Match Day 2018: 5 takeaways

Alyssa Rege -

This year, the National Resident Matching Program witnessed a record high 37,103 applicants submitting program choices for a total of 33,167 residency positions, the most ever offered on Match Day, the NRMP announced March 16.

This year's Match Day took place March 16. According to the NRMP, the number of available first-year residency positions rose by 1,383 from 2017 to encompass a total of 30,232 positions.

Here are five additional takeaways from Match Day 2018.

1. Of the 30,232 first-year residency positions offered, roughly half (14,695) positions involved various primary care specialties, including family and internal medicine. The number of first-year residency positions in internal medicine programs, specifically, totaled 7,542 positions in 2018. Roughly 97.6 percent of those positions were filled on Match Day.

2. All but 13 of the 2,278 first-year emergency medicine positions offered were filled this year. The number of emergency medicine positions has increased 27.5 percent since 2014.

3. 2018 saw the highest number of Match registrants, totaling 43,909 individuals. NRMP officials attribute the increase to the increase in the number of students and graduates from U.S. osteopathic medical schools, which grew by 1,054 students in 2017 to encompass 6,054 students in 2018.

4. NRMP also found the number of DO medical students and graduates participating in Match Day has risen 68.6 percent since 2014. The organization expects the number of DO student participants to continue to grow during the next several years as a result of the transition to a single accreditation system.

5. The number of non-U.S. citizen international medical school students and graduate participants decreased for the second consecutive year. This year, 7,067 non-U.S. citizen IMGs submitted program choices, down 217 from 2017 and down 393 from 2016.

To learn more about Match Day 2018, click here.

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