I was informed by many people that typically there are many unfilled spots every year for anesthesia. If this is really the case, how difficult to get a spot via scramble? thanks
If by "many" you mean 20 or 30, then yah. How hard is it? Very. Not like ortho scramble hard, but let's just say that your odds of matching into anesthesia are far greater than scrambling. So if you don't match, you most likely won't successfully scramble. In addition to your peers from anesthesia trying to scramble, you will be up against new competition from other more competitive specialties.
I think there were 7 unfilled seats 3 years ago across the country. My home program had one of them (the PD was replaced after that) and a guy in my class that didn't match into ENT walked down to the ORs with the Dean and secured the open spot with the Anesthesia Chairman. So, the fax machine took 300-400 scramble applications and someone with a connection took the spot.
I am going to think about this story every time someone tells me to NOT RANK any program at which I would not be happy matching.
Scrambling is difficult. The above statement is true. I would not plan on being saved in the scramble. Cambie
Well, not ranking any program that you wouldn't be happy to match at is bad advice. You should not ranks prorams that you would be unhappy to match at. Subtle but important difference. Trying to find the perfect program and accepting nothing less is a great way to scramble. But you shouldn't rank a program where you would be miserable either. It's better to scramble and/or repeat a year. You just have to think long and hard about where the line between tolerable and intolerable is.
The nrmp web site has data on this going back many years. Also http://www.grogono.com/nrmp/index.php (doesn't seem to have been updated in a few years)
