unfilled positions

[Arctic Char]

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so radiology is consistenly "competitive", and many people go unmatched every year (around 150-180 in the last four years). but then there are always positions that go UNfilled.

is it that these programs would rather go unfilled than have the "unmatched applicants"? or is it a matter of not hooking up in the scramble (which i find hard to believe)? i don't get it. theoretically, if i were a relatively decent applicant and i applied to every program out there, would i find a home eventually?

 

[colbgw02]

so radiology is consistenly "competitive", and many people go unmatched every year (around 150-180 in the last four years). but then there are always positions that go UNfilled.

is it that these programs would rather go unfilled than have the "unmatched applicants"? or is it a matter of not hooking up in the scramble (which i find hard to believe)? i don't get it. theoretically, if i were a relatively decent applicant and i applied to every program out there, would i find a home eventually?

multifactorial.

within a spectrum, specialty competitiveness tends to be cyclical - 15 years ago radiology couldn't beg enough people to sign up. while radiology remains highly competitive, i think it reached its peak probably about 3 years ago - when there were only 8 unmatched spots in the country.

after that, i think program directors got a little too greedy, and they stopped ranking qualified applicants because they were used to getting better ones. as a result, 2 years ago there were something like 60 unmatched radiology slots.

maybe the PDs still haven't wised up that they can't just have residents who were AOA with a 260, but then again, i'm sure there are plenty of programs that would rather go unfilled than accept what they deem to be an unqualified applicant.

as far as the scramble, i really have no idea. my guess is that what happens is exactly what its name implies.

 

[Arctic Char]

thanks for the reply.

i want to do rads, and i'm told "its not that hard to get rads" . . . i have yet to do step 1, so its all a bit premature. but i was curious about those unmatched positions. i mean, if i were a PD i'd think that if work needs to be done, hire bodies - especially those that are probably eager to do the work.


so a 260 will do me well, eh? hmmmm . . . .

 

[poloace]

those positions that go 'unfilled' are never really 'unfilled.' in speaking with a program director recently, he let me in on some secrets... he informed me that what some places do is have (for example) 10 spots available - they'll only rank 9 or so people so that they have a spot that goes 'unfilled' in which they're trying to get someone else in without making them go through the match. i guess there's nothing technically 'illegal' about that - but, it does make it seem that there are available spots when there really aren't.

 

[Docxter]

Some places that are left with an unfilled position in the match, may elect not to fill it in the scramble. They know that there are good people every year that want to switch into radiology from other specialties. Some programs (and I know some who have done that) just save the spot for these applicants rather than the person who could not get into any program in the match.