2007 APPIC Match Statistics for Couples
February 26, 2007
This year, a total of 40 applicants participated as 20 "couples." Eleven of these couples had both partners successfully matched to an internship program, while nine couples had at least one partner who was not matched.
For four couples, both partners matched to programs at the same site.
As compared to the experiences of couples in previous APPIC Matches, many more couples in the 2007 Match had at least one partner remain unmatched. For some of these couples, one partner would not have matched even if he/she had participated in the Match as an individual (rather than as a member of a couple). For other couples, at least one partner did not match because the couples did not rank all possible combinations of programs at which they were being considered. While this may have been an intentional decision in order to avoid being geographically separated for the year, it highlights the risks of not ranking all possible pairings of internship sites when participating in the Match as a couple.
Following is a specific breakdown of the Match results for the 20 couples based on distance apart:
| NUMBER OF COUPLES | DISTANCE APART |
| 4 | Same City |
| 2 | Less than 50 miles apart |
| 1 | 50-100 miles apart |
| 1 | 100-150 miles apart |
| 2 | 150-500 miles apart |
| 1 | 500-1000 miles apart |
| 0 | Over 1000 miles apart |
| 9 | At least one partner unmatched |
INTERPRETATION NOTE: Most couples used the couples match in an attempt to be together during their internship year, and most tended to rank highly those program pairings that are located in the same geographic area. However, it should be noted that some couples had very highly-ranked program pairings that were hundreds or even thousands of miles apart. Thus, if a couple was matched to programs in distant cities, we should NOT assume that this combination was a lower-ranked pairing on their list.
Following are the Match results based on where a program pairing was ranked on couples' Rank Order Lists:
| RANK | NUMBER OF COUPLES |
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 1 |
| 5 | 0 |
| 6 | 1 |
| 7 | 0 |
| 8 | 0 |
| 9 | 1 |
| 10 | 1 |
| 11 to 15 | 0 |
| 16 to 20 | 3 |
| 21 and over | 6 |
INTERPRETATION NOTE: A paired Rank Order List submitted by a couple could have been very lengthy, particularly when a couple chose to submit most or all possible combinations of programs. Some couples had Rank Order Lists that exceeded 100 pairs of programs. One should not directly compare the results above with the results achieved by individual applicants (e.g., because 45% of individual applicants received their first choice, and 0% of couples received their first choice pairing, one should NOT conclude from this data that individual applicants "do better" than couples).