by Cydney Foote
It’s A Match 2025
On one eagerly anticipated day each March, after years of study and hours of applications and interviews, thousands of medical school students and graduates discover where they will begin their specialty training. This Match Day – March 21, 2025 – 47,208 applicants got their answer.
The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), which oversees the matching process to pair eligible applicants with available residency training positions, reported that this was the largest Match in the program’s 73-year history, with 52,498 registered applicants (a 4.1% increase in applicants over 2024). Participating specialties offered 43,237 PGY-1 and PGY-2 training positions (a 4.2% increase from last year), and 40,764 of these were filled by from the pool of 47,208 “active” applicants (those who submitted a rank-order list) on Match Day.
Accepted would like to congratulate the successful participants who will now take the next step in their training. We also have noted a number of interesting results that could be important for current or future medical students who hope for successful matches in the years to come.
Closing Gap Between DOs and MDs
Osteopathic medical students (DO Seniors) had their most successful year ever, with a match rate of 92.6%, despite having more active applicants in the Match than ever before. This group significantly increased their presence in several specialties including Child Neurology (4.9% increase), Medicine-Pediatrics (2.9% increase), and Orthopedic Surgery (1.3% increase). Meanwhile, allopathic medical students (MD Seniors) maintained last year’s match rate of 93.5%.
When you consider that just a decade ago, DO Seniors matched at 77.7% versus 94.4% of MD Seniors (2014 Match), this is a remarkable achievement in leveling the playing field between these two medical educational approaches. With the gap between allopathic and osteopathic training continuing to close, any lingering stigma against osteopathic training is clearly out of date.
International Medical Graduatess Lag Behind
While fewer US citizen international medical graduates (US-IMGs) participated in the 2025 Match, their overall match rate increased slightly to 67.8%. In contrast, a huge increase (14.4% over 2024) in non-US citizen IMGs pushed their match rate down slightly to 58%. Most went into Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Family Medicine.
Primary Care Remains a Popular Choice
Primary care fields matched strong overall, with a 93.5% overall fill rate. Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine-Pediatrics, and Pediatrics all increased their match rates over last year, even while adding significant numbers of new positions – 877 overall. However, Family Medicine only filled 85% of its 5,357 positions, which the NRMP attributes to the addition of 144 new positions in the Match.
Emergency Medicine Recovers After Covid
Also of note is that Emergency Medicine, which had record numbers of unfilled spots immediately following the Covid pandemic, continued to rebound. This year’s 97.9% match rate isn’t quite the 100% fill rate it achieved in the 2022 Match, but it’s far better than any year since.
OB/GYN Continues to Appeal to Applicants
Despite fears that the current political climate might depress the training of future OB/GYNs, Obstetrics and Gynecology proved to be another popular specialty in the 2025 Match. With 1,604 positions offered, only one categorical position and nine preliminary PG1 positions remained unfilled.
NRMP President and CEO Donna L. Lamb, DHSc, MBA, BSN, praised the applicants in this year’s match: “This year’s Main Residency Match marks a milestone of continued success for the graduate medical education community as a record number of applicants and residency training programs matched.”
Accepted would also like to extend a hearty congratulations to everyone who matched, and we wish you continued good fortune in your future training. For more information about this year’s Match, please visit the NRMP website.
If you are planning to apply to the match next year, and would like guidance and assistance with your application and essays, schedule a free consultation today!
Since 2001, Cydney Foote has advised hundreds of successful applicants for medical and dental education, residency and fellowship training, and other health-related degrees. Admissions consulting combines her many years of creating marketing content with five years on fellowship and research selection committees at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She’s also shared her strategy for impressing interviewers in a popular webinar and written three books and numerous articles on the admissions process.
Related Resources
