So how does the Match work?
Written by Grace Gilbert, MD
Common questions from family and friends about the match include:
“So how many job interviews did you decide to go on?”
“Which residency program will you choose?”
“Is “the match” like a dating platform?”
There’s truly no career in the world that works quite like the residency selection process. Sure, applications, interviews, recommendation letters, and screening processes are familiar to most job applicants in other specialties. However it’s what comes next that makes the match confusing for our friends and family…and let’s be honest, even we’re a bit confused.
So how does it work? The Match is a system used to place medical students into a residency program in the United States. Of course, you can link them to the NRMPs very informative video, but we wanted to create a way for you to explain the match over Thanksgiving dinner or the December holidays.
So in September, applicants will apply for residency. From October to January, they interview at programs. In February, programs and applicants will submit their rank order list. This list is an ordered list of where they would like to attend residency. Their top choice is #1 on the rank list. The residency programs will also make a rank order list of applicants that they interview.
In simplest terms, let’s say an applicant will interview at 10 programs. The applicant will rank the programs 1-10 and the program will rank the students they interview. The computer magic algorithm works its magic.
The algorithm is “applicant proposing”, so it values the medical student’s rank list rather than the rank order lists created by the programs. So what stops everyone from getting their first choice?
So instead of programs, let’s talk about a raffle to get tickets to Disney World. Imagine our friends Brad, Chad, and Kyle all want to go to the Disney World (shortened to “Disney” in the graphic) theme park, but only two free tickets are available. Disney World interviews three applicants. Along with “Disney”, there are two other theme parks in the area giving out two free tickets each, “Universal” and “Six Flags”. So the applicants are invited to enter tickets for those three raffles as well. Brad, Chad, and Kyle interview at all three theme parks for the tickets and add them to their rank order list.
The algorithm now considers the rank order list of the theme park “Disney” to give out the two free theme park tickets. Below please find the rank lists created by Brad, Chad and Kyle. “Disney” ranked Brad 1st, Chad 2nd, and Kyle 3rd.
This means that Brad and Chad get their first choice to get two tickets at Disney World. The algorithm must now try and match Kyle to his second choice, “Six Flags”. Unfortunately, “Six Flags” didn’t feel like Kyle was a good fit to get a free ticket to their theme park, and chose not to rank him. “Universal” had Kyle in their number 2 spot, and Kyle had “Universal” on his list, so he matches at “Univeral”.
What if you want to explain this Nobel prize-winning algorithm to a family member or friend without the story of Brad, Chad, and Kyle?
The match algorithm was created with the goal to match students to their first choice. Due to limited positions at residency programs, they also consider the rank order list of institutions to make adjustments. Applicants will receive an email to learn where they’ve matched.
