There were a lot of happy faces on March 20th as depicted in this brief video of the excitement on the campus of the University of Rochester School of Medicine. Similar scenes took place at every US medical school because 93.9% of the 18,025 graduates of US allopathic medical schools matched in a specialty.
But for the 1093 (6.1%) US graduates who didnt match things were not so bright. These applicants had to go through the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) which connects unfilled programs with unmatched students.
Because there were over 8600 unmatched graduates from schools all over the world vying for about 1200 unfilled first-year residency positions, even some US med school grads did not secure a position. One of these unfortunate souls tells her story in this blog.
The 7400 or so new MDs left out in the cold will not be able to pursue their careers. They will not progress into any specialty, nor will they be able to obtain licenses to practice medicine anywhere in this country. Those with substantial tuition debt will have no way to pay off their loans.
The percentage of unmatched US graduates has been relatively stable over the last five years, ranging from 4.9% to 6.3% while the number of first-year residency positions offered has steadily increased by nearly 4000 from 23,420 in 2011 to 27,293 this year.
Graduates of osteopathic medical schools didnt fare quite as well. Of the 2949 osteopathic school applicants, 610 (20.7%) went unmatched, but this percentage has steadily declined from a high of 28.3% in 2011.
International med school grads were much worse off; 2354 (46.9%) US citizens and 3725 (50.6%) non-US citizen graduates of international medical schools did not match. Both of these groups also had declining percentages of unmatched applicants. In addition, about 1900 US citizen graduates of offshore schools either withdrew or did not submit a rank list compared to almost 2700 non-US citizen international graduates who did likewise.
Reentering the match next year is an option, but spending a year outside of clinical medicine greatly reduces ones chances of finding an accredited position.
If you factor in the number of applicants who either withdrew from the match for did not submit a rank list. graduates of international medical schools have well below a 50% chance of matching.
In previous posts here and here, I have warned about the risks involved with attending an offshore medical school. If you are considering attending such a school, I urge you to look at the numbers and think long and hard about your decision.
Source: Advance Data Tables 2015 Residency Match
