To find the right residency match that will set you on your course to thrive in residency training, you need to get ready and the AMA has the resources to help guide you through the process. Among the critical steps that need to happen before you apply: choose the specialty that is right for you and ace your away rotations.
How to prepare for residency search
What I wish I knew in medical school about picking a specialty
- Choosing the physician specialty you want to pursue in residency dictates the other steps in the process. There’s no objectively correct physician specialty for any individual residency applicant. The question is which physician specialty is right for you. AMA member Avani Patel, MD, MHA, reflected on her experience. Among the keys: Block out the noise, keep an open mind, decide how you want to practice and aim high.
Are you in tune with a residency program? Get a new way to check
- Learn about a tool from the AMA that gives some residency applicants a way to make values and career priorities a part of their residency-selection process. The Alignment Check Index is a tool that allows some residency applicants to compare their experiences and characteristics to the domains that residency programs consider in their own assessment of their program’s values and interests. The program is a feature of FREIDA™, the AMA Residency and Fellowship Database®.
After Step 1 scoring change, what residency programs look for now
- In 2022, the influential Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) changed from numerical to pass-fail scoring. Program sponsors wanted to shift the emphasis away numeric scores but preserve the exam for determining physician licensure eligibility. Implications for residency applicants are becoming clearer after several cycles of pass-fail for Step 1. Among them are the importance of clinical rotation and shelf-exam grades, along with USMLE Step 2 scores.
Learning about early match programs
- The Main Residency Match is a uniform system run by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) to fill the majority of resident matching programs with incoming residents. Medical students pursuing specialties submit their rank-order lists by early March of their fourth year and receive news of their matching later that month. As detailed in this article, there are several physician specialties that participate in an early match process. Not all are affiliated with the NRMP. The military, for example, has its own match program.
IMGs: These tips can help you succeed with Match
- Despite their critical role within our country’s health system, international medical graduates (IMGs) seeking to practice here are less likely to find a placement in the Main Residency Match than applicants who are matriculating from U.S. medical schools. The hurdles to matching as an IMG are numerous but this great guidance from the AMA can help you successfully leap from an international medical school to a U.S. residency program.
A program director’s 4 tips for succeeding during away rotations
- While medical school away rotations have numerous aims—clinical growth and feeling out a program or a specialty as a medical student are among them—it’s also a chance to make an impression. AMA member Kelli E. Krase, MD, is an ob-gyn residency program director details some of the ways you can stand out by teaching other students, showing flexibility and building relationships.
6 things medical students should know about physician compensation
- Even before the completion of medical school, future physicians have a number hovering over their heads that may shape their future—the balance owed on their medical student loans. Medical students looking to understand the role compensation may play in a career path should understand—among other things—that it takes years to realize your earning potential and that lucrative specialties require more training.
Finding the best people to write residency letters of recommendation
- While test scores and other aspects are largely homogenized across all programs, letters of recommendation can speak to a residency applicant’s unique qualities and how those qualities will make them an effective resident physician. Some key advice: get a specialty-specific champion and give your letter-writers all the information they need to do you justice.
