I believe all we know right now is that the overall post-SOAP match rate was unchanged and that Thalamus interviews (a small fraction) had few hoarders. The kinds of info we actually want - avg ranklist position reached, percent home matching, avg yield on interviews for the upper vs lower quartiles, etc - will probably never be known. Per the grapevine, across student bodies at several "t20" schools (who everyone predicted would most benefit/hoard) the match was abnormally bad last cycle. I'm skeptical it was really business as usual but theres no way to understand why at the moment.
We got to see some of the early NRMP data at the IMPD meeting. It will all be out shortly -- the data report comes in May. The overall data shows that the match was mostly the same, with a small signal of being worse for USMD's. Program rank lists were longer by 10-15%, presumably due to increased interview invites. Applicant rank lists were 10-15% longer, for the same reason. Although all rank lists were longer on average, the effect was more pronounced in those with longer ranklists -- some evidence of hoarding. But the difference was very small.
USMD total match rate was down by about 1% absolute (that data is already out). Top 1 / Top 4 matching was also slightly down by about 2% absolute -- so if last year 48% of people match to their top 4, this year it was 46%.
So it all depends on what you want to see in these numbers. If you want to see interview hoarding, it's there. If you want to claim the match was worse, it's there. But the effect size is very small and likely clinically insignificant.
What helped me was to have a modular structure to keep everything organized. My structure:
1st paragraph: very briefly why I pursued medicine
2nd paragraph: why I chose to pursue my speciality (rads). Having pt. anecdotes here help
3rd paragraph: what I bring to the table. I noted 2-3 important ECs/leadership/research (eg. med ed, global health) from my CV, highlighted how each contributed to my character growth and how I plan to remain involved during residency.
4th paragraph: what I seek from training programs. Added a few sentences at the end of this paragraph to personalize the essay based on location, program type etc.
Ug. This is the classic, boring personal statement. It's safe, and pointless. I was going to share my list of what NOT to put in your personal statement:
1. Why you went into medicine. Trust me, your reasons are probably not terribly different than anyone else's. If your pathway is really unique, great, tell me about it.
2. Why you chose IM (or specialty). In IM, it's usually "I like solving puzzles", or "I like longitudinal care of patients"
3. Repeat your CV in prose format. I already can see your CV. Repeating it doesn't add anything.
3b. Name drop faculty you have worked with. That don't impress me much.
4. Tell me about some patient or clinical story. Why would you do this, you think I don't see plenty of patients?
5. What you're looking for in a program. Usually cut-and-pasted from the program's website.
6. Some random quote from someone. Why exactly?
Here's a thought: It's called a Personal Statement. Perhaps tell me something about yourself that's not in your application.
