Preparing for Residency & Your Application

Students submit applications to residency programs through national application systems. These application systems transmit all application components, including personal statements, letters of recommendation, Medical Student Performance Evaluations (MSPE), medical school and USMLE transcripts, and other supporting documents to residency program directors.

Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS)

ResidencyCAS (OBGYN/EM)

San Francisco Match (Ophthalmology)

American Urological Association (AUA) Urology Match

Personal Statement Guide

Your personal statement should reflect your personality, interests, goals, and how you fit with the specialty you have chosen. For many students, preparing the personal statement is the most difficult part of the residency application process, but it should not be painful or anxiety-provoking. You will write one page (about 600 words) of coherent, error-free writing that provides an overview of your personality and your interest in the specialty.

“We are here to help you with your personal statement from brainstorming through proofreading.”

When you have narrowed your specialty choices to one or two, check with a faculty or Student Affairs advisor to get a sense of what is expected of personal statements in that specialty. Some specialties are more open to creative statements while others want something more straightforward; some tend to be more personal while others are very professionally focused.

Once you complete at least one rotation in the specialty you have chosen to apply to and have an idea of what personal statement expectations are for that specialty, you can begin work on your personal statement. For some students, this may be as early as April, and in almost every case, should be no later than July. The more time you give yourself to brainstorm, consult with advisors, write, potentially re-write, edit, and proofread, the less stressful this process will be.

Curriculum Vitae Resources

• OPDA guides
• SF Match
  • AUPO LoR FAQs

• Plastic Surgery
  • Medical Student Resources & LoR Forms

• OB/Gyn
  • OB/Gyn LoR Resources

The MSPE is a summary letter of evaluation intended to provide residency program directors an honest and objective summary of a student’s salient experiences, attributes, and academic performance.

Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE)

Interviews are an important part of your residency application process because they give you and program directors a chance to get to know each other. Just as your interviewers will be gauging how well you would fit into their specialty and program, you should be assessing how the program fits into the framework of your career and personal goals.

Interview season varies depending on the specialty, but lasts from October to February overall. December and January are usually the busiest months for students on the interview trail.

Students are provided discretionary time for residency interviews, for more information please review the Discretionary Time Policy

Registering for the Match
The Match process is separate from the residency application process, which is run by Electronic Residency Application Service ERAS for most programs. There are a few residency matching services for M.D. graduates, depending on the specialty you are applying to:

1. The National Residency Match Program (NRMP) administers the Main Residency Match.
2. The San Francisco Match (SF Match) administers matching services for ophthalmology positions.
3. The American Urology Association (AUA) administers the matching service for urological surgery positions.
4. The Military Match uses the Joint Service Graduate Medical Education Selection Board for Army, Air Force, and Navy residency positions. For more information on the timeline of medical school and residency applications for those participating in the Military Match, please visit the Medicine and the Military webpage.

Registration for the Main Residency Match opens September 15th at the beginning of your fourth year through the NRMP. The SF, AUA, and Military matches take place prior to the Main Residency Match.

The Rank Order List
You should begin thinking about how you might want to rank programs relative to one another as you finish each interview. The AAMC website has some resources to help you keep track of your thoughts about each program.

You should begin entering your rank list on the NRMP site as soon as you have a rough idea of what your preferences are. You may update your list as many times as you like, so there is no reason not to enter the first draft of your list once you have been on most of your interviews.

For more information about how the Match algorithm works, please see the NRMP website.

Early Match
Military (December)
Urology (February)
Ophthalmology (February)

Match Week
Match week is the week that participants of the Main Residency Match find out which program they matched into. Every year, Match Week takes place during the third week of March and culminates on the Friday of Match Week. Keck participates in the medical school tradition of celebrating Match Day on campus, where applicants receive envelopes with their Match results inside. Medical residency applicants celebrate Match Day simultaneously every year with their colleagues, friends and family.

Match Lists

2025

2024

2022

FREIDA

Texas Star
Planning Your Fourth Year
Residency Explorer Tool
AAMC Applying to Residency
The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP)
Charting Outcomes in Match

OPDA Programs and Resources