News

The National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) has released Matched, Unmatched, and Beyond: Applicant Characteristics and Residency Placement Outcomes, 2022–2025, a first-of-its-kind report that considers residency placement outcomes across the Main Residency Match® and Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program® (SOAP®). This report is part of a broader NRMP initiative to better understand applicants who did not secure a residency position or who obtained only partial residency training during Match Week.

Building on four years of NRMP data, the report examines:

1. Applicant Characteristics: How characteristics differ among applicants across Match outcome groups, including applicants who secured any position (through the matching algorithm or SOAP), applicants who did not secure any position, and withdrawn applicants.
2. Residency training outcomes during Match Week: The percentage of applicants who secured any position, a full course of training, or only a Preliminary, Advanced, or Physician position during each Match cycle, including differences by applicant type.
3. Longitudinal trajectories of unmatched and not placed applicants: Whether applicants who did not secure a position returned during a subsequent Match and, if so, whether they secured residency training. 

Key findings:

• Several differences in applicant characteristics across Match outcome groups were noted, suggesting relationships between various applicant characteristics and securement of a residency position or potential biases in residency attainment. 
• Overall, three-quarters of applicants secured a full course of training (i.e., a Categorical or Primary position or both Preliminary and Advanced positions), about 4 percent secured only a Preliminary position, and less than 1 percent secured only an Advanced position or a Physician position.  
• Nearly three-quarters of applicants who did not secure any position during their first Match cycle returned to the Match, of whom 65 percent went on to secure any position during a subsequent Match cycle. 

These analyses expand understanding of the transition to residency by looking beyond a single Match outcome and providing data-driven insights into who secures residency training, how outcomes vary across applicant groups, and what happens to applicants who initially do not secure a position.

These findings provide applicants, educators, residency programs, researchers, and the broader medical education community with additional context for understanding residency placement and the pathways that shape the future physician workforce.