a match list isn't particularly useful for anyone who isnt a current student at that school. We like to post them here on SDN because we're neurotic data-maniacs that enjoy obsessing over things like this. I'm not saying thats a bad thing, cuz I do genuinely enjoy looking at big data dumps, almost regardless of the data lol. And when you're deciding between school A and B a match list can potentially be a helpful tool, but really only when you're trying to make a very narrow decision between schools that are potentially very different in their graduating outcomes. Most schools match lists outside of like the top 15 or so schools are nearly indistiguisshable.
And it's not necessarily all that useful a PR tool for med schools. Match lists are difficult to interpret and unless you know the people on the list personally there is a lot hidden information that makes using match lists as some kind of measuring tool very, very hard.
In fact, for PR it is generally better for a med school to say things like "50% of our grads are going into primary care!!!" even if the real number with PC as a career goal is like 10-15%, which is exactly what every single school does every year. They dont generally advertise grads skipping residency for biotech, banking, consulting, venture capital, or research even though all of that information might ALSO be of interest to potential students.
So they're not really hiding anything, it's just more a of a hassle than its worth it to the school to do an anonymized press release when it's not clear that it'll attract more donor money or applicant attn than just sending out a more general match day press release.
"We're going to med school to match into a location / specialty of interest" is a very narrow view of what happens in med school. There are some who stay true to their premed goals coming in, but the vast majority will change multiple times throughout med school. If you want an answer to "can i match X from Y?" the answer is yes, but it'll be easier from some X than others depending on Y. There's really not that much more to it.
