The best way to rank your residency programs

Raise your hands –mentally of course- if you think you should rank programs based on where you think you are likely to get a position. Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about the rest of you. Raise your hands if you think you need to rank them according to your own preference. Finally, raise your hands if you have no clue what to do. We all fall into one of these three groups. Hopefully, at the end of this blog post you will understand how the match process works, and also understand how you should rank your programs.

Here is a nice short video I found on YouTube that explains how the match works.

There are two takeaway points from this video. The first is to rank all your programs. The second is to rank programs in order of preference -from where you would love to go to where you wouldn’t. Lets go into detail.

Rank all the programs that interviewed you, from the places you liked to places you didn’t. People that don’t match either did not rank enough programs or did not have an offer from any of the places that interviewed them. It would suck to not match just because you chose to rank only the places that you loved. Right?

Ok, now you know you need to rank all of your programs. What is next? Rank your programs in terms of preference. Based on the video, you can see that so long as there is an offer from any one of the programs that you have on your rank order list you will match. By ranking your programs in terms of preference you give yourself the opportunity to match at your dream program in the best case scenario and in another program if things do not work as you planned.

The match is an expensive, unnerving experience that for many ends in the culmination of their hard work, residency. Place yourself in a position where you will become one of the many. Do not shoot yourself in the foot by not ranking all your programs. Give yourself the opportunity to match at your dream hospital by ranking in order of preference. Once you have done this, you have done all you can, and your part is done. All that’s left is the programs rank list, and that is out of your hands.

Good luck everyone!!! We are almost there. 49 days left.