Question about ophtho match

PPPD · Nov 18, 2003

This question is for anyone who has either gone through the Ophtho match or has a good understanding of the match. In the Match Report for ophthalmology, it states that successful applicants interviewed on average at 7-8 programs, and that they had on average 3.9 offers. My question is what is an offer? If a program ranks you after interviewing, does this automatically constitute an offer? And does every program that interviews you have to rank you, no matter how low it maybe? Thanks.

Andrew_Doan · Nov 18, 2003

Originally posted by PPPD
This question is for anyone who has either gone through the Ophtho match or has a good understanding of the match. In the Match Report for ophthalmology, it states that successful applicants interviewed on average at 7-8 programs, and that they had on average 3.9 offers. My question is what is an offer? If a program ranks you after interviewing, does this automatically constitute an offer? And does every program that interviews you have to rank you, no matter how low it maybe? Thanks.

I think that if a program ranks you then it constitutes as an offer. If someone can verify, then it would be awesome.

Thanks.

GeddyLee · Nov 19, 2003

Yeah...look at the sfmatch.org's match example, I would say Dr. Doan is correct. Even if you are the last ranked applicant, if you request that program, a tentative "offer" is made, which may be superceded if a higher ranked applicant also requests that program.

Questions for Dr. Doan or anyone else who has been through this process here....how many applicants do programs rank? How far down the list do they usually go? Is there any way to probe around tactfully and find out how you are ranked at a program you really like?

Thanks for any help!

Geddy

Redhawk · Nov 19, 2003

This logic/math may be wrong, but anyway....

The average number of interviews was 7.7
The average number of "offers" was 3.9

Assuming that Dr. Doan is correct about a ranking being equivalent to an offer, these stats would imply that programs rank about 1/2 of those they interview (3.9/7.7 = 50.6%).

Most programs seem to interview about 10 people per spot. The above would indicate that they must rank about 5 per spot.

ophtho1122 · Nov 19, 2003

Last year the average was 7-8 interviews, but it seems most people this year are going on 10+. I canceled all my interviews except 6. I hope I don't regret that later.

Andrew_Doan · Nov 20, 2003

Originally posted by GeddyLee

Questions for Dr. Doan or anyone else who has been through this process here....how many applicants do programs rank? How far down the list do they usually go? Is there any way to probe around tactfully and find out how you are ranked at a program you really like?

Thanks for any help!

Geddy

Programs generally rank about 2/3 of the people they interview. Even the best programs will go down 3-5 positions for each resident spot. For instance, if a program has 8 spots, you can expect to see programs go down as far as 24-35 to fill all 8 spots.

GeddyLee · Nov 20, 2003

Dr. Doan,
Thanks for the info! Much appreciated.

Geddy

Andrew_Doan · Nov 23, 2003

Originally posted by Ophtho_MudPhud
Programs generally rank about 2/3 of the people they interview. Even the best programs will go down 3-5 positions for each resident spot. For instance, if a program has 8 spots, you can expect to see programs go down as far as 24-35 to fill all 8 spots.

I just found this out. One particularly prestigious program went down to only 11 to fill 8 positions last year! This is atypical. I think it's getting more competitive in general. Sorry for the bad news. 🙁

BeefyRedEye · Nov 23, 2003

Dr. Doan -

Please tell us what program only went down to 11 to fill 8 spots - Wilmer i'm guessing? Mass Eye and Ear went to the 40s to fill 8 spots last year, with 4 of them being FMGs

Andrew_Doan · Nov 23, 2003

Originally posted by BeefyRedEye
Dr. Doan -

Please tell us what program only went down to 11 to fill 8 spots - Wilmer i'm guessing? Mass Eye and Ear went to the 40s to fill 8 spots last year, with 4 of them being FMGs

Your guess is as good as mine. 🙂

last minute · Nov 24, 2003

I think it was Bascom Palmer.

yagmd · Nov 24, 2003

I thought Bascom Palmer only had 7 residency slots.

Regardless of which program it was, I always find it suspicious that any program could get almost all of its top choice without gaming the system. I heard from a candidate that Emory only went down 6 spots to fill 5 positions... Given that generally the same people are interviewing at all the top programs, it seems to me the only way programs could get all their top picks is to give preferential ranking to people they think want to come to their program.

Other thoughts?

guttata · Nov 26, 2003

I contacted sfmatch and was told that the average number of offers is equal to the number of places that rank an applicant high enough to result in a match. Hope this helps...

diamonddoc · Nov 26, 2003

It was NYU/Manhattan EAE that went down to #11. How do I know this? Because a friend of mine who matched there last year was told how lucky he was that he was ranked 11th and was the last to get in.

Good luck in the match.

chef · Nov 27, 2003

Originally posted by BeefyRedEye
Dr. Doan -

Please tell us what program only went down to 11 to fill 8 spots - Wilmer i'm guessing? Mass Eye and Ear went to the 40s to fill 8 spots last year, with 4 of them being FMGs

i was told that while wilmer is hard to match, it's not THAT hard to match there - location & relatively more rigorous training were 2 reasons why some top applicants went for other programs. i've heard that lower ranked programs in desirable locations (SF, NY etc) are just as hard or if not harder to match than wilmer.

Andrew_Doan · Nov 27, 2003

Originally posted by chef
i was told that while wilmer is hard to match, it's not THAT hard to match there - location & relatively more rigorous training were 2 reasons why some top applicants went for other programs. i've heard that lower ranked programs in desirable locations (SF, NY etc) are just as hard or if not harder to match than wilmer.

You're correct.

However, the program was Wilmer. It was an atypical year. I wanted to hold back the name, but now this thread is turning into a big rumor. 🙂

jackflash · Nov 27, 2003

Originally posted by diamonddoc
It was NYU/Manhattan EAE that went down to #11. How do I know this? Because a friend of mine who matched there last year was told how lucky he was that he was ranked 11th and was the last to get in.

Good luck in the match.

I really doubt that NYU only went down 11 spots to fill their positions. Why do programs like to brag about this anyways? It's not like anyone knows their ranking of the applicants.

PPPD · Nov 27, 2003

Originally posted by guttata
I contacted sfmatch and was told that the average number of offers is equal to the number of places that rank an applicant high enough to result in a match. Hope this helps...

Does this mean that the average successful applicant basically was ranked high enough to match at 4 programs, but ultimately ended up at the program highest on his/her the rank list that made an acceptance offer? I don't know if I am interpreting this correctly, but this seems too good to be true.

Question about ophtho match

PPPD

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Andrew_Doan

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Redhawk

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Andrew_Doan

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Andrew_Doan

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last minute

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