Program Summary Statistics

Review your program's total applicant interview statistics across a single recruitment season, with benchmarking data and visual comparisons across your specialty.

1. What is Program Summary Statistics?

The Program Summary Statistics section in Cerebellum gives your program a detailed look at how your interview activity compares to other programs in your specialty. It brings together data from Thalamus, Cortex, and ERAS in one place.

The section covers four main areas:

• Invited Applicant Interview Statistics

  • Total number of invitations sent and final applicant statuses from ERAS and Thalamus, along with a normalized percentage that accounts for program size

• Invited Applicant Overlap Statistics

  • Data on how many other programs your applicants are interviewing at on average, calculated from specialty-wide Thalamus data

• Invited Applicant Exam Statistics

  • Aggregated applicant exam data from Thalamus and Cortex

• Normalized to Program Size

  • Each statistic expressed as a percentage (count ÷ total invitations), so programs of different sizes can be compared fairly. These values are also shown in accompanying graphs.

For each category, you will see your program's value alongside comparison data from other programs in your specialty.

Who can view this feature?

2. Before starting

Before using Program Summary Statistics, make sure:

• You have access to Cerebellum

• Your program has applicant data available for the current or selected season

• Filters are set to the correct season and specialty. See Navigating Cerebellum for guidance on applying filters

3. How to navigate to Program Summary Statistics

1. Log in to Cerebellum

2. Select your program from the program view

3. Navigate to the Program Data section

4. Select Program Summary Statistics

4. Understanding the data table

The data table displays your program's statistics alongside specialty-wide comparison data. Here is what each column means:

Term	What it means
Raw Statistics	The actual count from the Applicants page in Thalamus (e.g., number of applicants who completed an interview).
Normalized Statistics	Your program's count divided by total invitations, expressed as a percentage. This allows fair comparison across programs of different sizes.
Mean	The arithmetic average across all programs in your specialty.
Percentile	Where your program falls compared to others in your specialty. Percentiles are calculated out of 100% and rounded to the nearest 10%.
Z Score	How far your program's value is from the specialty mean, measured in standard deviations. A positive score means you are above the mean; a negative score means below.
Standard Deviation	A measure of how spread out the data is across programs in your specialty.

 

5. Understanding the bell curve graph

The lower half of the Program Summary Statistics section displays the same data visually as a bell curve graph.

• The bell curve shows the normal distribution of values across programs in your specialty

• Your program's position on the curve shows how far you are from the mean

• Programs close to the center of the curve are near the specialty average

• Programs on the far left or right are significantly below or above the average

This visual makes it easy to quickly identify where your program stands at a glance.

 

6. How the data is aggregated

It helps to understand where the numbers come from:

1. Interview statistics are pulled from the Applicants page in Thalamus and from the ERAS PDWS. Only the final applicant status in Thalamus is counted. For example, if an applicant was cancelled but later rescheduled and completed their interview, they will be counted as completed — not cancelled.

2. Overlap statistics (how many programs your applicants are also interviewing at) are calculated from specialty-wide data across all programs using Thalamus.

3. Exam statistics are aggregated from Thalamus and Cortex.

4. Percentiles and Z scores are calculated automatically from specialty-wide data. Dashboard data is anonymized and aggregated. Programs can only identify their own program data. All other specialty data is de-identified. Data is intended for informational and benchmarking purposes only and is not intended to predict match outcomes.

5. Graphs are generated from specialty-wide data across programs using Thalamus.

7. Frequently asked questions