For the base fee, up to 15 programs can be ranked. You can rank more than 15, but you start paying additional for each.
To clarify Peustow's post, it was Medical College of Wisconsin, not Wisconsin (ie University of, ie Madison) that went 5/7. UW filled. I liked both programs and am surprised that either MCW or UW would go unfilled. They were both on my ROL.
This year I interviewed at >2 gen surgery programs that each had one or more categorical spots unfilled last year. I was surprised that these programs had been unfilled because I had considered them to be well reputed and very desireable. The PDs were candid and accepted the responsibility for the programs not filling, citing poor match strategies (e.g. not interviewing deep enough, not ranking deep enough, etc). This year those programs filled. So, one answer the above question - multiple openings may point to a poor match strategy.
Here's my question: suppose you are a PD, if you've completed interviews for all your candidates, do you compose your ROL low enough to include candidates with red flags just so you are less likely to have your program go unfilled, or do you choose not to list candidates with whom you don't feel comfortable and hope to fill with better candidates in the scramble? Additionally, as a program director, do you feel that you can pick out the red flag candidates during the scramble? These could be tough decisions, especially in a specialty that is not accustomed to having good programs go unfilled.
Regarding UVa, I think they made a tactical error by sending out that secondary application. It was an email form that requested nearly all of the same information that had been on our ERAS apps. I didn't bother to return the secondary app, choosing to withdraw my application rather than take the chance of matching at a program that was already giving signs of inefficiency and scut, even pre-interview. Don't think that I'm lazy or unwilling to pull my share of the scut, but when programs were extending interview offers and I started pruning down the number of interviews I wanted to do, that secondary application was enough to keep UVa off my list.
With Brown, they remain among the programs that let us know on interview day that they will not be contacting anyone with follow-up letters, emails, or phone calls. Does that make them cold or antiquated? No. It's just their interpretation of the match guidelines, but it could also make it hard for them to compete with the programs that are following up with warm fuzzies. I didn't see any other reasons why they would not fill. They were upper-half on my ROL.
