Can programs find out where an applicant ranked them after he/she matches into their program?
Also, if a ranked applicant DOES NOT match at a particular program, does that program know where the applicant matched?
I have searched for it on SDN..but have read different opinions. So aPD your final word on this?
thanks
Regarding your first question, a program does not know how the applicant has ranked it.
Regarding your second question, we only know where an applicant matches
if we ranked her. In general, we do not know how an applicant has ranked us.
Here are a few illustrative examples:
1. Bob [generic name] comes to our program and professes his love. We like Bob. When it comes time to create our rank list, we rank Bob highly, at #18. There are a lot of applicants that we like
better than Bob, but we like him a lot. In fact, given the average applicant competitiveness over the past years, we know that we generally dip down to #20-25, say, to fill our program completely. Therefore, we tell Bob "you have a pretty decent chance at matching here" because Bob will probably match at our program if he wants to come here. However, there is no absolute guarantee. (For example, there could be a freak spike in the desirability of our program, and that year we only have to go down to #10 to fill. Sucks to be Bob that year, but there's nothing we could do about it.) On Match Day, we find out that Bob matches to our program. Here is what we know and what we don't know:
- We know that Bob must have ranked us highly, at least high enough to match. We do not know whether Bob ranked us #1, #2, etc.
- Bob knows that we ranked him highly, at least high enough to match. If Bob becomes a PGY3 in our program and understands that, in a typical year, we usually dip down to #20 in our rank list to fully fill our program, then he knows that we probably ranked him within the top 20. But he does not know whether we ranked him #7 or whether we ranked him #16.
2. Carl [generic name] comes to our program and says 'I will be ranking you highly'. In several emails and phone calls he relays the impression that he will rank us #1. We like him too. A lot. When it comes time to create our rank list, we rank Carl as a top 10 candidate -- meaning that if he ranks us #1, then he is guaranteed to match here. On Match Day, we find that Carl has matched to MGH. Here is what we know and what we don't know:
- We know Carl did not rank us #1.
- We know that Carl ranked MGH ahead of us.
- We don't know where Carl ranked MGH (i.e., he could have ranked MGH #1, he could have ranked them #5).
3. Nancy [generic name] comes to our program for an interview. Her credentials were outstanding enough for us to offer her an interview. But when she comes on interview day, we realize that she is not a good fit for our program, for many, many reasons. In fact, we think she is such a poor fit that we would prefer to not rank her at all and have to
scramble for another candidate rather than take her. However, the program director says, "I don't think we're going to have to scramble. But I'd be curious to see where she ends up. Let's put her in last on our rank list". During January and February, the program director receives several emails and phone calls from Nancy where she professes her love for our program and pledges her firstborn if she is able to match here. On Match Day, we find that Nancy has matched to Columbia. Here is what we know and what we don't know:
- We know that we ranked Nancy last on our list.
- We know that Columbia must have ranked Nancy fairly highly, at least enough for her to be able to match there. However, we do not know whether Columbia "ranked her to match". We really don't know anything else about how Columbia ranked her.
- We know that Nancy must have ranked Columbia highly, at least enough to match there. We don't know how Nancy ranked us -- we don't know whether she ranked us high or low. We don't even know whether she ranked us at all.
-AT.
