How medical students can game Match Day

On March 17 at noon, about 18,000 medical students will open envelopes telling them where they will spend the next several years of their lives. It’s residency Match Day, and for many, that letter is one of the most important they will ever receive. The process is supposed to be straightforward. Medical students, like me, submit applications to hospitals and health systems where they would like to work. Then, if they like what they read, residency committees invite us for interviews. In late February, both applicants and programs rank their preferences, and an algorithm matches us up in a way that most efficiently allocates training positions. It’s not perfect — every year there are empty slots and a few doctors who don’t match. The process is also supposed to be ethical. The National Resident Matching Program says the people running residency programs can’t ask applicants where else they are applying, can’t ask them to communicate after the interview, and can’t themselves reach out to prospective applicants after the interviews in a way that might influence their rank lists. Many programs do these things anyway. So do many medical students. There’s too much at stake: eight years of college and medical school, hundreds of thousands of dollars in education costs, and significant debt. We want to go where we feel our careers will take off. But there’s a personal aspect, too. For me, the difference between two residencies is suddenly living 3,000 miles from ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Education Medical school Residency Source Type: blogs