Couples Matching
Source: AAMC’s Careers in Medicine, NRMP website
What is the Couples Match?
The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) allows any two people in the match to link their rank list. You create your rank list together, and the system guarantees that you will be placed in a combination that you have chosen. Both applicants will match at the highest rank combination in which both have been accepted. In order to sign up for the Couples Match, you must designate it on your NRMP match list. The Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) application does not require any information about Couples Matching, but there is an option to designate ‘yes’ if you’d like.
What should I consider when making this choice?
A match is established only if both partners match at a pair of programs. Partners listed as a couple are treated by the matching algorithm solely as a couple. If applicants do not obtain a match as a couple, the algorithm does NOT process their lists separately to find a possible match for each individual.
In the Main Residency Match®, the algorithm considers only a couple’s primary rank order lists when attempting to establish a match. The matching algorithm does NOT consider a couple’s supplemental rank order lists as a unit.
You should also determine your priorities. One example is living together vs. long distance.
Who can Couples Match?
Any two people can agree to Couples Match! Married couples, engaged couples, dating couples, best friends, siblings, or even enemies! You do not need to be married or have any formal documentation of a relationship! You can couples match with a person from another school.
How do we become a couple?
First you must register individually for a Match in the Registration, Ranking, and Results® (R3®) system. One partner can send a couple request through the R3 system to the other partner. Once the other partner accepts, each individual must pay the couple fee. The process is completed when the Couple Status field in the R3 system reads “Accepted” and Fee Status is “Paid”. You can find instructions here.
What if we’re interested in Early Match Specialties or Military Match?
Early match specialties, including Ophthalmology and Urology don’t allow you to Couples Match into the advanced specialty, but you CAN couples match through your NRMP Preliminary Year program for ophthalmology if you're required to submit a separate rank list for specific programs.
What should I know when I start to apply?
The number of programs you will need to apply to depend on the specialty you are applying to and the competitiveness of your application
Each partner of a couple may rank up to 20 unique program codes on their primary rank order lists and up to 20 unique program codes on all their supplemental rank order lists combined before an extra rank fee of $30 per additional program code is charged. The “No Match” program code is considered one unique program. Additional fees will be charged for rank order lists with 100 or more ranks.
Do I have to inform programs I’m Couples Matching?
You are NOT required to tell programs, they don’t know unless you tell them!! But, there can be benefits of telling programs, such as helping coordinate interviews. Many programs like couples because they are typically happier together. Programs may communicate with another department during interview season, to help get your partner an interview, or after it’s made its rank list. If the program really likes applicant A, it may call the other department to find out where applicant B is on their list.
I want to tell programs I’m Couples Matching, how do I do it?
There are a few options for telling programs. Some of the most common ways are during the interview process or when you’re scheduling your interviews. Others add it to their thank you/follow up email. There is also the option to check the box on ERAS.
Checking off the option ERAS is a small part of the application in the Match Information section. Programs may miss this so if you want programs to know, mentioning it in your interview and in a thank you email is helpful.
If Partner A gets an interview invitation to a specific institution and Partner B hasn't heard anything once the interview invitation release date for that specialty passes, it's helpful for Partner A to let the program they're interviewing at know that Parner B has not heard back. Programs will often make calls to help applicants get invitations if they are very interested in Partner A.
It can also be helpful to follow up after the interview with a thank you note and remind them that you are couples matching by including your partners name, specialty and the date they are interviewing.
I’m not sure if I’m Couples Matching, when do I need to decide?
You just need to decide before you submit your Rank Order List (ROL) in February. It’s better to decide sooner than later as programs will want to know this information, and it could work to your benefit!
We’re ready to make our ROL. What do we need to know?
You both have to have the same number of ranks. Each program ranked by one partner must be paired with an active program or with an indication of ‘No Match’ by the other partner. Using the “No Match” option means that one partner is willing to be unmatched to a position in the program designated at that rank.
Each partner can submit no more than 300 ranks, including listings of ‘No Match’. Lists can not be certified at the exact same moment, so no ceremonial ‘both push the button at the same time’. The R3 system has to check the second partner’s list for duplicate pairings.
A program can be ranked more than once on a partner’s rank order list provided that the corresponding rank on the other partner’s list is different. Here is an example:
Partner A
Partner B
Program 1
Program A
Program 1
Program B
Program 1
Program C
Program 1
Program D
Program 2
Program A
Program 2
Program B
Program 2
Program C
It can be helpful for each partner to rank their programs separately and then combine lists after. This Couples Match Tool can help students create their lists and set priorities, distance preferences and strategize the best list for each couple.
Past Students' Advice for Creating Your ROL
How you combine lists is very personal/specific to each couple, but compromising is the key.
Also it may be helpful for each person to have one “veto card”. This means that if someone really did not like their program in a certain city but the other loved it, that combo goes towards the bottom of the list. We did this because we wanted to minimize our chances of ending up at a program where someone was really unhappy (even if it means putting someone’s top 5 program towards the bottom).
Make sure all combos are truly “live-able”.
Just because they are in the same city does not mean that practically you could live somewhere in between the two hospitals and commute (for example, LA). Use google Maps and look at commuting times as well as the areas you would live in.
Make sure you list all possible combinations. There are a lot of combos and it can get overwhelming, but you do not want to accidentally miss a combination!
This only comes into play for locations with more than one program for either partner. For each of these cities, multiple the number of programs you have with the number the other person has in a live-able location. This will certainly increase your total rank number! Make sure that your list has that number of combinations, and do this for each city with multiple options.
For example if one has 7 programs in NYC and the other has 6, there should be 42 just-NYC options in your combined list. Make sure they are all there.
Don’t forget that subsidized housing may not be practical if you are at different institutions in the same city
For example Columbia and NYU, it may make more sense for you to live somewhere in between and minimize both partners commutes than to take advantage of the subsidized housing.
This may come into play if you cannot decide between two programs in NYC - pairing programs at the same institution (or in similar locations) higher on your list would help because this would make commuting and finding housing more feasible.
Worst case scenario planning
At the bottom of your list you can choose to match someone in one location and the other in a separate location (that may be reasonably close for visiting), or choose to rank someone to match and the other not to match (and will scramble), or add nothing to the bottom. If you choose to add nothing, understand that worst case scenario is that you both have to scramble. If you add someone to match and the other to scramble, pick a city that has the most scramble-able options for the other.
Prelims can make things complicated
If one or both people have prelims, keep in mind that while the two couples main lists are linked together to guarantee they end up in the same location, the prelim list is not linked with the others (it is a third separate list). This means that you both could get the program you want, but not the prelim (have to scramble) or a prelim in another location. To minimize this, apply to as many as you can from the beginning and think carefully about how you order your list based on your desire to be at a program and risk of being apart for intern year.
You may not want to include all your prelims on each list. For instance, many of our cities had a history of having a number of vacant surgery prelim spots to scramble into. Thus, we only listed prelims on this list that were actually IN that city, with being unmatched for prelim and scrambling to one of those surgery years as the backup plan. If there aren’t then we’d suggest either adding NY prelims after the local ones, or whatever prelims will be as close as possible.
Order
It gets very confusing how to order everything, so think through it carefully.
For example at the bottom if you choose to include person A matching and person B not matching, then person B matching and A not, it does not matter who goes first. Because if person A did not get any of their options it will skip all of them and go to person B matching, but if person A did match at their options it will stop there (and if person A + B both matched at those programs, it wouldn’t make it down that far because you would have that combination somewhere above). Use that logic to carefully go through the rest of the order because sometimes order is important and sometimes it does not matter at all.
This tool can help: https://couplesmatchtool.com/instructions
Couples Matching Resources
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