NRMP_blue_logoThe National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) will announce the 2013 medical residency Match results for more than 17,000 United States allopathic medical school seniors and more than 16,000 other applicants on Friday, March 15, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. EDT. Match Day, an annual matching, is when medical school students get to know where they will live and train for the next three to seven years at their medical residency programs.

“It’s a wonderful and exciting day,” said Mona M. Signer, executive director of the NRMP. She added, “We are honored to play a small role each year in moving forward the careers of young physicians.”

U. S. senior medical students typically begin the residency application process at the beginning of their final year in medical school. After they apply to programs, programs review applications and invite selected candidates for interviews, which are held in the fall and early winter. Once the interview period is over, both parties create rank-order lists. Programs rank applicants in order of preference, and applicants compile their lists based on their preferred medical specialty and the location of the training programs.

The NRMP matching algorithm than pairs the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency programs, producing “an ideal result” in order to fill the available training positions at U.S. teaching hospitals. The algorithm gives preference to applicants rather than Residency Programs. Research about the NRMP algorithm was a basis of Dr. Alvin Roth’s receipt of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Students and graduates of international medical schools, osteopathic (D.O. degree) schools, and Canadian candidates also participate in the Match. Last year more than 38, 377 applicants vied for positions, and the NRMP reported a 95% successful NRMP Match result for U. S. seniors.