The Match - Explained
The following explanations show how the PRAMS matches candidates to programs using some common scenarios. Please review the information below to understand how your choices in ranking programs, and their choices in evaluating and ranking candidates result in the matches returned by the system.
1st Choices Always Match
In the scenario below, a candidate and a program have ranked each other as their first choice. In this situation, there is no doubt that these two will be matched as each can only select one as their preferred option.
Your First Choice May not be Granted
In the scenario below, two of the candidates are granted their first choice, due to a high ranking by the program. In the case of the third candidate, their first choice was not awarded because their first choice for a program did not select them as a high ranking choice. The more appropriate option in the case of these rankings was to fulfill the second choice as that program ranked this candidate more prominently.
In addition, the second candidate may be awarded their first choice even if the program doesn't reciprocate and ranks them slightly lower.
Third Choices Can be Relevant
In the scenario below, the high ranking by a program and the second candidate results in that selection, while the first candidate's first and second choices can be bypassed in favour of a program that ranked them highly for their third selection (assuming both of the candidates first two choices did not have that program ranking them prominently).
Matches aren't Guaranteed
In some cases, if you are not ranked prominently by any of your top choices for programs, you may not be matched if those programs have seen all of their positions filled by candidates they ranked higher on their list.
For questions or comments please contact Debi Allen, CPRB Coordinator at dallen@cshp.ca