Most students obtain residency training positions through a residency matching process.
Each student generally decides on a specialty field at the end of the third year, or in the early part of the senior year. Residency program directors invite selected applicants to interview during the fall and winter months for their training programs. There are separate matching programs for neurology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, urology, and neurosurgery. The NRMP matching program includes the majority of the medical specialties offering positions to U.S. seniors except those listed above for the early matches. However, close to 93 percent of the nearly 15,000 U.S. seniors participating in the NRMP nationally in 1997 was matched to one of the training programs they had ranked.