The NRMP recently published data regarding the most recent Match. Of note, emergency medicine – my specialty – had a whopping 554 positions that remained unfilled. Ouch! Additionally, although the numbers were better than last year, IMGs still struggled: US citizen IMGs saw only a 67.6% Match rate and non-US citizen IMGs had only a 59.4% Match rate.
There is a lot of data to review, so take a look here if you want more information on DO Match rates, specialty competitiveness, and SOAP.
Occasionally I help residency applicants who are applying in two specialties. This tactic can be strategic in specific scenarios, but it also makes the process more complicated. Here are some quick clarifications to help:
1) Different personal statements can be assigned to different programs. This means you can assign your ob/gyn essay to ob/gyn programs and your internal medicine essay to internal medicine residencies. Of course, in this case, you need to have two versions of your statement in the first place, and you need to ensure you assign correctly.
2) Different letters of recommendation can be assigned to different residency programs as well. (A maximum of four letters may be assigned to each program.) You’ll either need to have letter writers for different fields, letter writers who will craft two types of letters, generic letters (less compelling), or a mix of these approaches.
3) You will have only one MyEras application. It will go to all of your programs. Note that if you list your membership in multiple ob/gyn organizations, for example, that will be viewed by your internal medicine readers as well – and might make them question your commitment to IM.
Contact me for help.
The AAMC recently published their Report on Residents 2021. Of note,
There are more goodies; the information is summed up in this table.
Here’s an interesting piece called “Are There Too Many Emergency Physicians?” by Thomas Cook MD, an emergency medicine program director. Dr. Cook chronicles the growth of emergency medicine residency positions from a total of 1821 in 2015 to 2488 in 2019. This rapid growth in the field may lead to an oversupply of emergency physicians.
The paradox here is that only recently there was a shortage of emergency physicians. And back when I graduated from medical school in the mid-1990s, almost no one was applying for emergency medicine. In my class of around 150 students, there were three of us. As the popularity of the show “ER” waxed, the number of applicants to the field swelled. Then, years later, the field contracted again.
Other fields have also recently seen a boom in the number of residency spots, including family medicine, psychiatry, and anesthesiology. Of course, opening up more residency positions is a good thing for medical students (especially international medical graduates) and patients, but the growth in certain fields may lead to a change in the economy of those specialties. It will be an interesting experiment.
For many third-year medical students, this is a tough time of year. Preparing an ERAS application can be daunting, but it’s even worse if you do not know what specialty you want to practice. Here’s a short piece I wrote with my colleague David Presser MD MPH called “Choosing a Specialty: The Generalist vs. The Early Committer.” And recently, I read a complementary, but non-medical, New York Times article called “You Don’t Want a Child Prodigy” that seems like a good follow up to our piece.
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
