Match Week 2023 for Medical Residencies
What to Expect from This Year’s Program
Where will you spend your medical residency? Tens of thousands of graduating medical school students will find out during Match Week 2023, which runs from March 13-17.
The week culminates in Match Day celebrations on Friday, March 17, but there is a lot of activity that happens before that. And many are feeling the stress.
How many medical students match to residency slots?
After years of sleepless nights spent studying for medical school and enduring a global pandemic that changed clinical rotations and moved the residency application process online, this year’s cohort of new physicians has plenty to look forward to during the 70th Anniversary Match Week.
Will they match to one of their preferred residency programs? What happens if they don’t match to any programs?
Luckily, they will find out on Monday of Match Week if they have a definite slot, or they have to go through a secondary application process.
The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), established in 1952, manages the annual processes of fairly matching nearly 50,000 applicants for U.S. residency positions with the preferences of program directors. This year, 42,952 applicants will be seeking matches for a record 40,375 available positions. The NRMP also conducts fellowship matches for 65 subspecialties.
The stats: A look at last year’s Match
The NRMP reported that 47,675 applicants registered for the 2022 Main Residency Match, representing the first year since 2003 in which registrants decreased year over year (48,700 in 2021).
Some other statistics from the 2022 Match:
- 92.9% of U.S. MD seniors matched to postgraduate-year one (PGY-1) positions, an increase from 92.8% in 2021
- 91.3% of U.S. DO seniors matched, which rose from 89.1% in 2021
- 61.4% of non-U.S. citizen international medical graduates (IMGs) matched, a rise from 54.8% in 2021
- Of the 39,205 positions available last year, 94.2% were filled. There were 2,262 unfilled positions after the matching algorithm was processed.
Match Week 2023
After this year’s application and interview process was complete, the applicants and programs ranked their preferences in February. The next step was for NRMP to run its computerized mathematical matching algorithm.
When this year’s Match Week schedule starts on Monday, March 13, 2023, applicants will learn whether they were matched, and programs can find out if their medical residencies were filled.
Matches may not occur if the applicant did not rank the program, the program did not rank the applicant, or the applicant and program had ranked each other but the program was filled with other applicants more preferred by the program.
For that subset of applicants that doesn’t have a match as of Monday during Match Week, they can participate in the NRMP’s Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP). This rapid-fire application process is designed to give unmatched candidates and unfilled programs another chance at connecting.
On March 15, programs can start reviewing SOAP applications and may contact applicants. Programs also can start developing SOAP preference lists within NRMP’s R3 system. The next day, the programs can review applications, conduct interviews and certify their preference lists for SOAP candidates.
March 16 offers programs and applicants multiple SOAP rounds in attempts to make matches.
At noon on Match Day, March 17, applicants learn their match results and medical schools hold Match Day ceremonies.
What can they expect after residency?
What can these doctors in training expect from their medical residencies, and what might the future hold when they are ready to move on?
The survey found that 30% of final-year medical residents received 100 or more job solicitations during their training, compared to 45% who reported that many in 2019. The residents also noted that geographic location is the most important factor when examining a job opportunity, followed by adequate personal time and lifestyle considerations.
Residents who choose to specialize may also take part in another match for their fellowship training, and that process is in for some changes this year.
As the nation’s leader in physician recruitment, AMN Healthcare career consultants excel at placing physicians in their ideal positions—at all stages of their medical career.
