Question about ranking/matching

[Poety]

I know OPD, leave me alone, I have to know

So say you go on 12 interviews, and you rank ALL 12 programs, will it matter what order you rank them in for you to match? What I mean is - I was reading some old posts, and some people ranked 12 programs and still had to scramble - whats that about? How is that even possible? Did that mean they weren't ranked by ANY of the programs they applied to? Or does it mean they made their ROL bad so that they couldn't get a match? Like, should they have put some of their lower ranked programs higher or would that have made a difference at all...

I guess I just don't see how thats possible to have 12 interviews, go on all of them, rank all of them, and not match?~!

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[psychedoc2b]

I know OPD, leave me alone, I have to know

So say you go on 12 interviews, and you rank ALL 12 programs, will it matter what order you rank them in for you to match? What I mean is - I was reading some old posts, and some people ranked 12 programs and still had to scramble - whats that about? How is that even possible? Did that mean they weren't ranked by ANY of the programs they applied to? Or does it mean they made their ROL bad so that they couldn't get a match? Like, should they have put some of their lower ranked programs higher or would that have made a difference at all...

I guess I just don't see how thats possible to have 12 interviews, go on all of them, rank all of them, and not match?~!

I believe you will match. Like others say, if you don't like a program, then don't rank it. I don't think the programs will know where you ranked them either. If someone did not match anywhere, it could be possible that either they were not ranked highly or were not ranked at all.

Just my two cents,
psychedoc2b

BTW, if there is anybody who should worry about not matching, then that would be me!

Take care and hang in there!

 

[Poety]

Thanks psychdoc You always have nice things to say. But I still don't understand how poorly someone could do on the interview trail to not match at any of the 12 places they applied to - thats awful. I'd sue the NRMP for making me pay all that money=-- TWICE. I'd do it ya know, ok maybe I wouldn't but I'd be REALLY upset with them.

 

[nortomaso]

I know OPD, leave me alone, I have to know

So say you go on 12 interviews, and you rank ALL 12 programs, will it matter what order you rank them in for you to match? ~!

From the NRMP website:

"The process begins with an attempt to place an applicant into the program indicated as most preferred on that applicant's list. If the applicant cannot be matched to this first choice program, an attempt is then made to place the applicant into the second choice program, and so on, until the applicant obtains a tentative match, or all the applicant's choices have been exhausted.

An applicant can be tentatively matched to a program in this process if the program also ranks the applicant on its rank order list, and either:

1. the program has an unfilled position. In this case, there is room in the program to make a tentative match between the applicant and program.
2. the program does not have an unfilled position, but the applicant is more attractive to the program than another applicant who is already tentatively matched to the program. In this case, the applicant who is the least preferred current match in the program is removed from the program, to make room for a tentative match with the more preferred applicant.

Matches are "tentative" because an applicant who is matched to a program at one point in the matching process may be removed from the program at some later point, to make room for an applicant more preferred by the program, as described in the second case above."


My understanding of this is as follws: let's say you rank 12 programs but only one of them, Program X, ranks you. Whether or not you rank Program X first or 12th should not affect your chances of matching into the program because anyone whom the program ranked below you on their list will be bumped to make room for you. If this is the case then the only reason programs like to rank applicants highly who have ranked them highly is so they can brag that they didn't have to go deep into their list.

 

[Poety]

ohhhh I get it now! Thanks Norto! Its a shame to have gone on so many interviews (for some I read last year) just to get bumped off the list that TOTALLY sucks. But then again, I'm not too fond of "the match" anyway.