<p>Yeah…match lists are absolutely not helpful…</p>
<p>1) Location is an extremely important consideration for many people and will affect where they apply.</p>
<p>2) Specialty may give you some idea but…in almost every specialty but derm and plastics if you’re willing to go into a malignant, low ranked program, you can be any type of physician. If you’re willing to go to Maine, New Mexico or North Dakota or Alaska or some other out of the way place, your chances improve for even the most competitive residencies.</p>
<p>3) How are you going to assess the numerous extremely high quality community based programs which have no academic name associated with them? Unless you know the ins and outs of a particular specialty, you’re going to make faulty judgements.</p>