The AOA Intern/Resident Registration Program is a matching program that places students into osteopathic graduate medical education positions in the United States for the first postdoctoral year of training (OGME-1).

The Intern/Resident Registration Program (the "Match") is sponsored and supervised by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). The Match is administered on behalf of the AOA by National Matching Services Inc.

The Match provides an orderly process to help students obtain positions of their choice, and to help programs obtain students of their choice. Similar matching programs are also in use in other professions, including allopathic medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and psychology.

With the Match, students must still apply directly to programs they are interested in, and students and programs interview and evaluate each other independently of the Match. However, no offers are made by programs before or during the interview period. Students and programs can evaluate each other fully before the programs must decide on their preferences for students, and before students must decide on their preferences for programs. After all interviews are completed, each student submits a Rank Order List on which the student lists the desired programs, in numerical order of the student's preference (first choice, second choice, etc.). Similarly, each program submits a Rank Order List on which the program lists the desirable students, in order of the program's preference. Each program also indicates the number of positions the program has available.

The Match then places individuals into positions based entirely on the preferences stated in the Rank Order Lists. The result of the Match is that each student is placed with the most preferred program on the student's Rank Order List that ranks the student and does not fill all its positions with more preferred students. Similarly, each program is matched with the most preferred students on its list, up to the number of positions available, who rank the program and who do not receive positions at programs they prefer.

More information on specific topics pertaining to the 2011 Match, for the recruitment of students into AOA-approved OGME-1 positions in internships and residencies beginning in 2011, can be viewed by selecting the topic from the menu provided on the left side of the screen.

© 2010 NMS