #1 as well, then that is where you will match, right? Everyone seems to get that, at least. If, however, your #1 ranked program has ranked at least 3 people ahead of you and those 3 people have ranked that program as #1, then you will not match there and NRMP then goes down to your #2 ranked program and checks that one. Alternatively, let's say your #1 ranked program HAS ranked 3 people ahead of you, but one of those 3 people has ranked that program as #2 and already matched at their #1, then you WILL match at your #1. Make sense?

If NRMP has to go all the way down to your #8 ranked program and someone else has ranked that program as #1, you will still get the spot, unless that program has ranked the other person higher than you. So it doesn't matter where YOU ranked the program, it depends on where they ranked you. In other words, if the situation had been reversed, and you ranked that program #1 and the other person ranked it #8, they would still get the spot if the program ranked them higher.

So the best thing to do is just to rank your programs based on where you most want to go. There is no "gaming" the system.

Make sense?

 

[opencomedo]

No, they would not steal it from you. The only way they would "steal it" would be if one of the programs you ranked 1-7 had ranked you high enough to match there (i.e. the "x" number of people they ranked above you matched higher on their list that there was still a spot for you). The only reason to rank a program based on where you think you will be ranked high is for your own personal pride of being able to say "I matched in my top three." This seems like a silly reason to me. The ONLY way you can hurt yourself with your rank list is by putting a program too high or too low on it where you would match somewhere before you got to a program that you liked more. Hope this makes sense....

 

[dermhopefully]

Excellent explanation, so there is no penalty then for shooting for dream programs, even if say my choices 1-7 I might wildly guess at I have a 1% chance of matching while my #8 choice I have a 50% chance of matching.

Bottom line I am getting is: shoot for the stars if thats what you want, there is no penalty.

 

[Fidicinal]

Bottom line I am getting is: shoot for the stars if thats what you want, there is no penalty.

Well put. Exactly.