Thread: SGU matchlist count vs class size?

I recently interviewed and while waiting for response, I was looking through SGU website and got these info:

Class size is 325 each term, so ~650/year

But on their matchlist, I counted (maybe for 2006, not sure) about 356 (give and take few, wasn't being careful).

I also hear some people decel, but if I assume that the number of people that decel is relatively similar each year, class size stays somewhat same throughout the years. And also the number of matches doesn't seem to change that much in my brief comparion in maybe past 3-4 years.

So then where is the other ~40%? Only around ~60% of people actually finish?

Originally Posted by stephew

youre being a little paranoid but you should be at this stage of the game it makes you ask the right questions.
let me put this clearly; 99% of US students from sgu who are eligible for a residency get one. this brings up several points
1) to be elible youve passed your boards, and graduated and have no citizen ship/visa problems

2) it doesnt say WHEN you get one; there will be a few who fail to match or scramble and it takes an extra year. usually they are peo[ple who shoot to high compared to what their stats reasonably would offer them. most get a residency the same year.

3) it is not that they"matched". matching means going through the match program. it means they got a spot by matching or signing outside of the match. either is legitimate.

Bottom line, if you dont get a residency its because probably because you sought something very competitive for your stats with no back up or you have academic weaknesses that are such that it was questionable to begin with that you could handle the med school curriculm. This is why sgu *does* have an admissions process whereby people are rejected either prior to of after interview. Even if you just squeek by you can get a residency if you look for something not very competitive as a US citizen unless you have a serious personality flaw that follows you in your LORs and interviews. I.e., its an effort to fail to get ANY residency.

Thanks Steph. Helps to put match results in perspective for me.

Originally Posted by stephew

It might be...

Well SGU does have a conselling service but (and sorry John) they have a well known rep in the past for holding a talk in Vinny's and scaring the bejeesus out of students.

That aside the conselling can be very useful when you listen to the people in the know.

I was really offended by that talk. Not so much the whole nonsense about how high a score you must get and all that - that was an obvious scare tactic to get people to take studying for the Step I seriously. No, what offended me was when he said, and I still can't believe he said this, that if you are gay or a lesbian, you should put that in your personal statement because it is an important fact for PDs to take into consideration when reviewing applications. WHAT!?!?!?!!? I almost flew out of my seat at him. And he also said we should specify up front on our CV if we are married. Because, again, it's important for them to know. I wanted to ask him if I should also specify my bra cup size so PDs could use that information to evaluate the strength of my application.

Did anyone else hear this stuff or was our class special?

Sorry for off-topic Stephew!

i could see and understand 'marriage" as something that PD might want to know, but gay/lesbian status, i dont see how that can be relevant. but then again what do i know. maybe stephh who has sat in on the committee can comment more

that's a new one to me.
i dont sit on any sgu committee (just interview applicants). Ive sat on lots of residency committees at various levels and i can assure you your sexual preference should never come up. Sometimes if you are single dose as PDs might feel the region is good for "singles" or "married" preferentially. But its risky as it may look like some bias. but sexual orientation? good lord.

Originally Posted by dunsoon

I was really offended by that talk. Not so much the whole nonsense about how high a score you must get and all that - that was an obvious scare tactic to get people to take studying for the Step I seriously. No, what offended me was when he said, and I still can't believe he said this, that if you are gay or a lesbian, you should put that in your personal statement because it is an important fact for PDs to take into consideration when reviewing applications. WHAT!?!?!?!!? I almost flew out of my seat at him. And he also said we should specify up front on our CV if we are married. Because, again, it's important for them to know. I wanted to ask him if I should also specify my bra cup size so PDs could use that information to evaluate the strength of my application.

Did anyone else hear this stuff or was our class special?

Sorry for off-topic Stephew!

i thought asking for personal info like that is actually illegal- your citizenship status i can understand, but the rest is not supposed play any role (i'm not naive to think that it doesn't but there is no reason to give them the ammunition).

sgu advisors are out of touch with reality and their advice ranges from comical to outragous. for exampl, my adivsor, she told me to rank places i didnt apply to or interview at...and when i asked "do u know how many places sgu students who got surgery have ranked" she told me 50 to 60. i started laughing on the phone...she started yelling and telling me i'm not going to match. well, i did match, and she has proven herself to be worthless on several occasions.

my advice...DONT LISTEN TO ANYTHING THEY SAY.

Originally Posted by rokshana

i thought asking for personal info like that is actually illegal- your citizenship status i can understand, but the rest is not supposed play any role (i'm not naive to think that it doesn't but there is no reason to give them the ammunition).

I don't know if it is illegal to ask. It is certainly illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, religion, or ethnicity. Asking marital status is in bad form, but not really illegal per se. It does set up the person asking to be a respondent in a lawsuit. Proving discrimination is very difficult; however, claiming it is quite easy.

if someone yelled at you perhaps you ought to report this person.

Originally Posted by BACK2REALITY

sgu advisors are out of touch with reality and their advice ranges from comical to outragous. for exampl, my adivsor, she told me to rank places i didnt apply to or interview at...and when i asked "do u know how many places sgu students who got surgery have ranked" she told me 50 to 60. i started laughing on the phone...she started yelling and telling me i'm not going to match. well, i did match, and she has proven herself to be worthless on several occasions.

my advice...DONT LISTEN TO ANYTHING THEY SAY.

Oh they still come down, that one you mentioned, especially arrogant, and yes spewing a bunch of crap about 240's



edited for insults/flaming

ive been talking a lot w/sgu about this issue of where the heck the pgy2 speciality data gets lost. I think they're really trying to answer the question but we're still in the process of defining some terms as you can see below.but they are trying to be very helpful and it may be that the answer is unclear. ill update you when i know more. identifying names etc have been removed. My reply in red. (comes first; sgu note in black below)

"Im still a little unclear how its possible (last year) for people to have matching in a pgy1 prelim and pgy2 speciality position but not having it listed; meaning how did the "refresh" effect that, or did it. I appreciate your time in answering these questions; they've been a long standing query.
Best,"


"M . " < @sgu.edu> wrote:

Each March we get the match information and enter it. At the same time some of the students that sign outside the match begin to submit their information to SGU, but we cannot count on them to do so. 2 weeks before graduation, we survey the entire class and get the rest of the residency placements and document reasons for no placement.

When we enter residencies, we enter all PGYs for each residency. If a student has a preliminary match for PGY1 in 2007 and a categorical match for 2008, both are entered, and both will be posted. We also posted new matches for second residencies.

Last year the posting was not "refreshed" as it will be this year. All changes were made in a very manual way. The list will be refreshed on a daily basis this year, so that it will capture any new information as it comes to us from various sources.

__________________________________________________ ____________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit Protected By Messagelabs
__________________________________________________ ____________________