This year, with 29,761 residency positions offered in the National Residency Match Program (NRMP), medical school students and graduates enjoyed better odds than ever that they'd have a slot open for them, and Friday they found out exactly where they'll be going.
"We're really pleased we had 500 more positions compared with last year. And many of those positions are in primary care," Mona Singer, Executive Director of the NRMP, told MedPage Today.
A notable change from last year's demographic, though, is timing, according to Singer. "There are fewer seniors in the match this year than last year. When we closed out registration, we contacted 27 medical schools with at least 10 fewer students in the match compared with last year. Even adjusting for overenrollment," she said.
One explanation: "[we found] many students are in dual-degree programs," Singer said.
Although the NRMP hasn't tracked this shift, Singer did say that many medical students are sticking around for longer than 4 years to pick up an MBA, MPH, or JD.
And according to one MD/MPH dual-degree student, "It's a huge trend." Grayson Armstrong, a Brown University Alpert Medical School student, and Harvard School of Public Health MPH candidate, told MedPage Today.
Quick Stats for Match Day 2014: Overall, 40,394 people registered for the match, an increase of 59 over 2013; however, 85 fewer applicants submitted rank order lists for programs. A total of 16,399 allopathic medical students matched with an overall rate to first-year positions of 75% -- the highest since 2006. Among those who matched, 54% of seniors, and close to 50% of other applicants, matched for their first program choice. The match rate for U.S. seniors, 94.4%, increased by 0.7% from last year; however, the number of U.S. medical school senior registrants fell by 89, and rank order submission from the same group dropped by 113, compared with the previous year. Among 925 couples who entered the match as inseparable, 843 are going to be sticking together in one of their preferred programs.
Primary Care Stats: For Internal Medicine, 3,167 seniors (6,524 overall) matched, an increase of 247 spots. Seniors took 48.5% of the 99.1% of the positions filled. Family Medicine saw an increase of 72 spots this year. Seniors filled 45% of the slots with 1,398 matches. Overall 95.8% of positions were filled with 3,109 matches. In Pediatrics, 2,640 applicants matched, with 99.5% of positions filled. Although in total there were 24 more matches in Pediatrics this year, 19 fewer seniors -- a total of 1,818 -- matched, representing 70% of the overall demographic.
Non-Senior and Med School Stats: There were 1,662 students who had graduated from allopathic schools prior to 2014 who matched this year at a rate of 48%. That was a 7.2% increase of 175 matches over last year. For both osteopathic medical school students and prior osteopathic grads, 77.7% of the 2,738 applicants matched, a 2.9% gain with 61 matches over last year. Among U.S. citizen graduates of international medical schools, 53% of 5,133 matched, 38 more than last year. The number of non-U.S. citizen students and graduates of international medical schools fell by 234 applicants this year to 7,334; however, the 49.5% who matched represented an increase of 2.5% over last year.
Armstrong won't be matching until next year, and he told MedPage Today that he and others are concerned about proposed cuts in federal funding for graduate medical education. "Medical students across the nation are concerned that there won't be enough slots to train. It's not all about getting a job, it's about patients getting the care that they need.
For those who did not match, the NRMP will provide a Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP), where 1,075 applicants will have a chance to grab one of 1,181 unfilled residency positions.
MOST READ IN Public Health & PolicyTOP CME IN Public Health & Policy