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To all my #Match2021 applicants: Congrats! Y'all are done or almost done with interview season! I have been talking to some of you about how to figure out your rank lists and wanted to share my experience/thought process with it last year! (a 
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2/ First of all: please give yourself a pat on a back. Y'all went through a crazy career determining process on top of handling the biggest cultural/political/medical movements of our time! You should be crazy proud of your journey here. It wasn't easy, and we admire you!
3/ Background: I applied for peds last year and happily matched my #1 (shout out @BCMPedsSA). I was planning on doing LDR with my orthopod boyfriend (now @ pitt). Was also looking for a fun city with lots of things to do and preferably warmer climate than my home (CHI)
4/ Other professional wants/goals: standalone children's hospital, good training for fellowship vs gen peds (was leaning more gen peds), diverse faculty/residents/patient population, and extra training in advocacy/global health
5/ As I went through my IV season, I kept a loose ranking of all the programs based on gut feel. By the end of my IV season I had a rough draft of my rank list. At that point, it was obvious which top 4-5 programs I LOVED and which ones I didn't love as much (bottom 3)
6/ The hardest part for me was the middle of my rank list. These were the programs I didn't love but didn't hate or just had multiple way ties between. It came to the point where I was questioning which one would I be slightly happier at.
7/ I then tried to figure out (based on my wants) which aspects I could NOT live without vs. which wants I could probably live without.
Ex. Location, career goal, diversity were things I could NOT live without. I prioritized those the most throughout my whole list.
Ex. Location, career goal, diversity were things I could NOT live without. I prioritized those the most throughout my whole list.
8/ Location/having friends were important to me. Since I would be doing LDR/away from family, I needed co-res that I could hang out with for my wellbeing. Some programs I interviewed at had not as fun cities(IMO) and more family oriented/coupley which put them lower on my list.
9/ Diversity was a little easier to asses/rank for each program. Looking at resident classes, faculty, and assessing each program's response to my questions gave me a better sense of where I was/would be valued.
10/ Career wise: since I was unsure of what I wanted. I looked for places that had good electives/fellowship match lists and great outpatient peds clinics. Since I was leaning more gen peds I prioritized the outpatient peds stuff higher than the fellowship match list.
11/ My hardest decision came down between two programs where one I loved the faculty more than the residents but the other I loved the residents more than the faculty. After talking to family and friends I realized bonding with the residents was more important to me.
12/ Your co-residents are the ones that are with you more than faculty. They are going to be the ones that pick you up during your lows and celebrate your highs with you. While having great faculty is great, I realized who I went through residency with was more important to me.
13/ LAST THING: I got feedback from 4 ppl when making my list (parents, sister, bf). Just by my convos with them after every IV, they easily told me which programs I initially liked/ones I didn't like as much after my IVs. SUPER HELPFUL since my notes weren't as helpful at times.
14/ tldr: used location, career goal, diversity, and trusted opinions to help me figure out the rest of my rank list! Hope this helps some of y'all, and I can't WAIT to see where you future docs end up! Congrats!!
