Your Residency Application: What to Prioritize When Creating your Rank List

Creating your Match rank list can be challenging. Below, I briefly note a few considerations when making your list:

1. Make sure you understand how the NRMP algorithm works. See my previous blog post regarding errors to avoid at all costs. The key is to rank in the order you want - first goes first, second goes second, etc.

2. Consider your happiness and life balance. Blasphemy perhaps, but I would argue that they are more important than the strength of the training program.

3. Reflect on the culture, geography, size, and even maturity/age of the program. Think about whether you will fit in.

4. Consider whether you could spend your whole life at the institution or in that program's location. It's a lot to grapple with, but many residents graduate and stay for the rest of their careers.

5. Decide whether you liked the program director, chairperson, and faculty generally. They could make or break your happiness and success.

6. Realize that most programs will train you well if you work hard. Their prestige and quality may be more similar than you think. For that reason, note that your personal preferences and intuitions are paramount.

Ten Ways to Improve your Medical School Application

Please check out my latest Student Doctor Network article here. Enjoy!

Thank You Notes

Clients ask me what's the best way to send post-interview thank you notes - email versus snail mail. I advise the latter, sending hand-written notes. Email can be viewed as less labor-intensive or thoughtful.

You can still get the notes in quickly: Put them in the mail the morning after you've completed your interview. Some applicants even bring blank thank you notes to the interview day, complete the cards after their interviews, and leave them with the program coordinator.

Your thank you notes should be written on plain cards and sent to every faculty member you conversed with one-on-one. If the residency coordinator helped you with a difficult scheduling issue, for example, writing to him/her would be wise too. Within reason and if written cordially, a thank you note cannot hurt you (unless you have been expressly asked not to communicate after the interview day).

Consider them low-hanging fruit.

Check Yourself Before you Wreck Yourself: Your Residency Application

As we approach the time to submit your rank order list, it's imperative that you understand how to organize your list.

Don't try to outsmart the algorithm by putting programs with more residency slots higher on your list or by prioritizing those that have given you good feedback over those that haven't. None of those factors is relevant in creating your rank order list, and you will harm your chances if you pursue those strategies!

Your first choice should be first. Second should be second, etc. Here's an explanation of the algorithm if you're interested.

Take a look at this under-one-minute Guru on the Go video for further clarification.

Your Residency Application: What to Do if You Receive No or Few Interview Invitations?

1. Don't panic.

2. Try contacting - in a professional manner - all institutions to which you have sent your ERAS. You can send an email and call. When you call, be calm, respectful, and enthusiastic. Do not demand to speak to the program director. Let the person who answers the phone know that you are very interested in the program and would appreciate the opportunity to interview. Offer to be on an interview wait list if necessary.

3. Prepare for the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP). Note that SOAP is not a separate program from the residency Match. So a) your main residency Match user status must be active and b) your credentials must be verified by the Rank Order List Deadline in order to participate in SOAP. Here is more information on SOAP. 

4. Make a plan for what you will do if the Match and SOAP don't work out for you. What will you do next year? How will you improve your written materials, interview skills, and overall candidacy? If heaven forbid, you do not have success in either the Match or SOAP, please consider getting help from me or someone else who is experienced. The sooner the better to improve a candidacy and prepare for a re-application.