Rank list question- for a Pathology program

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pathtobe

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As for pathology, how competitive can it be for a popular program? Let's say Northwestern University, if they have 50 people in their rank list and 7 spots, do you have to be in the top 20 of their list to stand a chance? Or lower or higher than that? How far can they go generally? How about a more famous program, say U of Chicago or Cleveland Clinic ?

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Might as well ask whether the chicken or egg came first. There is no way to know. You have no further control over where you are on their rank lists. And in any case, it doesn't matter -- you simply list the programs in the order you want them.
 
As for pathology, how competitive can it be for a popular program? Let's say Northwestern University, if they have 50 people in their rank list and 7 spots, do you have to be in the top 20 of their list to stand a chance? Or lower or higher than that? How far can they go generally? How about a more famous program, say U of Chicago or Cleveland Clinic ?


It can be extremely competitive at the top programs. A lot of pathology programs are geared toward braniacs. Last year 16% of Pathology residents had a PhD (second only to Radiation Oncology).

The Path applicants that I know have checked out the details of what goes on at the programs... immunopath, biochem/genetics... all sorts of details. They seem to completely rule out programs based on these details. (I guess you can do that when you dont worry about call schedule, clinics) So, Id think that the programs themselves are detail oriented in what sort of applicant they want.

So, like aPD says... list programs in the order you want.... if you're going for the top programs, rank as many as you'd be willing to go to.
 
As for pathology, how competitive can it be for a popular program? Let's say Northwestern University, if they have 50 people in their rank list and 7 spots, do you have to be in the top 20 of their list to stand a chance? Or lower or higher than that? How far can they go generally? How about a more famous program, say U of Chicago or Cleveland Clinic ?

This is all program-dependent. Especially with pathology that tends to be a smaller residency. The top Americans medical school I had went to heavily favored their own and would keep two to three of their own. Leaving only one spot left.

The most interesting pathology, oddly enough, are not seen at the big institutions you mentioned, like Northwestern or UC. If you want to see crazy pathology, you best go to NYC, such as NYU Bellvue or Atlanta where Grady Hospital of Emory is well known to demonstrate. Even the county hospital at USC has a wide range of pathology.

To best answer your question, check out the NRMP outcome match statistics to see how many path programs need to be ranked.
 
This is all program-dependent. Especially with pathology that tends to be a smaller residency. The top Americans medical school I had went to heavily favored their own and would keep two to three of their own. Leaving only one spot left.

The most interesting pathology, oddly enough, are not seen at the big institutions you mentioned, like Northwestern or UC. If you want to see crazy pathology, you best go to NYC, such as NYU Bellvue or Atlanta where Grady Hospital of Emory is well known to demonstrate. Even the county hospital at USC has a wide range of pathology.

To best answer your question, check out the NRMP outcome match statistics to see how many path programs need to be ranked.

good idea...

8.1 for US seniors... 5.5 for independent applicants.
 
good idea...

8.1 for US seniors... 5.5 for independent applicants.

So this means US seniors need to rank more programs than independent applicants (I guess those include IMGs) to match in Pathology??
 
So this means US seniors need to rank more programs than independent applicants (I guess those include IMGs) to match in Pathology??

No, it just means that they DID rank more programs than independent applicants. Lots of possible reasons for this but the most commonly cited (by me anyway) is that, on the whole, US seniors get more interviews than independent applicants and therefore CAN rank more.
 
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