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Pathway to Match

Fourth Year Requirements

  • Details on required rotations, educational tracks, electives, and the USMLE are available on LEO, our learning management system. All NYMC School of Medicine students have access to the COMPASS Program course, where you can review the Career Center Roadmap and additional materials on the GME Interview posted on LEO in the COMPASS Program course.
  • USMLE Related: Passing scores for Step 2CS/CK must be received in order to be certified to enter the match in February. The Office of Medical Student Affairs will let you know about exam deadlines.

Roadmap to Residency

From the AAMC’s Roadmap to Residency

Applying to Residency

The Office of Medical Student Affairs (MSA) provides career development workshops and fourth year planning sessions designed to help students prepare their residency application, practice interviewing, and submit their Rank Order List (ROL).

  • The AAMC’s Electronic Residency Application Service® (ERAS®) is the online application service that students use to transmit their application to residency programs. Each student will complete and submit the MyERAS® application, along with supporting documentation, to the GME programs they’ve selected.
  • ERAS opens in mid-May for residencies that would start the following year to allow students to start preparing their application and documents. On September 15, ERAS applications and supporting documents can be submitted to ACGME-accredited residency programs.
  • Make sure you revisit the AAMC’s Careers in Medicine website for information about creating a CV, tips for writing personal statements, and strategies on how to ask for letters of recommendation. The Office of Academic Excellence is another great resource for students, with a writing specialist on-site who can offer advice and feedback.
  • At NYMC SOM, students have an opportunity to review their Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) for accuracy prior to ERAS upload. Each year, the MSPE is released through ERAS on October 1, making the document available to residency programs.
  • The leadership in Medical Student Affairs, the House Advisory Deans, and the Specialty Advisors are a valuable resource to students as they identify the appropriate number and mix of GME programs to which they apply, interview, and rank.

The Interview Process 

  • Residency programs typically schedule interviews from October through January, with December and January being the busiest interview months.
  • Students should factor in the costs of interviewing when planning their budget. The AAMC’s program, FIRST (Financial, Information, Resources, Services and Tools), provides a useful financial aid fact sheet “The Cost of Applying for a Medical Residency.” The Office of Student Financial Planning can assist students as they make educated and sound financial decisions associated with the interviewing.
  • If you accept an interview with a program but later decide that you no longer want to interview there, make sure that you notify the program as soon as possible. This reflects well on your professionalism, the reputation of NYMC, and may enable the program to offer an interview opportunity to another candidate.

The Residency Match

  • At the beginning of fourth year, NYMC SOM students will register for one or more matches:
    • National Residency Matching Program: The majority of medical students use the NRMP. The NRMP’s registration system includes the Main Residency Match and the Specialties Matching Service (fellowship and fellowship subspecialty positions).
    • The San Francisco Match: Students pursuing advanced positions in ophthalmology or plastic surgery use this service, also known as “the early match.”
    • The American Urological Association (AUA): Students seeking advanced or categorical positions in urological surgery use this program, which also uses ERAS for participating residencies.
    • Military Match: Students pursuing military residency positions apply through this program. Residencies receive applications via the Medical Operational Data System (MODS). The military match is early, taking place in December instead of March.
  • Medical Student Affairs leadership and your advisors (House Advisory Deans, Specialty Advisors) will work with you to help select which matching organizations are right for you and the specialties that you are considering. In addition, they can provide advice and resources for students who are interested in applying to residency programs as a Couples Match.
  • After students have registered with the match and completed their interviews, they are required to submit a list of programs, ranked in order of preference, to the match program. Program directors also submit a rank order list (ROL) of applicants to the appropriate match programs. A computer algorithm matches applicants to the highest program on their list that has, in turn, ranked the applicant.
  • The third week of March is Match Week. Applicants who participated in the NRMP Main Residency Match find out where they have matched. On the Friday of Match Week, Match Day ceremonies, a renowned medical school tradition, are held, where students open their envelope to reveal where they landed their residency.
  • In instances when a student doesn’t match, they will want to work closely with Medical Student Affairs leadership to determine their next steps. If they participated in the NRMP Main Residency Match and did not match, they may enter the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program® (SOAP®). SOAP is a collaboration between the AAMC/ERAS and NRMP designed to enable eligible applicants who are unmatched or partially matched to try to obtain a position in a training program that did not fill all its positions during the Match. Students who don’t match during SOAP may continue to seek a residency position by continuing to work with Medical Student Affairs and the AAMC’s FindAResident program to identify available opportunities. Some students reapply in the next match cycle and/or explore other opportunities to help assess their choices and their overall competiveness.
  • Students may consider making an appointment and talk with NYMC’s financial aid officer to discuss strategies for managing student loans.