2009 APPIC Match Statistics
Match Report from the APPIC Board of Directors
February 23, 2009
We are pleased to report that 2,752 applicants were successfully matched to internship positions. A total of 45% of all applicants who obtained a position matched to their first choice internship program, approximately two-thirds (66%) received one of their top two choices, and nearly four-in-five (78%) received one of their top three choices.
A total of 846 applicants were not matched to an internship position, while 299 positions remained unfilled. This is the highest number of unmatched applicants to date, slightly exceeding the 842 unmatched applicants from the 2007 APPIC Match.
Compared to the 2008 APPIC Match, the number of registered applicants increased by 66 (1.8%) to a record 3,825 applicants, while the number of internship positions decreased by 7 (0.2%) to 3,051 positions. It should be noted that on September 30, 2008, initial 2009 Match registration figures showed an encouraging increase of 243 registered positions as compared to the same date in 2007. However, this increase was not sustained over time as the economic downturn worsened in the months leading up to Match Day, resulting in positions being removed from the Match due to a loss of (or uncertainty regarding) funding.
Here are the changes in numbers of applicants and positions as compared to the 2008 APPIC Match:
| Applicants: | Registered for the Match | +66 |
| Withdrew or did not submit ranks | -40 |
| Matched | +3 |
| Unmatched | +103 |
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| Positions: | Offered in the Match | -7 |
| | Filled | +3 |
| | Unfilled | -10 |
Following is a seven year comparison of the 2002 and 2009 Match statistics:
| | 2002 | 2009 | 7-YEAR CHANGE |
| Participating Sites | 610 | 666 | +56 (+ 9%) |
| Positions Offered | 2,752 | 3,051 | +299 (+11%) |
| Positions Filled | 2,410 | 2,752 | +342 (+14%) |
| Positions Unfilled | 342 | 299 | -43 (-13%) |
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| Registered Applicants | 3,073 | 3,825 | +752 (+24%) |
| Withdrawn Applicants | 231 | 227 | -4 ( - 2%) |
| Matched Applicants | 2,410 | 2,752 | +342 (+14%) |
| Unmatched Applicants | 432 | 846 | +414 (+96%) |
INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS
| PARTICIPATION |
| Training Sites Participating in the Match | 666 |
| Programs Participating in the Match | 1,146 |
| Positions Offered in the Match | 3,051 |
NOTE: 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 | 2,752 | (90%) |
| Remaining Unfilled | 299 | (10%) |
| Programs |
| Filled in the Match | 984 | (86%) |
| With Unfilled Positions | 162 | (14%) |
NOTE: 39 programs at 35 sites submitted fewer ranks than the number of positions available. As a result, no ranks were submitted for 77 positions, which remained unfilled.
| APA- OR CPA- ACCREDITED POSITIONS |
| Filled in the Match | 2,242 | (97%) |
| Remaining Unfilled | 80 | (3%) |
| Total | 2,322 | |
| NON-ACCREDITED POSITIONS |
| Filled in the Match | 510 | (70%) |
| Remaining Unfilled | 219 | (30%) |
| Total | 729 | |
Non-accredited positions represented 73.2% of all unfilled positions.
| RANKINGS |
| Average Number of Applicants Ranked Per Position Offered for Each Program: |
| Programs Filling All Positions | 8.4 |
| Programs With Unfilled Positions | 2.5 |
| All Programs | 7.5 |
Each Registered Applicant Was Ranked by an Average of 5.3 Different Programs.
APPLICANTS
| PARTICIPATION |
| Applicants Registered in the Match | 3,825 |
| Applicants Who Withdrew or Did Not Submit Ranks | 227 |
Applicants Participating in the Match
(includes 42 individuals who participated in the Match as 21 "couples") | 3,598 |
| MATCH RESULTS |
| Applicants Matched | 2,752 | (76%) |
| Participating Applicants Not Matched | 846 | (24%) |
MATCH RESULTS BY RANK NUMBER ON APPLICANT'S LIST
(PERCENTAGES MAY NOT TOTAL TO 100 DUE TO ROUNDING ERRORS) |
| Rank | Number of Applicants |
| 1 | 1,233 | (45%) |
| 2 | 582 | (21%) |
| 3 | 342 | (12%) |
| 4 | 218 | ( 8%) |
| 5 | 137 | ( 5%) |
| 6 | 93 | ( 3%) |
| 7 | 63 | ( 2%) |
| 8 | 25 | ( 1%) |
| 9 | 24 | ( 1%) |
| 10 or higher | 35 | ( 1%) |
| Total | 2,752 | (100%) |
| RANKINGS |
| Average Number of Rankings Submitted Per Applicant: |
| Matched Applicants | 7.7 |
| Unmatched Applicants | 4.5 |
| Overall | 6.9 |
Each Position Was Ranked by an Average of 8.2 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 | 1,021 | (37%) |
| 2 | 711 | (26%) |
| 3 | 506 | (18%) |
| 4 | 269 | (10%) |
| 5 | 116 | (4%) |
| 6 | 59 | (2%) |
| 7 | 33 | (1%) |
| 8 | 11 | (0%) |
| 9 | 5 | (0%) |
| 10 or higher | 21 | (1%) |
| Total | 2,752 | (100%) |
To interpret this chart: of all positions that were filled in the Match, 37% were filled with "first choice" applicants (as defined above), 26% 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.