When it comes to your future, it pays to be practical. In terms of applying to residency programs, that may mean diversifying your search to include more than one specialty.
If you are a medical student applying to more than one specialty, whether it’s due to uncertainty about your career path or the competitiveness of your application, here’s what you need to know.
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How common is it?
Looking at data from the 2024 Main Residency Match, assembled by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), the frequency of students applying to multiple specialties has been consistent in recent years.
In the 2024 Main Residency Match, the average number of specialties ranked was 1.2 for U.S. allopathic senior medical students who matched and 1.6 for those who didn’t match. For U.S. osteopathic medical schools seniors, those who matched ranked 1.2 specialties and those who didn’t match ranked 1.8
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Why rank more than one specialty?
Based on the numbers above, the primary driver of medical students ranking more than one specialty seems to be a desire to match. In 2024, U.S. allopathic seniors matched at a 94% clip and osteopathic seniors matched at 93% rate.
Related to that is likely the competitiveness of the specialty in which one hopes to match. For instance, in dermatology—annually considered among the most competitive specialties—applicants who ranked that specialty first on their rank-order lists and ranked no other specialties were uncommon, with 115 doing so.
Conversely applicants who ranked a dermatology program as their top choice but also included other specialties were about four times more common at 488. To put it another way: Four times as many applicants to dermatology ranked an additional specialty compared to those who ranked only dermatology.
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- When it comes to submitting residency applications, cast a wide net.
- 4 tricks to a successful residency program search.
How does the process differ?
In terms of your applicant profile, you are likely to need different personal statements for each specialty you apply to. You may also want to have different people write your letters of recommendation who are more suited to a certain specialty. You will also want to make sure you take the proper subinternships for each specialty you apply to. That can get tricky if you’re applying to numerous specialties.
A dual applicant in ob-gyn and orthopaedic surgery during the 2019–2020 Match cycle, AMA member Deena Kishawi, MD, offered that any dual applicant is doubling their work come application time. Dr. Kishawi ended up matching in ob-gyn.
“It’s two sets of everything,” said Dr. Kishawi, now an attending physician and clinical instructor with Care New England Medical Group in Rhode Island, during an episode of the “AMA Making the Rounds” podcast. “It’s two sets of personal statements, two sets of recommendation letters, two sets of basically every single thing, two completely different things for that. So, my personal statements were completely different. And you had to be really careful about labeling that because when you're uploading it, you have to release them to each program.”
Dive deeper:
- Are you in tune with a residency program? Get a new way to check.
- What I wish I knew about matching outside my top-ranked choices.
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