Role of various faculty on rank list

[spottydotty]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm sorry if this had been addressed before or if it is supposed to be more secretive, but I was wondering what goes into a residency program's rank list and what influence various other attendings have?

I'd guess it varies, but for most, is there a committee? Does the PD always have final say? Do they sit around and discuss each applicant after interviews? What exactly is the role of the Assistant Program Director? Other attendings in the department?

I'm asking because at my school, practically every student seems to have latched on to one member or another of the small number of faculty in the specialty I am applying to. I was just wondering what kind of influence these people might have, good or bad...

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I think it depends much on the field and the size of the program/department. If you're talking about an IM program that matches 40 people, they're going to rank 600 people, and it's unlikely that moving around the rank list a few slots is going to matter much. If it's a field with only 1 or 2 slots, then connections become very important.

Every program is different, so there is no "secret playbook"