Dr. Ragu
Rank order list
I have been asked several questions regarding the match. Complimenting to what Raja Chandra posted today, wanted to do some additional worthy points
1. Should I rank a program as number 1 that sent me a nice follow up reply to my thank you email after interview?
A: NRMP designed the match to give you the best chance to go to a program where you want to go. Your ranking should absolutely depend on where you would like to go, regardless of how competitive the program was or how you performed in interview that day. Many program directors do clinical work, meetings along with residency interviews and wont have time to reply to your thank you emails. Many would reply generically like “It was pleasure to have you here, good luck” etx. Those may or may not be really true. Don’t get carried away if a smaller program replies well to you and says how good a candidate you are and would be a pleasure to have you. Go by where you think you best fit in.
A: NRMP designed the match to give you the best chance to go to a program where you want to go. Your ranking should absolutely depend on where you would like to go, regardless of how competitive the program was or how you performed in interview that day. Many program directors do clinical work, meetings along with residency interviews and wont have time to reply to your thank you emails. Many would reply generically like “It was pleasure to have you here, good luck” etx. Those may or may not be really true. Don’t get carried away if a smaller program replies well to you and says how good a candidate you are and would be a pleasure to have you. Go by where you think you best fit in.
2. What should be the main factors determining rank order?
A: First and foremost is your career plan. For medicine, are you planning to be a hospitalist, primary care or planning fellowships. If you are planning fellowships after IM, regardless of where you do residency, 95% will match if you apply to endocrine, rheum and 100% will match in nephro, ID, geriatrics(they have lesser number of applicants than spots). The most competitive one is GI, followed by cardio, hem onc and pulm critical care in that order. Consider programs with in house fellowships first. Even if it is a small program, having in house fellowship will allow you exposure to fellows for academic research and boost your CV. You have high likelihood of getting better letters in programs with in house fellowship.
A: First and foremost is your career plan. For medicine, are you planning to be a hospitalist, primary care or planning fellowships. If you are planning fellowships after IM, regardless of where you do residency, 95% will match if you apply to endocrine, rheum and 100% will match in nephro, ID, geriatrics(they have lesser number of applicants than spots). The most competitive one is GI, followed by cardio, hem onc and pulm critical care in that order. Consider programs with in house fellowships first. Even if it is a small program, having in house fellowship will allow you exposure to fellows for academic research and boost your CV. You have high likelihood of getting better letters in programs with in house fellowship.
Another important factor to consider is family. Remember that residency is very stressful and you have to survive in that town for 3 years minimum. You will have days where you need a lot of support from friends and family. Some programs are incredibly well united where residents have good support systems and gel along well for fun and moral support. If you have close family member close to a program, you should probably consider it strongly. Also programs in small towns away from big cities can be very boring. If you are a city type of person, you may have to rank such programs higher. Of course, there are a lot other priorities for others. This is a general outline.
3. Should I go for second look to programs that in top 3?
A: It may or may not be helpful. You can request the programs to come for second look but remember if they say yes, you absolutely have to go. If you are planning to go back to home country after interviews, don’t risk requesting second look and not being available to go if they say yes. Some programs rank these candidates higher but those were the days when very few ppl went for second looks. Given volume of requests these days, programs may not really consider it as strongly. Some programs give second look to select few who they ranked higher.
A: It may or may not be helpful. You can request the programs to come for second look but remember if they say yes, you absolutely have to go. If you are planning to go back to home country after interviews, don’t risk requesting second look and not being available to go if they say yes. Some programs rank these candidates higher but those were the days when very few ppl went for second looks. Given volume of requests these days, programs may not really consider it as strongly. Some programs give second look to select few who they ranked higher.
4. J1 vs H1 program in ranking?
A: eternal debate. I am not gonna go into full details. If you are very career oriented and want one of the competitive fellowships, go for J1. If you are considering only a career in hospitalist or primary care, take H1. That being said, waiver jobs are still available on J1 in plenty for primary care.
A: eternal debate. I am not gonna go into full details. If you are very career oriented and want one of the competitive fellowships, go for J1. If you are considering only a career in hospitalist or primary care, take H1. That being said, waiver jobs are still available on J1 in plenty for primary care.
5. Should I rank highly a program with no in house fellowships but gave me better vibe on my interview day vs a better community/university program with in house fellowships but I didn’t feel the connect that day?
A: This is a difficult answer. Do the vibe on interview day really matter? Probably not. Should you base your rankings on it? My personal opinion – def not. There are some programs where residents would say there are lot of internal issues and you probably are better off avoiding ranking them high. But your interview day experience can vary from poor to excellent depending on subtle things that you may not realize(like commute, no one welcoming in the morning, truncated tour of the facility, poorly made lunch sandwich). It is not in your best interest to make a huge decision based on that single day. Second looks may give a better opinion if you are confused whether to rank that program high or not. But you should go with your career goals and rank programs that fit in your criteria
ROL - Rank order list entry starts tomorrow and the final submission is on 24th Feb. There seems to be a lot of misconceptions. So, here you go.
1. Your match probability won't be affected by when you make your list. You can make it on 24th Feb itself too.
2. Can you rank programs that didn't offer you an interview? Yes, you can.
3. Does ranking programs which didn't offer you an interview increase your chances of matching? No, it doesn't. Let's say you wanted to marry Angelina Jolie and created your wedding invitations accordingly. On the day of the anticipated marriage you can suit up and go to the venue with friends and family, but Angelina Jolie wouldn't turn up. Because, she had no clue that you exist!
4. Should you rank based on where you want to match or based on where you think you have higher chances of matching? It's advised to rank programs based on where you want to match.
5. What is the difference between ranking based on where you want to match and based on where you think you have higher chances of matching? Either way, It won't affect your chances of matching overall. But, it decides where you would end up matching. So, rank the program you like the most at the top even if it is Harvard and you are an Img with bad scores.
More simplified explanation: Let's say you had 2 interviews, one from Harvard and another one from a community hospital. Scenario1: You love Harvard and so you ranked Harvard as 1st choice. If Harvard ranks you high enough then you will match there. If Harvard doesn't rank you, then the algorithm would check if the community hospital ranked you high enough. If you were ranked high, you will match or else you won't match at all.
Scenario2: You love Harvard but you ranked community hospital as 1st choice since you thought Harvard wouldn't rank you. Now, if the community program ranks you high enough then you will match there and you will lose an opportunity to match at Harvard even if Harvard ranks you number 1 on their list.
A: This is a difficult answer. Do the vibe on interview day really matter? Probably not. Should you base your rankings on it? My personal opinion – def not. There are some programs where residents would say there are lot of internal issues and you probably are better off avoiding ranking them high. But your interview day experience can vary from poor to excellent depending on subtle things that you may not realize(like commute, no one welcoming in the morning, truncated tour of the facility, poorly made lunch sandwich). It is not in your best interest to make a huge decision based on that single day. Second looks may give a better opinion if you are confused whether to rank that program high or not. But you should go with your career goals and rank programs that fit in your criteria
ROL - Rank order list entry starts tomorrow and the final submission is on 24th Feb. There seems to be a lot of misconceptions. So, here you go.
1. Your match probability won't be affected by when you make your list. You can make it on 24th Feb itself too.
2. Can you rank programs that didn't offer you an interview? Yes, you can.
3. Does ranking programs which didn't offer you an interview increase your chances of matching? No, it doesn't. Let's say you wanted to marry Angelina Jolie and created your wedding invitations accordingly. On the day of the anticipated marriage you can suit up and go to the venue with friends and family, but Angelina Jolie wouldn't turn up. Because, she had no clue that you exist!
4. Should you rank based on where you want to match or based on where you think you have higher chances of matching? It's advised to rank programs based on where you want to match.
5. What is the difference between ranking based on where you want to match and based on where you think you have higher chances of matching? Either way, It won't affect your chances of matching overall. But, it decides where you would end up matching. So, rank the program you like the most at the top even if it is Harvard and you are an Img with bad scores.
More simplified explanation: Let's say you had 2 interviews, one from Harvard and another one from a community hospital. Scenario1: You love Harvard and so you ranked Harvard as 1st choice. If Harvard ranks you high enough then you will match there. If Harvard doesn't rank you, then the algorithm would check if the community hospital ranked you high enough. If you were ranked high, you will match or else you won't match at all.
Scenario2: You love Harvard but you ranked community hospital as 1st choice since you thought Harvard wouldn't rank you. Now, if the community program ranks you high enough then you will match there and you will lose an opportunity to match at Harvard even if Harvard ranks you number 1 on their list.
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