Outmatched: 2021 Main Residency Match® By the Numbers

So, I get this email about the 2021 NRMP Match data. As if the Match season wasn’t painful enough for those of us who went unmatched. Glaring me in the face was the sentence “The 2021 Match included a record-high 48,700 registrants (an 8% increase over 2020) and 38,106 positions (a 2% increase).” 

Yeah, see the problem there? They report “In 2021, the number of active applicants was 42,508, 2,424 (6.0%) more than in 2020. 42.7 percent (n=1,036) of that increase can be attributed to the rising participation of the number of non-U.S. citizen students/graduates of international medical schools.” And personally, I can’t help but wonder if this correlates to canceling of USMLE Step 2CS? I also can’t help but wonder how much of it has to do with the AAMC ERAS and NRMP making $$ off the increasing number of applicants? Follow the money they say. The heck with the sequela.

They report “Many applicants in addition to U.S. MD seniors seek residency positions through the NRMP. Trend data for different applicant groups are shown in Figure 2 and Table 4. The arrows in Table 4 indicate increases in the numbers of active applicants that were greater than the overall increase of 18.2 percent for all active applicants between 2017 and 2021.” (https://mk0nrmp3oyqui6wqfm.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MRM-Results_and-Data_2021.pdf