Letting residency program you are their top choice

[tongtongbravo]

Hey, I am a medical resident and my significant other is going through pharmacy residency application right now. In medicine, once the interviews are done, we often let our top program know that they are #1 choice. Is this frowned upon in the field of pharmacy?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[y0ssarian87]

I understand that I must not communicate my ranking intentions to any program, and must not request that a program inform me as to how it intends to rank any applicant. I understand further that participating programs must not communicate their ranking intentions to me and must not request that I state how I intend to rank any program. Any statement or other expression concerning how I intend to rank a program or how any program intends to rank me is a violation of the ASHP Match Rules, and in any event is subject to change based on further considerations.

Read more here: https://www.natmatch.com/ashprmp/applregister.html#appagrmt


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[bacillus1]

I was very surprised when my (now) ex told me that med students and programs do that, after his #1 program pretty much told him that they're positive he'll end up there, since in pharm school that's a big no-no and may cause a program to not respect you and not rank you.

 

[tongtongbravo]

I was very surprised when my (now) ex told me that med students and programs do that, after his #1 program pretty much told him that they're positive he'll end up there, since in pharm school that's a big no-no and may cause a program to not respect you and not rank you.

What's the reason tho? professionalism?
We let our #1 program know so that they also know you really like that program(given that you are writing only to that program). I mean from the program's perspective, given everything equal, wouldnt you want someone that really want to come to your program?
I see nothing wrong with it so long as you do it to your true #1 program(and med schools deans actually encourage doing so) and I think this weird big 'no no' without legit reason absurd. After all, I think this whole matching thing is modeled after medicine, so why not replicate the whole thing?

 

[y0ssarian87]

Keep in mind the supply and demand aspect of it.

In medicine, you aren't likely to NOT match. Of the 18.6k US allopathic grads last year who registered for the match, 18.1k submitted program choices and 17.0k matched to first year positions. There were 2.9k osteopathic grads who submitted match preferences, and 80.3% matched. And for US-citizen international med school grads (USIMGs), 5.3k submitted rankings and 53.9% matched. After the match process there were 1.1k positions remaining that were offered through SOAP. And in perspective, there were a total of 18.9k allopathic medical school grads.

Compare this to pharmacy. You aren't likely to match.

Last year there were 5.7k applicants who enrolled in the match, but only 4.8k who submitted rankings. Presumably the rest didn't get interviews or got a sweet job offer. (More likely the former.) Of the 4.8k who submitted rankings, only 3.3k matched. This 3.3k value includes initial matches (Phase I) plus the pharmacy equivalent of SOAP, Phase II. And keep in mind that there are around 14k pharmacy school graduates per year. The likelihood of matching is so low, and it's so competitive that students would undoubtedly abuse the system and tell all the programs that they interviewed with that they were their top choice just to simply get a better chance at matching. Because of the relative shortage of residency spots compared to the demand, it is most fair to ask for silence on both sides to see what shakes out simply from a meritocratic method. Mechanistically, the match system itself should be sufficient to ensure good matches between residents and programs.

I will say this. It's possible that there's some more discreet version of what happens in med school that's in pharmacy. One of my classmates got an email from one RPD he interviewed with shortly after that included the following:

....Great job on your overall interview process!! Thanks for going the extra mile to participate in our interview process...Please note, the ASHP residency matching code number for our program at [xxx] is currently [xxx].

Will you please forward your matching code number, for future use?

While that doesn't outright say I'm going to rank you as a top choice, I think that's a pretty strong indication that they intend to rank him. They shouldn't need to ask for his match number, since that's visible in their interface already, and the "for future use" bit also seemed unnecessary unless they were trying to communicate discreetly that they had interest in him. Anyway, that's the closest thing I've even heard of in pharmacy that is like what happens in the medicine residency application process.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[bacillus1]

Keep in mind that the match is already designed to take your preferences into account first.

The reason is so the program does not "play favorites" and collude with the applicant in an "I pick you if you pick me" type scenario, so the most qualified applicants really get into the best programs, minimizing bias as much as possible.