Questions about Residency Matching

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hi All,</p>

<p>I recently heard that for a NE med school, although the residency match list looks decent for 2009, there were about ~10% students who did not get matched at all.</p>

<p>I also heard that amidst this group, there were a few students who applied only to TOP residencies and some poor performers of STEP I; the former, I would attribute to the lack of a strong guidance committee, the latter to students' own potential.</p>

<p>Therefore, my questions are as below -</p>

<p>1) What % of students do not get matched in your school in most recent years?
2) What are the main reasons these graduates do not get matched for their choice residency (besides the ones mentioned above)?
3) How much guidance does one need to prepare in advance toward a successful match?
4) Do's and Don'ts regarding residency matching.</p>

<p>Appreciate your input.</p>

<h2>Here's their match list</h2>

<p>Specialty # of students<br>
Anesthesiology 12
Dermatology 2
Emergency Medicine 10
Family Medicine 7
General Surgery 16
Internal Medicine 26
Neurology 1
Neurosurgery 4
Obstetrics-Gynecology 4
Ophthalmology 2
Orthopaedic Surgery 7
Otolaryngology 1
Pathology 1
Pediatrics 15
Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 11
Plastic Surgery 2
Psychiatry 11
Radiology-Diagnostic 10
Radiation Oncology 1
Surgery-Preliminary 3
Urology 2
Total matched- 148</p>

2

<p>That’s what the Dean’s Letter is for. They shouldn’t be granting a Dean’s Letter to so many subpar applicants. Typically, you should only be recommended for a specialty for which you are actually competitive. This is a case where screening is beneficial.</p>

3

<p>What is a Dean’s letter? Is it an LOR?</p>

4

<p>So…</p>

<p>The Dean’s Letter is a fairly standardized profile that is sent out by every single medical school for EVERY single student going through the match. There is no screening in terms of whether you do or do not get one, because you do. In a great many specialties, the issuing of invitations for interviews does not occur until Dean’s letters are released through ERAS on November 1st. </p>

<p>The other issue at play here is that most medical schools are focused on helping their students pursue their career goals, not worried about who goes where. There are some big reasons for this, most notably that medical schools know precisely how tenuous the match is and how there’s really no reliable way for them to influence the outcomes. </p>

<p>Really, despite all the advising possible about having a good assortment of reaches, matches and safeties, the final decisions are left to the students. In terms of this website, you have to remember that the people going through the Match are in their mid to late 20’s, there are life considerations that really, really, really different than those who are applying for college or med school. Many of my classmates during med school started long term relationships, got married, had kids, and lots of other major life events that had very big impacts on where they looked towards moving to for residency.</p>

<p>The other thing is that for many of the “top” specialties, programs are only taking maybe 4 or 6 interns a year, if that. Some specialties may only be taking 2 applicants a year. I mean, there are only 5 ENT programs in the entire city of Chicago, and none of them take more than 4 interns a year, that’s at most 20 spots in a highly competitive specialty in a city that most people would love to move to. Trying to be in the top 10 candidates for any one program is a difficult thing to do, even if you have great scores, and a great interview day. Even if you are in the upper echelon of applicants, if you have a crappy interview or rub someone the wrong way, your position in the program’s rank list may suffer greatly. </p>

<p>Further, the applicant is certainly responsible in some ways, especially when going towards a competitive specialty. There’s a real tough balance between putting programs you absolutely don’t want to go to versus giving yourself all the possible chances to match. It’s a very, very tough call. Certainly you don’t want to end up someplace you hate, but the fear of not matching can be immense. </p>

<p>Really though the big lesson from this post is that you absolutely cannot make many conclusions from match lists, you don’t know the desires of the students, you don’t know how smartly they applied and what mattered to them in ranking their choices…</p>

5

<p>Thanks, BRM. It’s good to hear your opinions since you can interprete the information in context of your comprehensive experience.</p>