how does residency matching work?

[wowzer]

hey, first time poster in this forum. now that i've gotten passed the medical school admissions abyss, I was wondering (just a little bit) about residency matching. I'm just trying to get a very generalized interpretation of it.
- How and when do you apply?
- Do you apply based on location, specialty, or both?
- Is it possible to match into more than one specialty?
- How does the "match" work? (how do matching services make the match...do I just rank the school 1,2,3,4,5 etc and they do the same for me, and then they find out the closest numbers?)
- What are the matching services?
- What does "transitional" mean?
- What does it mean to match into research?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[skypilot]

Here is a good website:

http://residency.wustl.edu/

You don't apply till your 4th year so take a breath and relax! 🙂

You apply based on what residency you want to go into and where the program is located. It is like applying to med school or a job. You will have to go for a bunch of interviews.

It is not possible to match into more than one specialty.

The computerized match favors the applicant and gives them their top choice if the school included them in the rank list and there are enough slots.

Transitional is a first year residency slot that is only one year in general medicine before you start your specialty residency (like anesthesia or radiology)

The match is run by the NRMP National Residency Matching Program

 

[BaylorGuy]

In a nutshell, you pick various programs you want to attend (in certain specialties). You interview at all your places and then eventually rank them. Whichever you rank highest matches with whatever school ranks you highest, you will go there...

If you know how the TMDSAS app works, its kind of like that.