National Resident Matching Program - Frequently Asked Questions

Background
Q--What is the NRMP?

A--The NRMP is the National Resident Matching Program. The NRMP is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation established in 1952. It is managed and operated by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

The NRMP conducts the "Match", a voluntary process by which graduating medical students (and residents) obtain placement in residency (and fellowship) training programs selected by them.

Each year, approximately 25,000 medical students go through the "Match" to obtain placement in a residency program. Going through the "Match" is not mandatory, but only a few thousand students each year opt to find a residency program outside of the "Match."

Q--Why was the NRMP created?

A--Before 1945, students were assigned to residency programs in a free-for-all system. This led to increasingly earlier and earlier assignments, going even as far as assigning students to residencies as early as the beginning of the third year or even the second year of medical school. The first attempt to change this was a decision by the AAMC that its member schools refuse to give out transcripts or recommendation letters for applicants until the end of the third year. This attempt did not resolve related problems.

Another problem was that applicants were given variable amounts of time to decide on an offer. For example, an applicant waiting to hear from his/her first or second choice residency program would be offered a position at a lower choice program and would be pressured to make a decision before knowing their status at their higher choices (the so-called "exploding offer"). At its most extreme, students in 1950 were being offered as little as twelve hours to make a take-it-or-leave-it decision.

In response to these problems, the system that would become the NRMP was created in 1952. The "Match" was created as a voluntary system to set a uniform date of appointment to residencies, shortly before the completion of medical school, allowing graduating medical students maximum time to interview and evaluate residency programs.

Over the years, the NRMP has made multiple changes to the "Match" algorithm in order to maintain the efficacy of the system and improve the opportunities for medical students to be placed in their top choice programs. In 1995, a shift was made to a "student-proposing" system, thus the "Match" became asymmetrical, favoring students over residency programs in evaluating rank lists of each.

Q--What is the purpose of the NRMP?

A--The NRMP's charter provides it is organized exclusively for educational purposes to conduct a national clearinghouse for matching the preferences of applicants for residencies with the residency programs' choices of their applicants, in order to assist medical students (and residents) in obtaining, to the extent possible, their choices of residencies (and fellowships).

Q--Who sponsors the NRMP?

A -- American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)
      American Medical Association (AMA)
      Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
      American Hospital Association (AHA)
      Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS)

Q--Who sits on the Board of the NRMP?

A--Along with directors appointed by the above sponsoring organizations, there are student directors from the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and the Consortium of Medical Student Organizations (CMSO).

Q--Where can I find out more background information about the NRMP or the Match?

A--The NRMP has additional information on its Web site. (This link will take you off the AMA Web site.)