HSS letters

I got my letter today: "Thanks...but no thanks."

email or snail mail?

got the "you will be included in our final rank list."

not the "if you rank us 1, you will be in NY this June."


If anyone has any idea how many of the ranked but not to match letters there are, guess?

guess there are these 3 letters.

four years ago, there were four letters.

1. you are not ranked
2. you are ranked, but likely won't match
3. you are ranked highly "there is a very high liklihood, but no guarantee, that you will match here" if you rank us number 1
4. you are ranked to match

from what i could gather in my year...there were obviously 8 ranked to match letters, about 2-3 highly ranked letters, and 5-10 on our list letters.

I'm a fellow applicant. Boneblaster obviously knows what he is talking about. A chief resident at my home program said that he received a ranked to match letter from HSS, ranked them No. 1, and still did not end up there. He also added that he has known people who received "you are not ranked" letter and still ended up there.

In light of the Boneblaster's note, I have to assume my resident got the letter #3 per above, highly but not guaranteed, and his rumor of people matching even with "not ranked" letter is just false, or at least some intervention occurred after that letter.

anyone else heard anything remotely similar to what I heard?

Got the "you will be included" letter.

So I'm just curious about the actual number of "you are ranked" letters that are sent out. I've got to think there are more than 5-10 - I personally know 5 that received the letter so it seems likely that they would send more than 10. Does anyone have any confirmable info on this?

Also, does anyone know anything about how far down their list they typically go? Did they get approved for two more spots for this match? I can't imagine they go far beyond 8 deep to fill their spots - I would be curious to know if anyone knows someone who got told they were ranked to match this year but did not rank them No. 1. Do they ever go beyond the ones they told that it is highly likely they would match? Just curious. I would appreciate any recent info anyone has.