What does it mean to "match outside the program"?

[zut212]

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Match Day is on March 15th of every year, and to a 4th year medical students, this is the most important day of the year. I've read such wildly contrasting points regarding the matching program. On one hand, I've read that 58% of 4th year medical students get matched to their desired 1st choice. Moreover, 90+% match into their top 5 choices. Is this true?

Finally, what does it mean to match "outside the program"?

 

[ACSurgeon]

Match Day is on March 15th of every year, and to a 4th year medical students, this is the most important day of the year. I've read such wildly contrasting points regarding the matching program. On one hand, I've read that 58% of 4th year medical students get matched to their desired 1st choice. Moreover, 90+% match into their top 5 choices. Is this true?

Finally, what does it mean to match "outside the program"?

not sure I've ever heard it described this way, but the two exceptions where you don't match on match day are:

1- FMG's who can actually be offered and accept a residency position outside the match (US students can't do this) and
2- The scramble: this is for folks who don't match on match day but find a vaccant spot and get it. No one relies on this method of securing a spot (it's a last resort type of thing).

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

On one hand, I've read that 58% of 4th year medical students get matched to their desired 1st choice. Moreover, 90+% match into their top 5 choices. Is this true?

If you told us the source where you read this information, we could better evaluate whether or not the information is true.

 

[hurdlepup]

Its all in here! Pretty interesting, I think.


http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2010.pdf

Page 37 has the breakdown by candidate ranking.

 

[da8s0859q]

Its all in here! Pretty interesting, I think.


http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2010.pdf

Page 37 has the breakdown by candidate ranking.

Oh, that's cool. Thanks for posting.

(For anyone making the same ******* mistake that I did, he means page 37 of the PDF as viewed in Reader / Preview / etc.; it's page 29 of the actual PDF document.)

 

[JonnyG]

Match isnt always March 15th it is the third thursday in march.................and actually after looking at the nrmp website it is now being moved to the third friday of march to accomodate the managed scramble.

 

[Law2Doc]

Match Day is on March 15th of every year, and to a 4th year medical students, this is the most important day of the year. I've read such wildly contrasting points regarding the matching program. On one hand, I've read that 58% of 4th year medical students get matched to their desired 1st choice. Moreover, 90+% match into their top 5 choices. Is this true?

A lot of your statements aren't right. The Match day is in the same week of march each year but isn't frequently on March 15. They need to set up the week so you can find out results, then have a scramble before having the match day, so a fixed date doesn't work.

And see the NRMP press releases to get accurate match percentages.
Best not to go on anything "wildly contrasting". The NRMP lays it all out for you and is the only resource from which to get their data.

 

[turquoiseblue]

i think "matching outside the program" means going for the post match scramble, or even after that, and not going through NRMP or SFMP to obtain your position. some programs do not participate in NRMP or sanfrancisco match.

 

[Law2Doc]

i think "matching outside the program" means going for the post match scramble, or even after that, and not going through NRMP or SFMP to obtain your position. some programs do not participate in NRMP or sanfrancisco match.

I've not actually heard of the phrase "match outside the program" and think the OP probably misheard the term, based on the other inaccuracies in the initial post. Probably is talking about either prematch or scramble, but I don't know how that's "outside" the program (ie it's outside the match, but not the program).

 

[turquoiseblue]

I've not actually heard of the phrase "match outside the program" and think the OP probably misheard the term, based on the other inaccuracies in the initial post. Probably is talking about either prematch or scramble, but I don't know how that's "outside" the program (ie it's outside the match, but not the program).

true. the OP must mean "programs participating outside the match", which is a phrase i've seen before.

 

[Ronin2258]

true. the OP must mean "programs participating outside the match", which is a phrase i've seen before.

There are a few, but they are rare. Some still require you use ERAS (Advocate Illinois Masonic as an example.)

There are also a few that participate in neither ERAS or NRMP. ACGME should have the master list. It is a bit of internet legwork to run through the web sites to see which ones do and do not participate in either ERAS or the Match.

 

[turquoiseblue]

There are a few, but they are rare. Some still require you use ERAS (Advocate Illinois Masonic as an example.)

There are also a few that participate in neither ERAS or NRMP. ACGME should have the master list. It is a bit of internet legwork to run through the web sites to see which ones do and do not participate in either ERAS or the Match.

frieda has a function on it to search for nonNRMP or nonERAS programs or both, but i dont know how accurate it is.

that function is under "choose optional criteron" on the website:
https://freida.ama-assn.org/Freida/user/viewProgramSearch.do