Hello and welcome back to the EM clerkship series on applying and interviewing for emergency medicine residency.

My name is Maddie Watts and I'm going to be your guide through the entire process, because, spoiler alert, I just did it.

So far we've covered the personal statement and the ERAS application.

No matter whether you've completed those already or

are just thinking ahead, I know there's one question that's been in the back of all of your

minds. How do I know if I'm competitive? Whether you're worried about matching in general or

worried about whether or not you have what it takes to get into your dream program, just know

that you are not alone.

Every one of us has had these thoughts throughout the process, and sometimes the anxiety that

comes with them can be quite crippling. While there's no magic formula to the match, I do want

to give you three steps to help you assess your competitiveness. Hopefully, giving you these three

steps today will not only help to ease your anxiety,

but also help you to apply smarter.

What do I mean by apply smarter?

Applying smarter means applying to an appropriate number of programs

in order to maximize your chances of matching without maxing out your budget or taking a bunch of

interviews that you don't need from other applicants. It also means applying to an

appropriate variety of programs to help you make sure you find the right fit for you. Before

we get to the three steps, I want to discuss some general numbers and data that you

might see online or hear advisors throw around.

NRMP, or the people that run the match, keep very detailed data every year, and every other application cycle, they crunch the numbers into this big report called charting outcomes in the match.

Among other things, this report tells you just how

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