In a recent report, the NRMP reported the following results as indicators of career interests among U.S. medical school seniors. Among the notable trends in the 2011 year:
- The most competitive fields this past match year were:
- Dermatology
- Orthopaedic surgery
- Otolaryngology
- Plastic surgery
- Radiation oncology
- Thoracic surgery
- Vascular surgery
At least 90% of those positions were filled by U.S. medical school seniors.
- The number of U.S. medical school seniors entering emergency medicine increased by 7% and grew for the sixth year in a row, as they filled 78.9% (1,268 of the 1,607) of the first-year positions available.
- Anesthesiology offered 44 more positions and matched 45 more U.S. seniors who filled 671 positions of the 841 offered. http://www.nrmp.org/data/2011Adv%20Data%20Tbl.pdf
In addition, 739 of 809 (94.6%) pairs of students that entered the Match as couples successfully matched to their respective residency preferences. This is the highest percentage since 2001. The number of couples has risen from 610 in 2006 to 808 and 809 (1,618 applicants) in 2010 and 2011 respectively. It appears that matching as a couple is more than a trend and signals that the new generation of medical trainees is less willing to put off beginning a family or living apart for several years.
http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2011.pdf
Is this couple matching statistics for US medical graduates alone or for all applicants including foreign medical graduates?
The NRMP report did not distinguish that the numbers and percentages were Continental U.S. graduates versus FMG or IMG graduates, so my conclusion was that this was combined data. Other NRMP data when these groups were not reported together, were distinguised as such in other sections of the NRMP report.