Photo credit: Alex E. Proimos / Foter.com / CC BY
There was once a time when you would apply for Match, get a few interviews and then have a small hope that perhaps you could get a pre-Match and be done with the anxiety of the whole Match process. Well, as of this year, that dream is slowly fading, or may already be gone.
In the upcoming 2013 Match that will take place on March, 11 2013, a new policy called “all in” where programs participating in the NRMP have to fill all of their positions within the Main Match or another Match, such as Osteopathic Match, will be set into full motion. This new policy was announced last year. This means residencies can either take all candidates through the Match, or through out-of-match offerings – what used to be known as pre-Match. The combination of pre-Match and Match, however, is no longer going to happen. So what does this mean for you?
Well, for one you should know who is exempt from the rule. As per the NRMP website the exemption policy is, in verbatim:
1. “Rural Scholars Programs: programs in which students graduate medical school in three years and commit during medical school to that school’s Family Medicine residency program.
2. Family Medicine Accelerated Programs: programs in which students make an early commitment to Family Medicine and are channeled in to that track in one of four affiliated programs.
3. Post-SOAP positions: preliminary positions created by programs at the conclusion of the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance program for partially matched applicants who failed to obtain the PGY-1 position required to fulfill their binding PGY-2 match commitment.
4. Off-cycle appointments: if training would begin prior to February 1 in the year of The Match, the position can be offered outside The Match; if training would begin after February 1, the position must be filled through The Match”[1].
The second component you should keep in mind if you are an International Medical Graduate (IMG), which encompasses offshore graduates and true foreign graduates, is the dream of pre-Match is still alive, but only if that program is not participating in the Match. Remember, a program has to take all from Match or none. There is no in-between. The likelihood of any program not being in the Match is quite low, and thus I feel that pre-Matches are slowly going to disappear. So during the interviews you were likely told all about this, and for those applying next year, the programs will tell you this upfront.
The third aspect of this new decision is that as an IMG it is even more important to get high scores on your boards. You are now competing against a much larger pool as all applicants who previously were out of Match positions are now in the larger pool. So what? Well, if they were going to get a pre-Match they likely had awesome scores and were stellar candidates. Now those people are in the Match and the competition just got fiercer. Also you must get your visa paperwork ready to go the day after Match as you will have less time. Originally you had extra time if you matched in November but now that option is not there. However, as per NRMP in 2009, 92% of IMGs requiring J-1 visas reported on time for duty[2].
[1] http://www.nrmp.org/allinpolicyexceptionsstatement.pdf
[2] http://www.nrmp.org/allinpolicyexceptionsstatement.pdf
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All of the opinions expressed here are the author’s and his alone, and do not represent necessarily those of Kaplan or its employees.
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