AAMC Reporter: April 2009

Match Day Numbers Reflect Enrollment Growth

On this year's Match Day, March 19, a record number of U.S. medical school seniors learned where they would spend the next chapter of their lives as resident physicians.

Almost 400 more U.S. medical school seniors participated in the 2009 Main Residency Match than in 2008, reflecting American medical schools' success in expanding class size, according to Match officials. Of these students, 93.1 percent matched to first-year positions and 81.9 percent were paired with one of their top three choices.

"This is the first year we've seen medical school enrollment growth reflected in the Match," said Mona M. Signer, executive director of the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), which administers the Match. "Even so, the match rate for U.S. seniors remained remarkably consistent with past years, a very positive sign for students and schools."

The number of available residency spots in the Match also increased in 2009. This year, there were 25,185 first and second-year graduate medical education (GME) positions, the highest on record and up 119 slots from 2008. An all-time high of 24,039 matches were made, 365 more than last year. Signer noted, however, that the number of Match applicants continues to outpace growth in the number of available training positions.

The 2009 Match also was the largest ever in terms of total participants, with 29,890 applicants submitting their ranked lists of programs, an increase of 1,153 over last year. This growth was due not only to more U.S. medical school students participating, but also to a jump in the ranks of American osteopathic and international medical school students and graduates. More than 2,000 osteopathic applicants participated in 2009, up from 1,870 last year, and 1,408 obtained first-year positions. There were 3,390 U.S.-citizen international medical graduates (IMG), with 47.8 percent matching to first-year positions. For the 7,484 non-U.S.-citizen IMGs who participated in this year's Match, the match rate was 41.6 percent. Despite the declining match rates for IMGs, more obtained first-year positions this year than last.

Signer also noted the continuing upward trends in several specialties. Competitive specialties such as emergency medicine, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, and anesthesiology filled about 99 percent of their available residency slots. The numbers of U.S. medical school seniors matching to pediatrics, psychiatry, and obstetrics-gynecology all increased this year. Internal medicine filled 98.6 percent of its 4,922 available positions, with U.S. medical students comprising 53.5 percent of the cohort, a slight drop from the 54.8 percent in 2008. Neurological surgery, new to the Match this year, filled all of its 191 positions.

Family medicine placed 101 fewer positions in the Match this year, and filled 76 fewer than in 2008. The 2,636 family medicine positions available last year had reversed a decade-long decline in the numbers of positions offered and filled.

"Last year, the number of family medicine positions offered and filled rose slightly, which we had hoped was the beginning of an upward trend," Signer said. "But this year there were fewer family medicine positions in the Match and fewer matches made to those programs, which may dishearten many members of the primary care community."

The number of couples participating in the 2009 Match was an all-time high of 788. Still, their match rate remained constant at more than 93 percent.

"We are exceptionally pleased with this year's Match," Signer said. "The NRMP Board of Directors has worked hard to provide decision support tools for applicants, and those efforts have paid off in the higher number of positions filled."

To administer the Match, the NRMP uses a computer algorithm that aligns the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency programs to fill the training positions available at U.S. teaching hospitals. The Match program was created in 1952.

—By Elissa Fuchs