2009 APPIC Match Statistics for Couples
February 23, 2009
This year, a total of 42 applicants participated as 21 "couples." Sixteen of these couples had both partners successfully matched to an internship program, while five couples had one partner who was not matched.
For five couples, both partners matched to programs at the same internship site.
Following is a specific breakdown of the Match results for the 21 couples based on distance between matched programs:
| NUMBER OF COUPLES | DISTANCE APART |
| 9 | Same City |
| 4 | Less than 50 miles apart |
| 2 | 50-100 miles apart |
| 0 | 100-150 miles apart |
| 1 | 150-500 miles apart |
| 0 | 500-1000 miles apart |
| 0 | Over 1000 miles apart |
| 5 | 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, and some couples had very highly-ranked pairings where one partner chose to be unmatched. Thus, if a couple was matched to programs in distant cities or had one partner unmatched, we should NOT assume that this result 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 | 7 |
| 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 1 |
| 5 | 2 |
| 6 | 2 |
| 7 | 0 |
| 8 | 0 |
| 9 | 1 |
| 10 | 0 |
| 11 to 15 | 0 |
| 16 to 20 | 0 |
| 21 and over | 3 |
INTERPRETATION NOTES: 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. Eight couples had Rank Order Lists that exceeded 100 pairs of programs, while two couples submitted more than 300 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 33% of couples received their first choice pairing, one should NOT conclude from this data that individual applicants "do better" than couples).