Below is advice from Dr. Carol MacLaren, Associate Dean for Student Affairs, regarding the matching process, advanced specialty matches, and couples matching. Information regarding match results can be found here.
It is important when you rank order your programs that you rank them in the order you truly prefer them. Your choices should not be influenced by whether a program will rank you high, low, or not at all.
In regard to deciding how many programs to rank, please remember two important points. First, if you are matched to a program, you are legally bound to that program for at least one year. Second, do not overly interpret comments by the residency programs’ faculty or directors that they are going to rank you highly to mean that matching at that program is a sure thing. For example, a program may identify twenty (20) candidates out of 200 applicants whom they would love to have in their program; however, if they only have six (6) positions, it is not possible to match with all twenty. Thus, a message that you are in the highly ranked group does not mean that you can count on being matched at that program.
The two points above are critical as you begin to decide how many programs to rank. You will want to weigh carefully the fact that you will be legally bound if matched, against the possibility of being unmatched. A source that may help you in drawing this fine line is the match result books from the last two or three years. By looking at which programs had unfilled positions over a number of years, you may be able to make a better decision for yourself about either deleting a program which you are uncomfortable ranking or including the program rather than having to choose from among the options that may be available on “Scramble Day”. These result books are available for review from Michelle Fleming in the Student Affairs Office. When you are looking at these result books, please be certain that you do not misinterpret openings that may be a one year “fluke” in a program being unfilled.
For those of you who are applying in specialties that have openings at the second year level, I want to be certain that you are remembering the various options open to you. First, you may find that these specialties have both categorical [C] and advanced [A] programs. Categorical means that the program is complete. When you list a categorical program on your rank order list and match at that program, you begin there in a first year position in June of 2008. If the program is at the advanced level for students, this means you will enter the advanced specialty in June of 2009. Thus, you also need to apply for a one-year preliminary medicine, preliminary surgery, or transitional program. Some of the advanced specialties will prefer that you apply to the one-year program within their institution; others will not care where you do that first year program. In addition, if the one-year position must be in the same institution as the advanced specialty, be sure you understand whether you have to submit a separate application for that program, or whether the advanced specialty office coordinates that for you. Unfortunately, this process is really variable among the specialty programs, so the best advice I can give you is to make sure you find out how each program’s process works. Some of the program offices may be surprised at your questions because they do not realize how variable things are across the country.
When you do your rank order list, please remember that the match algorithm considers the match to your advanced specialty as the top priority. In other words, if you list a specialty that begins at the second year as your number one (#1) choice and you match at that program but not to one of the preliminary programs which you have ranked on the supplemental list, you will be matched to that advanced program and will be left unmatched for the preliminary year. The computer process does not continue on to your second choice to determine if there is a complete match option for you.
Another strategy in developing your rank order list, which you should discuss with your career counselor and which you may want to discuss further with me, relates to whether you should consider listing any of your preliminary programs at the bottom of your primary rank order list. The major reason for doing this is that, if you do not match in your specialty, you would then have an opportunity to match at one of the preliminary programs of interest to you. The advantage of doing this is that you will have secured a good preliminary program rather than having to find a position from unfilled programs that may not be where you want to be. The major disadvantage is that, if you match to the preliminary program, you are legally bound to it, and if there is a categorical specialty program open on “Scramble Day”, you are not eligible to negotiate for that position. You would, however, be eligible to negotiate for any advanced programs in your specialty that begins at the second year because there would be no conflict with the first year preliminary match. Again, one of the sources for trying to make this decision is to look at what programs were unfilled after the match over the last several years to see whether it is better to be totally unmatched so that you have the option to look at categorical [C] as well as the advanced [A] positions, or whether there is an advantage in matching to a strong preliminary program and then negotiating solely for the advanced positions. Finally, the issue of the Medicare reimbursement mechanism for graduate medical education creates another dilemma for decisions on matching to a one-year position only and the impact of that on your eligibility for future funding in a complete program.
There are several of you who are entering your rank order lists as couples. The matching program provides you with a lot of latitude in developing pairs of programs for matching as a couple. The permutations on these can be relatively complicated, and thus I suggest you spend time developing your strategy for the rank order list. I believe that I have already met with most of you; however, please feel free to make an appointment with me before you enter your rank order list to be certain that you have considered all of the options open to you.
If part of the couple is unmatched on "Scramble Day", the NRMP will provide us with the match results for the couple so you will know what city to consider.
If you have any questions regarding this process, or wish to make an appointment with Dr. MacLaren, please contact her assistant, Michelle Fleming, by either calling the office at (206) 543-5561 or emailing her at flemingm@u.washington.edu.