Residency: Did you match into the state of your choosing or did you have to relocate?

[artist27]

There's really no way to determine just from looking at a match list whether people match to locations they want to be at or if they must relocate. Just curious to see how many people get matched to the geographic location they want!

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[BoardingDoc]

There's really no way to determine just from looking at a match list whether people match to locations they want to be at or if they must relocate. Just curious to see how many people get matched to the geographic location they want!

This question is meaningless.

If you want to live in SoCal but you ranked a program in NYC number 1 because it's better and you match there... is that a "I got my top location" in your poll? If you got 10 interviews and you matched at your top choice but you never got an interview at your 1st choice program in a different location, did you get your top location? If you want to live in Dallas but the only program you interviewed at there was terrible and you ranked it last... but you ultimately matched there.... did you get your top location? There are a million more variations on this theme, but I think you get my point.

The real question is how far down your rank list most people go. And overall, about half of applicants (who match) get their 1st choice, and 75% get in their top 3. See more info here: http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Main-Match-Result-and-Data-2018.pdf
Info I'm referencing is on page 49/128.

That said, this trend can vary wildly from one specialty to another, and there is no guarantee that you have the same chance of landing your first choice program if you're specializing in FM vs say Derm.

 

[Mad Jack]

This is going to vary based on specialty. There are more programs within two hours of my house in my backup specialty than there were residencies in my primary specialty of choice within a ten state area. Easily could have matched much, much closer to home if I settled on specialty.

 

[mvenus929]

Your answer choices are not mutually exclusive. I would’ve had to move unless I got my 5th choice on my rank list (which was my home program). And even then, I probably still would have moved.

Now, did I get my #1? No. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t match well.

 

[LucidSplash]

For residency, I got my number 1 AND moved several states away. And will likely do the same when I take my first job out of fellowship. Your poll assumes that everyone ranks a place in their current state as number 1.

 

[artist27]

Thank you very much for all the responses. As evident, I don’t know too much about the matching process yet. I don’t plan on doing a competitive residency and I have a family so what I was trying to determine is if I could stay in Illinois with my family, or if we’d basically be screwed when the time comes. Basically, my top priority in matching would be geographic location to keep my family together, assuming a non competitive residency (I’m attending a DO school anyways)

 

[LucidSplash]

Thank you very much for all the responses. As evident, I don’t know too much about the matching process yet. I don’t plan on doing a competitive residency and I have a family so what I was trying to determine is if I could stay in Illinois with my family, or if we’d basically be screwed when the time comes. Basically, my top priority in matching would be geographic location to keep my family together, assuming a non competitive residency (I’m attending a DO school anyways)

The answer will be predicated on how many DO-friendly programs in your specialty are in your preferred geographic location.

 

[NeurologyHopeful2018]

even how far down your ROL you matched is not a good indicator....my friend matched no. 8 - but interviewed at all top programs for Neurology. Its the quality of the program you matched to that matters.

 

[RangerBob]

Thank you very much for all the responses. As evident, I don’t know too much about the matching process yet. I don’t plan on doing a competitive residency and I have a family so what I was trying to determine is if I could stay in Illinois with my family, or if we’d basically be screwed when the time comes. Basically, my top priority in matching would be geographic location to keep my family together, assuming a non competitive residency (I’m attending a DO school anyways)

It depends on your specialty. If you're applying for IM or FM, and have decent board scores and otherwise decent candidate (ie., you interiew decently, etc.), the odds are you can match somewhere in the Chicago region because there are so many programs. If you just need IL state, the odds go up. But if you're applying to smaller specialties or more competitive specialties, then you probably need to broaden your geographical region to optimize your chances of matching.

You don't have to rank programs outside the area you want to be in. That could result in not matching, but then you could try to SOAP for the positions closest to where you want to be. Or you could talk your spouse into relocating so you could keep your family together should you match further away.

 

[DrMcCoyDO]

I ranked in the state of my choosing AND I’m moving.