Medical Residency MATCH: Understanding the Process and the Data

What is MATCH DAY? Match Day is the day when 4th year medical school students learn where they will spend their residency training and residents will learn of their fellowship selection. In 2022, Match Week will be March 14-18th with Friday, March 18th set as Match Day. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is responsible for post-graduate medical education including fellowships and residencies for both MD and DO students. The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) coordinates the complicated matching of the individual students to most residency and fellowship programs. 

For ACGME accredited programs, the match results are released the third week of March. On Monday, March 14, 2022, students will find out IF they matched somewhere and on Friday, March 18 they find out WHERE they matched....thus MATCH DAY. If you want to better understand the match season calendar, click here.

As a premed, this will seem like a long way off but it's one of the most important events in your medical career. You will always remember where you were on MATCH DAY! In 2022, the magical match day for most allopathic and osteopathic programs who participate in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) will be on Friday, March 18, 2022. For military programs, Match Day was in December. Urology manages their own match program and results were announced on February 1, 2022. Ophthalmology results were announced on February 8, 2022.

For those participating in the NRMP program (which is most students), if you do not match anywhere by 9am on Monday, March 14, then you enter the SOAP program (Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program) at 10am. SOAP helps unmatched students link up with residency programs that are not yet filled. This process is called the ‘scramble’. Students quickly research programs, apply to and hope for an acceptance by Friday. That’s a lot to do in just 3 days! Since many programs are already full, they may have to change their location or specialty. In 2021, 1,892 positions were offered during SOAP.

On average, students in 2022 applied to 101 different residency programs. Think about the time committment involved in researching and applying to 100 sites! The total number of applications varies depending on the competitiveness of that specialty. For example, students applying to Anesthesiology, on average, applied to 60 programs, Dermitology 74 programs, Family Medicine 57, Pediatrics 45, Ophthalmology 70 and Urology 81. Check out the EARS for specifics on each specialty. If you want to learn more about to prepare for a competitive residency application such as Ophthalmology, over the course of your 4 year medical school career, check out Vanderbilt’s Ophthalmology Application Guide as an example.

To find out more about how the match program works, understand the algorithms, deadlines, dual accredited programs, please refer to the main NRMP website for details. You can also check out what residency directors think are important components in their selection process by visiting the Results of the 2021 NRMP Program Director Survey.

Since 2020, both DO and MD students match using the same residency process. To learn more about this merger, visit the 2020 Report on Residents.

In a normal year, 4th year medical school students would gather in large venues and one by one their residency matches would be announced or they would ceremoniously all open their envelopes at the same time. Some schools even dress up in costume for the event. For 2020 & 2021 applicants, it was a totally different story. Virtual venues replaced large ballrooms and celebrations were minimal as most people were holed up in their homes staying safe from the COVID virus. 2022 hopes to be a more festive celebration with in person activities, so watch those school Twitter accounts for photos.

Understanding the types of residencies

There are several different types of residencies depending on what specialty you are applying for. You may see names such as categorical positions, transitional year programs and preliminary year programs. Washington University in St. Louis has a great web site that describes the difference between each program and gives the length of each residency. Some residency programs require a year of basic medical training before starting a residency in for example, radiology, neurology, anesthesiology, ophthalmology, dermatology or radiation oncology. Often times these students will do one year, then apply for another residency to continue. Sometimes this is planned, such as in radiology, while other times it is done to position yourself for a more competitive residency or help you when you didn’t get into your desired residency at first. Medical schools will help you understand all the terminology and provide in depth support to help you achieve the residency you wish. On average, US medical students apply to 101 residency programs, whereas international medical graduates (IMGs) apply to 146+. These numbers are double what they were 10 years ago. For more information, visit the AAMC Residency Explorer Tool. By the way, the military have their own match program as does urology and the SF Match for Ophthalmology & Plastic Surgery.

What Was different about the 2021 Match?

As a result of the pandemic, many away clinical rotations were cancelled and programs were forced to offer only virtual interviews for the 2021 residency match cycle. Away rotations offer several benefits including: 1) providing valuable training experience, 2) provide an opportunity for students to try out another campus and better understand the campus culture to see if this where they would like to apply for residency, 3) secure letters of recommendation to not only help their candidacy at that away location, but provide diversification in the overall letter packet. It’s all about finding that fit; that match. To learn more about the status of away rotations for 2021, read this update.

In 2021, students were afraid they would not match so they applied to more programs and the top students secured more interview spots. This left fewer slots for other students ‘downstream’. Without away rotations, student applied more locally, to their home medical schools campus or to cities and programs they knew well. The upside to virtual interviews was that students did not have to spend a lot of money traveling to attend residency program interviews but as a result, this increased the number of interviews each student attended. Residency programs did add more interview slots to accommodate this trend and SOAP (Match Week Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program) added an additional round anticipating more students needing to ‘scramble’ for a spot during match week.

Terms Defined

  • NRMP = The National Resident Matching Program for MD and DO programs

  • ACGME = Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

  • LCME = Liaison Committee on Medical Education

  • SOAP = Match Week Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program

2021 Match Articles

Helpful Links

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