Residency Applicants, Thinking about How to Create your Rank Order List? Check out this easy advice.

For those of you who are starting to think about your Match rank order list, please make sure you follow this simple strategy: Rank your first choice first, your second second, your third third, etc.

In other words, your most successful approach is to create your list in order of your real preferences. Although the Match algorithm is mathematically quite complicated, because the process always begins with an attempt to match an applicant to the program most preferred on the applicant's list, you do not want to try to "game" the system. For example, I've had applicants tell me that they plan to rank a less preferred institution higher because that program has more residency slots. That's a no-no. The applicant will actually be harming him/herself with that strategy.

Here's a video the NRMP created to better explain the Match algorithm. Here's also a less-than-one-minute Guru on the Go© video "NRMP Ranking to Avoid a Spanking" to emphasize your optimal strategy.

Flight of the Conchords' "The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)"

I'm a huge fan of Flight of the Conchords - both the show and the comedy duo themselves. Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement sing a hilarious tune called "The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room" whose lyrics include

...Looking 'round the room
I can tell that you
Are the most beautiful girl in the... room
In the whole wide room (ooh)
And when you're on the street
Depending on the street
I bet you are definitely in the top three
Good lookin' girls on the street, yeah
Depending on the street, ooh...

The lyrics proceed from there, consistently qualifying Jemaine's crush's beauty:

...You're so beautiful
Mm, you could be a part-time model
But you'd probably still have to keep your normal job

I thought of this song recently when a wonderful client asked if he should let a residency program know it was one of his top two choices. While very well-meaning, that type of endorsement can fall flat. I would also avoid phrases like "one of my top" picks.

Instead, you can say (or write) something like "I would be thrilled to be at your institution," or " I’m confident I can make a positive contribution." In other words, you can stay honest while not shooting yourself in the foot.

Here's the "Most Beautiful Girl" video. It's hilarious.

What to Do in the Summer after Your First Year of Medical School

A super nice client of mine who is currently a first-year medical student recently emailed me to ask my suggestions for what he should do this upcoming summer. The summer after the first year of medical school is – unless you take a gap year – the last free one you will have for a while, so it's important to use it wisely. Of course, it's hard to plan with COVID, but generally, the advice I give is that if someone plans to go into a highly competitive specialty like dermatology or neurosurgery, research is probably the best bet. Those specialties require a significant early commitment to the field and a lot of investigative experience/ publications. 

For less competitive fields, research is still an option, but other opportunities should be considered. If you know you're not going into a highly competitive field, you have a bit more flexibility. After my first year of medical school, I participated in Harvard's Urban Health Project and spent my time shadowing a physician in an underserved clinic.

Of course, I would not recommend spending the summer at Club Med :), but I would try to make sure you are happy over the summer – near family or friends - no matter what specialty you are seeking.

Ten Ways to Improve your Medical School Application

As we know, New Year's resolutions are notoriously hard to realize. But there are smart tips for executing them, including making sure goals are specific and truly achievable within a reasonable time frame. That's why starting early with your candidacy for medical school is important. The beginning of the year is a great time for pre-meds to redouble their efforts toward their medical school goals. This past cycle, applications to medical school increased again, so the process has gotten even more competitive.

As always, I recommend a very focused approach that allows you to do more of what you want and less of what you don't. Think research will help your candidacy but don't like being in the lab? Consider public health or clinical investigations. Think volunteerism will bolster your application but don't like being one of a crowd in a group project? Start your own social justice initiative.

There are definitely necessary elements to any robust medical school candidacy (clinical experience, strong grades), but being a pre-med can also be fun, mind-broadening, and career-affirming.

Here are ten ways to improve your medical school application that will give you direction but also leeway to be a happy applicant - not just a strong one.

Responses from Program Directors are as Valuable as the Email They're Written On

A residency candidate asked me to review an email a program director (PD) had sent him after interview day. The candidate wanted to know if I had any insights into the PD's intent: Was the PD sending a generic note or was he really interested in the applicant?

I told the applicant honestly: Who knows and who cares?

I wasn't trying to be dismissive. The point is that it's impossible to know what a PD is thinking. Unfortunately, I've seen applicants heartbroken by false hope they read into a PD's comments. More importantly, what a PD says should not affect your rank list anyway. The algorithm requires you to put your first choice first and your second second, etc. (More on that in an upcoming January blog post.)

As they say, kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises. Don't put deep thought into those PD notes because they don't guarantee a thing and, as we say in clinical medicine, they don't change management.