How to find if a Residency Program Offers Prematch Positions ?

Thanks to 'Mandy', we have a reasonably accurate way of determining whether a Program has a habit of offering pre-matches (i.e. Out of match positions) or not. I await his real name for better crediting :-)

Step 1:

Look up the Number of Positions for a Program On FREIDA.

Let this be 'x'


Step 2:

Look up the Quota that was released for the previous Match on the NRMP ProgramsMatch Results Data Sheet. - Download it here [PDF]

Let this be 'y'


Step 3:

x - y should give us the number of positions that were NOT available for Match - i.e. residency positions that were withdrawn from the match.

Generally speaking, the a withdrawn position would mean it was given away as an out-of-match position.

Mandy likes to call it the Mandy Prematch Algorithm - So be it !! :-)

Example:

Now, let's clarify this with a real example. We look at one of the 'Mother of Prematches' - the St. Barnabas Internal Medicine program at Bronx, New York :-)


Step 1:

We look up the FREIDA Entry for St. Barnabas: There are a total of 30 positions in the First Year. (When I looked, Information is updated for Year 2007)

Thus, x = 30

Step 2:


As Per the NRMP Program Match Results Data File, there were only two postions on the Match Quota for the 2007 Match at St. Barnabas

Thus, y = 2


Step 3:

x - y = 30 - 2 = 28

Hence 28 Positions were Withdrawn Before the Match

As I said before, withdrawn positions are generally Out-Of-Match Positions, though the other reason could be an actual decrease in the number of residency positions that were closed due to lack of funding. However we could potentially cross-check against that by looking at other years' data. The Number of positions for second and third year internal Medicine stays is consistent at 30 on FREIDA, while the match quota for both years 2006 and 2005 was 4, implying 26 prematches were given away in both those years and there was no actual decrease in positions

:-)


For the visually-inclined amongst you - Here goes again :




More Notes:

1. Program policies change - a program that offered a Pre-match the earlier year may not do so this year and vice-versa

2. Program coordinators are more likely to tell you over the phone about pre-match policies rather than over email - coz' thats always been a sensitive issue

3. Some programs may include even Prelim years on their Total positions mentioned on FREIDA - but the Program data file will do a better job of splitting the position types


Also read:

- Prematch Basics