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what does it mean to match in medical school
Match Day ( Medicine ) - wikipedia Match Day ( Medicine ) hide This article has multiple issues . Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . ( Learn how and when to remove these template messages ) This article may contain improper references to self - published sources . Please help improve it by removing references to unreliable sources , where they are used inappropriately . ( January 2014 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message ) This article relies largely or entirely on a single source . Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources . ( March 2017 ) This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . ( March 2017 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message ) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message ) Match Day is a term used widely in the graduate medical education community to represent the day when the National Resident Matching Program or NRMP releases results to applicants seeking residency and fellowship training positions in the United States . Match Day for the NRMP Main Residency Match is on the third Friday of March each year , and Match Day ceremonies occur at many of the 155 medical schools in the United States where those results are announced . Match Days for the NRMP Fellowship Matches occur throughout the year because each Fellowship Match has its own schedule of dates . Other national matching plans like the American Osteopathic Association ( AOA ) , American Urological Association , and the San Francisco Match ( Ophthalmology and Plastic Surgery ) have dates on which they release their results . By participating in a national matching plan , applicants contractually agree to attend the residency , internship or fellowship programs to which they match . The same agreement applies to the programs ; they are obligated to train the applicants who match to them . In 2017 , Match Day hit a record - high as 35,969 U.S. and international medical school students and graduates vied for 31,757 residency positions . Contents 1 Background 2 Osteopathic 3 Military 4 References 4.1 Further reading 5 External links Background ( edit ) In the United States , applicants and programs that register with the NRMP participate in a process known as `` the Match . '' Applicants for the NRMP Main Residency Match usually begin the application process in the summer , and programs review applications and invite selected candidates for interviews held between October and February . After the interview period is over , applicants submit to the NRMP a `` rank - order list '' of programs where they wish to train . Similarly , residency programs submit a rank order list of applicants they prefer to train . The process is blinded so that neither applicants nor programs see each other 's rank order lists . Aggregate Match results can be found on the NRMP public website . The two parties ' rank order lists are processed using the NRMP 's matching algorithm , which creates stable ( a proxy for optimal ) matches between applicants and programs . On the Monday prior to Match Day for the Main Residency Match , applicants find out from the NRMP if ( but not where ) they matched . Applicants who match to a training position must wait until the Match Day on Friday to learn the location of that position . Applicants who do not match to a training position in the Main Residency Match may be eligible to obtain an unfilled position through the Match Week Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program that concludes on Thursday , the day prior to Match Day . Although the majority of U.S. medical school seniors match to one of their top three program choices , applicants may match to programs lower on their rank order list , especially when their preferred specialty for training is among competitive specialties such as Plastic Surgery , Dermatology , Neurosurgery , Ophthalmology , Urology , Orthopaedics , Otolaryngology , and Radiation Oncology . Osteopathic ( edit ) Further information : Comparison of MD and DO in the United States § Residency The American Osteopathic Association ( AOA ) sponsors a similar but separate Match for osteopathic students and graduates , the results of which are announced in February , before release of the NRMP results . Osteopathic physicians ( DOs ) may participate in either the NRMP or AOA matching plan and obtain positions in programs accredited by either the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education ( ACGME ) , or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine American Osteopathic Association ( AOA ) . The AOA Match is being phased out as a result of the transition to a single accreditation system under the aegis of the ACGME . Military ( edit ) Members of the U.S. military participate in their own selection process for programs located at military hospitals , clinics , and bases . The military selection usually occurs in mid-December to allow students who did not match to participate in other national matching plans References ( edit ) Jump up ^ `` Med Page Today '' . Further reading ( edit ) American Association of Family Physicians - The Match Gray , Leila ( March 21 , 2014 ) . `` Match Day , when medical student futures are decided '' . UW Health Sciences / UW Medicine . External links ( edit ) National Resident Matching Program <Th_colspan="2"> hide Medical education in the United States Stages Pre-medical Medical school Clerkship Sub-internship Graduate medical education Internship Residency Fellowship Board certification Licensure Continuing medical education Pathways Medicine ( MD ) Osteopathic Medicine ( DO ) International medical graduate Degrees Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine MD - PhD Comparison Exams MCAT USMLE Step 1 2CK 2CS COMLEX Level 1 2CE 2PE Regulatory bodies American Medical Association Association of American Medical Colleges American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine National Resident Matching Program Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Liaison Committee on Medical Education Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education American Osteopathic Association Lists Medical schools Specialty colleges Reformers Abraham Flexner William Osler William Stewart Halsted Andrew Taylor Still Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Match_Day_(medicine)&oldid=830741912 '' Categories : Medical education in the United States Hidden categories : Articles with self - published sources from January 2014 All articles with self - published sources Articles needing additional references from March 2017 All articles needing additional references Articles with multiple maintenance issues All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from April 2014 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 16 March 2018 , at 17 : 28 ( UTC ) . 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