How to Rank Residency Programs:
Tips for Creating Your Rank Order List
Creating your rank order list (ROL) is one of the most important steps in the residency application process.
After completing your interviews, it's time to carefully evaluate the programs you've visited and decide how to rank them. This decision can feel overwhelming, but with thoughtful reflection and a clear understanding of your priorities, you can craft a list that aligns with your personal and professional goals.
In this guide, you'll find insightful advice from peers and recent medical school graduates, common pitfalls to avoid, proven ranking strategies and tools to help you confidently finalize your ROL.
Ranking Residency Programs
After completing your interviews, your next task is to assess the information you’ve collected and use it to establish your rank order list (ROL). Determining how to ultimately rank the programs you visited will take time, and you’ll likely adjust the order multiple times as the due date to certify your ROL nears.
Rank order lists are due in late February or early March each year. Applicants and programs submit their ROLs through the NRMP.
Here are some pointers to keep in mind as you evaluate and rank programs:
- Take your time. It can be helpful to put your notes aside for a while to give yourself time to consider your thoughts. Talk through your reasoning with advisers, friends and family, but remember that the final decision is yours.
- Rank according to your priorities. Remember that the order in which you rank programs is crucial to the Match process. Upon casual consideration, one or more programs may seem fairly equivalent to you. But if you take the time to consider them carefully, you may discover reasons you would rank one program higher than another. The matching algorithm is fair, but it is also indifferent to anything other than the ROL provided. If you rank one program above another, it will put you in the first program if it can. It won’t consider that perhaps the geographic location is more important to you than a higher faculty-to-resident ratio.
- Start over, if necessary. If you’ve completed your interviews but decide that you still haven’t found what you wanted, look at some more programs. Don’t get frustrated if this is necessary. It’s better to put in a little extra legwork now than to have lingering doubts later.
- Don’t overestimate yourself. Although you may feel confident that you will match to your top choice, listing only one program will decrease your chances of matching.
- Don’t underestimate yourself, either. If you really want to go somewhere in particular, rank that program first, even if you don’t think you have much chance. Ranking a competitive program first won’t negatively influence your chances of matching to programs lower on your list. Remember, only you will know what rank you matched.
- Don’t list programs that you don’t want. If you do, you might end up at one of these programs. Decide whether it is better to be unmatched than to be matched to a program that you don’t want.
- Don’t make your list too short. On average, unmatched students’ lists were shorter than matched students’ lists.
Ultimately, finding the right program means different things for each applicant. The choice may be difficult because your options seem equally great in many ways. If that’s the case, don’t downplay the more personal-level preferences that might make one program seem more of a fit than another. If you’ve been open-minded throughout the interview process and done your research, trust your instincts as you rank programs. Also, know that whatever the outcome on Match Day, you’ll ultimately end up on your path to becoming the physician you’ve always wanted to be.
Q&A: Insights from Residents on Ranking Residency Programs
Gain valuable insights from family medicine residents on how to rank residency programs effectively for the Match. Explore key considerations such as:
- training quality
- program benefits
- location
- residency culture
The group also shares helpful tips for differentiating top programs and making confident decisions to support your medical career.