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Match Statistics - 2008

2008 APPIC Match Statistics

Match Report from the APPIC Board of Directors
February 25, 2008

We are pleased to report that 2,749 applicants were successfully matched to internship positions. A total of 48% of all applicants who obtained a position matched to their first choice internship program, more than two-thirds (69%) received one of their top two choices, and four-in-five (81%) received one of their top three choices.

Compared to the 2007 APPIC Match, the number of registered applicants increased by 61 to a record 3,759 applicants, while the number of internship positions increased by 174 to a record 3,058 positions.

A total of 743 applicants were not matched to an internship position, while 309 positions remained unfilled. This is the second highest number of unmatched applicants to date, and represents a decrease of 12% as compared to the 842 unmatched applicants from the 2007 APPIC Match.

Here are the changes in numbers of applicants and positions as compared to the 2007 APPIC Match:

Applicants: Registered for the Match
+61

Withdrew or did not submit ranks
-1

Matched
+161

Unmatched
-99
   

Positions: Offered in the Match
+174
  Filled
+161
  Unfilled
+13

 

INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS

PARTICIPATION
Training Sites Participating in the Match 663
Programs Participating in the Match 1,126
Positions Offered in the Match 3,058

NOTE: Remember that a "training site" can offer more than one "program" in the Match. Each "program" was identified in the Match by a separate 6-digit code number.


MATCH RESULTS
Positions
Filled in the Match 2,749 (90%)
Remaining Unfilled 309 (10%)
Programs
Filled in the Match 958 (85%)
With Unfilled Positions 168 (15%)

NOTE: 42 programs at 36 sites submitted fewer ranks than the number of positions available. As a result, no ranks were submitted for 74 positions, which remained unfilled.


RANKINGS
Average Number of Applicants Ranked Per Position Offered for Each Program:
Programs Filling All Positions 8.1
Programs With Unfilled Positions 2.5
All Programs 7.2

Each Registered Applicant Was Ranked by an Average of 5.2 Different Programs.

 

APPLICANTS

PARTICIPATION
Applicants Registered in the Match 3,759
Applicants Who Withdrew or Did Not Submit Ranks 267
Applicants Participating in the Match
(includes 40 individuals who participated in the Match as 20 "couples")
3,492

MATCH RESULTS
Applicants Matched 2,749 (79%)
Participating Applicants Not Matched 743 (21%)

MATCH RESULTS BY RANK NUMBER ON APPLICANT'S LIST
(PERCENTAGES MAY NOT TOTAL TO 100 DUE TO ROUNDING ERRORS)
Rank
Number of Applicants
1 1,306 (48%)
2 583 (21%)
3 333 (12%)
4 200 ( 7%)
5 125 ( 5%)
6 85 ( 3%)
7 46 ( 2%)
8 24 ( 1%)
9 18 ( 1%)
10 or higher 29 ( 1%)
Total 2,749 (100%)

RANKINGS
Average Number of Rankings Submitted Per Applicant:
Matched Applicants 7.7
Unmatched Applicants 4.1
Overall 6.9

Each Position Was Ranked by an Average of 7.9 Applicants.



SUMMARY OF PROGRAM RANKINGS

The following report contains additional statistics on how successful programs were, on average, in matching with applicants.

There are several important issues that must be considered in attempting to analyze program success based on the rank numbers of matched applicants.

DEFINITIONAL PROBLEMS: Because each applicant submitted a single Rank Order List in order to match to a single position, it is easy to identify his or her "first choice," "second choice," etc. However, for an internship program, determining first or second choice applicants is a far more difficult and complex task. First, many programs attempt to fill several positions; if a program has three positions to fill, an applicant ranked third by that program can in effect be considered a "first choice" for purposes of the Match. Furthermore, a significant number of sites submitted multiple Rank Order Lists for a single program, sometimes ranking the same applicant on different Lists with different rank numbers. Also, the reversion of unfilled positions between lists adds a further complication to this analysis.

We worked closely with National Matching Services in an attempt to resolve these difficulties and to develop a reasonable method of presenting this data.

STANDARDIZED RANKINGS: For the purposes of this analysis, we converted each site's rankings to a "standardized rank." This is best explained by example: if the number of positions to be filled from a Rank Order List was three, then the first three applicants on this List were considered to be "first choice" applicants and given a standardized rank of 1. The next three applicants on that List were defined as "second choice" applicants and given a standardized rank of 2. And so on.


MATCH RESULTS BY STANDARDIZED RANK NUMBER ON INTERNSHIP PROGRAM LIST
(PERCENTAGES MAY NOT TOTAL TO 100 DUE TO ROUNDING ERRORS)
Standardized Rank
# of Applicants Matched
1 965 (35%)
2 759 (28%)
3 502 (18%)
4 253 (9%)
5 139 (5%)
6 67 (2%)
7 23 (1%)
8 17 (1%)
9 8 (0%)
10 or higher 16 (1%)
Total 2,749 (100%)

To interpret this chart: of all positions that were filled in the Match, 35% were filled with "first choice" applicants (as defined above), 28% with "second choice" applicants, and so on.

Furthermore, 63% were filled with "first" or "second" choice applicants, while 81% were filled with "third choice" applicants or better.

Of course, comparing these numbers to applicants' Match statistics should be done with extreme caution, given the significantly different ways in how "first choice", "second choice", etc. were defined in each analysis.