How Many Applications?
Source: AAMC Careers in Medicine
How many residency programs to apply to?
The number of residency programs to which you should apply is specific to your situation and comprised of
the content of your application (i.e., your competitiveness),
the competitiveness of the specialty you’re pursuing,
the competitiveness of the programs you’re pursuing,
number of signals your specialty has
your geographic restrictions, and
any other constraints.
The more competitive the specialty and programs and the more constrained you are by location and other factors, the more programs you’ll need to apply to for a successful match. Your ultimate goal: identifying enough programs you’re willing to attend that, considering your specific situation, will land you a residency slot.
Other variables
In addition to your specific situation, this equation includes other variables:
How many programs will invite you to interview. It’s unlikely you’ll receive interview invites from every program to which you applied. Some students receive invites from almost all the programs where they applied, and other students will receive few to none.
Whether it's the right "fit". The interview is your and the program’s opportunity to confirm your fit with the program. Expect you won’t be willing to attend every program where you interviewed, while finding several programs that you are.
How programs will rank you. To produce a match, a program on your list must rank you high enough that the applicants ranked higher than you don’t fill all the spots.
In considering each aspect of your specific situation and keeping the other variables in mind, you’ll focus on the sum of your situation and conclude a number range for how many programs you should apply to.
But don’t worry, you can — and should — employ help in this calculation. Your advisor (ideally, someone in your chosen specialty) can be invaluable in helping you identify an appropriate number and mix of programs. Their guidance and feedback will help you be realistic and optimize your chances of securing interviews and ultimately matching.
Determining how many programs to apply to requires an honest assessment of your qualifications compared, first, to the competitiveness of the specialty(ies), and second, to the competitiveness of the programs you’re pursuing. You can use the Charting Outcomes to see the characteristics of applicants who matched in each specialty to gage your competitiveness.
At this point, you — along with your advisor(s) — have already evaluated how competitive you are for the specialty(ties) you’re applying to. While the range of competitiveness varies by specialty, every specialty offers both more and less competitive programs, and the top programs in every specialty are highly competitive. Discuss with your advisor the varied levels of competitiveness among programs in your specialty and the level at which you’re likely to match.
Consider a strategy you probably used for applying to colleges and medical school: applying to several programs within different tiers of competitiveness — highly competitive, moderately competitive, and less competitive. How well your qualifications mirror previous applicants who matched or didn’t in the specialty(ies) you’re considering will inform whether you apply to more or fewer programs at any of these levels.
To determine programs’ level of competitiveness, discover their reputations. Talk to as many faculty and residents as possible. You’ll learn which programs are highly sought after and thus more competitive.
Consult the CiM residency and fellowship program profiles. You can find Step 2 median scores, signaling and geographic preference data, and median research, abstracts and other activities for the specialty.
The Residency Explorer Tool breaks down interview data based on programs. Programs will often list the number of applications received, number of positions available, and the medical schools attended by recently accepted applicants — all factors that help indicate the relative competitiveness of each program.
Review the NRMP®’s Data Reports for the outcomes from previous matches. The Results and Data report includes the number of positions offered and filled for each program by year, indicating whether a program filled completely in the Match. While most programs fill completely, a program that hasn’t consistently filled over a few match cycles may be less competitive.
Don’t hesitate to apply to competitive programs. Many medical students underestimate their own competitive edge. Just don't forget to apply to programs that can serve as "back-ups" in case you don’t match into the more competitive ones.
CiM has a page dedicated to competitiveness with articles and helpful reports.
Signaling and Geographic Preferences
Finally, consider signaling and geographic preferences. Signaling is relatively new but getting a sense of how different specialties have used it to interview applicants is helpful. ERAS hosted two webinars to discuss the relationship between signaling, geographic preferences and interview invitations.
Keep in mind that any given geographic area offers a limited number of programs and thus positions, so the more restricted you are by location, the fewer programs available to apply to.
Other constraints
Other aspects of your candidacy can limit your likelihood of matching, such as
failing a module or clerkship
receiving poor clerkship comments
failing a board exam, or
experiencing professionalism issues.
At the very least, these factors qualify you as a “more complicated” candidate. That is, program directors are less certain that a candidate with any of the above situations will perform as strongly as someone with no complications.
Each of these situations requires a specific approach to maximize your likelihood of scoring interviews and matching. Though generally, for each of these situations that applies to you, plan to apply to even more programs and to an additional specialty, as a back-up plan. Meet with your advisor and your student affairs office to discuss your unique situation and receive advice for strategies to increase the likelihood you’ll match.
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