Getting into residency is hard. Understanding how to rank programs for the Match is easy. Thanks to a Nobel Prize winning economist and his colleagues, the current Match algorithm ensures that your desires are the priority over the residency programs’. What this means practically is that you should rank your first choice first, your second second, etc. There is no need to try to play the system. Please see my Guru on the Go® video “NRMP Ranking to Avoid a Spanking” below for a fun summary.