State of the Otolaryngology Match: Has Competition Increased since the Early Match?

Objectives: Demonstrate increasing demand of medical students applying to otolaryngology and decreasing supply of available residency training positions after the shift from an early match to conventional matching process. Demonstrate increasing United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step I scores among matched otolaryngology applicants over time. Methods: Matching statistics were obtained for first year residency positions through the National Residency Matching Program from 1998 to 2013. Matching statistics were obtained for otolaryngology residency positions through the San Francisco Match from 1998 to 2005. Univariate cross‐sectional analysis was performed with a P value of. 05 determined as significant. Results: Comparing the early match time period to the conventional match time period, there was an increase in otolaryngology resident applicants overall ( P =. 002) and US senior otolaryngology applicants (.0006). There was also an increase in unmatched otolaryngology applicants (.0497). USMLE Step I scores increased between match time periods both among matched ( P =. 025) and unmatched applicants ( P =. 036). When comparing 5‐year core otolaryngology residency positions to 6‐year or 7‐year research positions, the probability of having an unfilled research position was 24.8 times higher than having an unfilled core position. Conclusions: Eight years ago, otolaryngology changed from an early to conventional time frame matching process. The match is now more competitive, as evidenced by an increase in the overall number of otolaryngology residency applications, an increased number of unmatched applicants, and an increase of 17 points on average among matched applicants on the USMLE Step I Score. Meanwhile, otolaryngology research positions remain more unlikely to fill compared with core positions.