Resident Match breaks records for applicants and couples

Among the 28,737 medical students vying for first-year residency positions were 738 pairs, but matching a couple is no small feat.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. April 7, 2008.

Over a flauta and a chicken-spinach enchilada, Brandon Bolfing and Shahed "Sky" Izaddoost took a breather from their final year at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston to celebrate their Match results with friends and family at a Mexican restaurant.

"This is the first place we went in medical school," Bolfing said. "And it will be the last now that we've matched."

Izaddoost will be in pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. Bolfing will work 40 miles away at the Conroe Medical Education Foundation's family medicine residency in Conroe, Texas.

Bolfing and Izaddoost, who plan to marry May 24, are among a growing number of couples participating in the National Resident Matching Program. This year, a record 738 couples applied for residencies, with 94% matching on Match Day March 20.

One reason behind the increase in medical couples, educators said, is that women have made up nearly half the entering medical school class since 2002.

But matching as a couple is no simple feat.

Applicants who participate as a couple create pairs of program choices on their rank order lists so they can mix geographic locations and specialties according to their needs. In addition to the challenges of deciding on a specialty, figuring out where to interview and how to rank their choices, couples want programs in the same vicinity.

"Most couples I've talked to have had to make some kind of compromise," Bolfing said.

Bolfing and Izaddoost were among 28,737 applicants who competed for 22,240 first-year residency positions in the Match, making this the largest group of applicants ever, according to the NRMP.