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Effect of Interview Cap on Ophthalmology Residency Match: A San Francisco Match Analysis
Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan1, Muhammad Ali1, Sabit Ahmed2
1Department of Ophthalmology of Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland.
Objective:
To assess the effect of interview capping on ophthalmology match results data from 3 consecutive match cycles (2020 to 2021, 2021 to 2022, and 2022 to 2023) obtained from the San Francisco (SF) Match system.
Design:
Retrospective cross-sectional analysis of national match data.
Setting:
San Francisco Match system during the 2020 to 2021, 2021 to 2022, and 2022 to 2023 application cycles.
Participants:
Of 2594 applicants to ophthalmology residency programs, 2266 were included after excluding those who applied to ≤ 20 programs in 2020 to 2021, ≤ 18 in 2021 to 2022, ≤ 15 in 2022 to 2023, and those who withdrew from the match. De-identified data on demographics, application volume, interview invitations, and match outcomes were collected from the SF Match system. Applicants were categorized based on the number of interview invites (≤ 15 vs. > 15).
Results:
Of the 2266 that were included in the analysis 1519 (67.03%) matched. Among all applicants, those who received more than 15 interview invites (n = 391) had a match rate of 98.5%. In comparison, match rates were 93% among those with 11 to 15 invites, 61% with 6 to 10, and 62% with 0 to 5 (p = 0.043). Factors associated with receiving > 15 interviews included identifying as Black (AOR: 9.39, 95% CI: 4.61-19.22), Hispanic (AOR: 2.69, 95% CI: 1.55-4.62), having Alpha Omega Alpha honors (AOR: 3.34, 95% CI: 2.40-4.66), and higher USMLE Step 2 CK scores (AOR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.10-1.14 per unit increase). Male applicants (AOR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0.36-0.67), and reapplicants (AOR: 0.24, 95% CI: 0.07-0.64) had lower odds of receiving > 15 interviews.
Conclusions And Relevance:
Interview caps may promote a more equitable distribution of interview invitations by preventing accumulation among a subset of highly competitive applicants, commonly referred to as "interview hoarding," without significantly affecting top candidates' ability to match. Further research is needed to explore reasons why 2% of candidates with greater than 15 interviews did not match warranting investigation into qualitative factors.
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