Support your students with strong residency Match guidance
Medical students rely on family medicine faculty and advisors like you for dependable advice on applying to residency.
The stakes are high for Match season, but you can rely on the AAFP for resources to inform your advice to students about decisions that fit their personal goals and situations.
How physicians can support medical students in the Match
We’ve compiled the resources here to help you be the best mentor to students at each major phase of applying to residency and becoming the family physicians that our specialty—and their future patients—need.
Understanding the residency application process
Help your students make a timeline for residency application steps that start in April of their third year of medical school:
April: Begin researching residencies, finalize elective rotations, arrange the Medical Student Performance Evaluation interview, and contact the dean’s office for Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS®) and National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) timelines.
June: Get ERAS token and instructions, register with MyERAS®, and complete the MyERAS application profile.
September: Register with NRMP and apply to programs.
October: Schedule program interviews.
January: Submit a rank order list.
March: Celebrate matching with a program or begin the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program process.
Essential resources for residency advising
The AAFP’s Strolling Through the Match guidebook contains detailed information to help medical students navigate the Match process to augment your personalized, one-on-one advice.
ERAS application guidance for mentors
Help your students make a list of records and other information that they’ll need for their application on MyERAS.
Items students should gather include:
Exam transcripts
Honor societies and professional societies (like the AAFP)
Biographical information
Education details
Relevant paid and volunteer experience
Any relevant licenses
Publications
Helping students craft strong personal statements
Ask your students to reflect on a formative experience in their life or training so far that can anchor a strong personal statement.
A personal statement that stands out to residency programs will show their personality, experience, goals and commitment to family medicine.
Residency interview preparation tips for advisors
Residency interviews are high-stakes situations for the students you’re advising. Help them prepare with advice that lets them walk into interviews with confidence.
Coaching medical students for successful interviews
Your students need to believe in their own worth before they ask interviewers to believe in them. Remind them what they’ve already accomplished by getting this far, and suggest that they boost themselves up by talking to family, friends and other mentors who are cheering for them.
Before each interview, your students should research the residency program’s mission and patient population, know who their interviewers are and what comes up in a literature search of their names, and be familiar with the community from local websites.
Students should be ready to answer the common questions below. They’ll also want to prepare their own questions based on their personal interests—but not anything that’s already answered on the program’s website.
Common residency interview questions and best responses
Student should be prepared to answer the following:
Who are you and what are you about?
Why did you choose family medicine?
Why did you choose to apply for this residency?
What are you strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
What are your overall career goals?
How would you describe yourself?
What do you like to do in your free time?
Describe a particularly satisfying or meaningful experience in your medical training. Why was it meaningful?
The best responses will include examples from the student’s experiences when possible, and other details that help the interviewers remember them and understand how they might fit into that residency program.
For behavioral interview questions that ask for hypothetical responses to specific situations, students should consider whether examples from their past might strengthen their answers.
Guiding students in selecting the right residency program
Taking good interview notes about how each residency program they talked to aligns with their personal and professional goals will help your students make their rank order list. But they should also take some time to consider what stands out about each program without referring to their notes.
Factors to consider when advising students on rankings
Every student will have their own priorities that they’ll need to weigh when comparing residency programs. Some of the common factors to consider are training quality, program benefits, location and residency culture.
Helping students improve their Match chances
Encourage your students to improve their chances of a successful Match by starting early. Collecting letters of recommendation before their Match cycle and building a CV early in medical school will help. So will advice from you and AAFP members who’ve gone before them.
Check out the two webinar replays below for practical tips from medical students and residency program staff.
"We Matched. You Can, Too."
AAFP partnered with AAMC for this webinar hosted by Kristen Hood Watson, MD. The panel shares insights on how they matched into family medicine residencies.
"Applying to Family Medicine Residencies"
An expert panel featuring a family medicine residency program directors, advisors and staff offers advice about residency applications, interviews, ranking and more.