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Ranking Programs That You Didn't Interview At


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As the title suggests, just curious if there's any cons to ranking a program that didn't invite you for an interview on the (minuscule) off chance a program ranks everyone who applied. Specifically regarding the FM/ES match. Wasn't planning on ranking programs that didn't interview me, but maybe it's worth a shot just to make sure I'm doing every last thing I can to match?

Any thoughts here would be much appreciated :)

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I think just like with the R-1 match, there’s no con to ranking programs that didn’t interview you. Although the likelihood of it helping is super low, who knows, I guess it could happen. The algorithm is applicant proposing, so it will always match your highest ranked option that it can. If you leave a program off your rank  list, you can’t match to it.
 

For example - let’s say your first choice of programs that interviewed you is program X. You’d prefer to go to programs A or B, but neither of them interviewed you. Behind the scenes it turns out that program X has ranked you 3rd and they have 5 spots (so you’ll definitely match there if you rank it and don’t match to anything higher ranked), and A and B didn’t rank you at all. If you submit any of the following rank lists, you’ll match to X every time:

- 1. Program X, 2. Program A, 3. Program B

- 1. Program A, 2. Program X, 3. Program B

- 1. Program A, 2. Program B, 3. Program X

…the only difference will be where you had X on your list - e.g., whether you say “I got my first choice” vs. “ I got my third choice”. 
 

But, if it turns out program A is not feeling confident it will fill its spots with all the people it interviewed and chooses to rank everyone…. Well then, you could actually potentially match to Program A if you ranked it higher than Program X.

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6 hours ago, frenchpress said:

 if it turns out program A is not feeling confident it will fill its spots with all the people it interviewed and chooses to rank everyone…. Well then, you could actually potentially match to Program A if you ranked it higher than Program X.

There's no downside - ranking according to your true preferences doesn't change your chances of matching at all.  In fact, in theory you could match to a program that didn't interview you and you prefer like in the example above.   Plus no one will ever know your rank list except you and people that you share it with.  

However, that being said, the upside is fairly theoretical.  I suspect most programs in a competitive match like CCFP-EM:

  • only rank interviewed candidates
  • interview enough candidates to ensure the chances of having an unfilled spot are very small (good ratio of interviewees per spot)
  • prefer to leave a spot unfilled rather than take a chance on a non-interviewed candidate. (justifying bullet point 1)

Maybe there are PDs out there who do things differently, but I would be surprised.  I think it would be legendary if this ever happened.

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20 hours ago, MDwannabe02 said:

As the title suggests, just curious if there's any cons to ranking a program that didn't invite you for an interview on the (minuscule) off chance a program ranks everyone who applied. Specifically regarding the FM/ES match. Wasn't planning on ranking programs that didn't interview me, but maybe it's worth a shot just to make sure I'm doing every last thing I can to match?

Any thoughts here would be much appreciated :)

No cons. But realistically, near 0% chance of matching there.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I would do it. But even better, send a polite email inquiring about getting an interview and reiterating your interest if you don't get an interview. I have seen people on these boards successful in this. Myself, I was waitlisted for an interview and sent an email and immediately got an invite. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. 

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