"Rank to match" vs "Ranked"

They mean absolutely jack shit! Don't believe anything a program tells you about how they are ranking you or if you will match or whatever.

Programs are throwing those expressions to you?

The question was what does it mean. You did not obviously understand the question.

Ranked means they actually put you on their rank list somewhere. Not all programs rank everybody. Ranked to match should mean that you are in the top X amount depending upon how many residents per class (X) they have and they assume that if you rank them number 1, you will match with them.

A word of caution, don't let this influence your choices. Rank the programs in the order that you feel is most important to you. I hear of stories every year when things don't work out and someone ends up matching somewhere else or even not matching despite being told they were ranked to match.

Agree with OrthoDoc about his final sentiments (don't let any of this "chatter" influence you to the best of your abilities!) however, slightly different perspective on "ranked to match".

"Ranked to match" means basically nothing. Let me clarify further. Let's say in a program that takes 5 residents they rank you 15th. Now, in each of the last 5 years the 15th ranked person matched in their program so they tell you, "you're ranked to match". Their hope may be that you (and each of the 14 people ranked above you who are told the same thing) all rank that program #1 so that it increases their chances of matching no lower than 15.

On the other hand, if they tell you, you're ranked "in our top 5" and they only take 5 residents you obviously now know that you will match there if they are being straightforward with you.

Being told "you are ranked" simply means that you are somewhere on their list and of course is probably in reality the 3rd tier of the possibilities.

Hope that clarifies things - of course all of this attempted interpretation is eliminated if nobody tells anyone anything (which is the pure intent of the match!)

Good luck --

wnl

When do people typically hear this stuff from programs? Is it at the interview? Sometime in January or February?

I've heard that some people will hear this from a VERY small number of programs just before rank lists are due. However, in talking to others that matched last year - >95% of programs won't say anything at all...

There are a few programs that break things down as follows:

Ranked to match (as mentioned before, if there are x number of residents per year in the program, you are ranked within the top x applicants. So, if you rank them #1, you'll match there)

Ranked so that you are likely to match (not necessarily ranked to match, but if previous history dictates, you are ranked high enough that they will likely fall to your number on their rank list)

Ranked (You have made their rank list)

Unranked (you have not made their rank list).

Again, take everything with a grain of salt, and you should never be asked how you will rank a program, nor pressured to rank them a certain way. Also, the whole system works if you rank places the way you want to, and there is no benefit at all to rank a program higher because you think they'll rank you highly. Unless, of course, you just really like telling people you matched at your top choice (even though it would've been a lower choice under different cicumstances).