Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate, but the only people who really know how good a match list is, are the people in that particular class at that particular school. Nobody else is really going to know who in the class got their first/second choice vs. who got totally hosed, and approximately where those people ranked in relation to everyone else.
Also, the match list tells you how many people matched in a competitive field. It doesn't tell you how many people wanted to do so, and ended up matching in a backup field instead.
Also, a school may be very good at placing people in certain fields, whereas applicants have to fend for themselves in others.
Unless you know the stats of everyone listed, and some information on what their geographical preference was, along with where they matched (and where they got interviews), there's really no way to evaluate how good a school's residency placement is.
However, there is one pretty solid indicator: if you see a bunch of people who only matched to prelim years, that's a school where the faculty aren't looking out for their students. No student wants to be unmatched, and a good school will advise them well on the front end, and make phone calls on the back end to ensure the best possible match for them.
But again, unless you can see their grades and scores, you can't really tell whether it was someone in the bottom quarter trying for derm who didn't match, or a top 10% AOA applicant to general surgery who had to scramble into a prelim year instead. The former is just stupidity on the part of the applicant, the latter is a failure of the school.
