The Matching Program

BY the mid-1940s the number of internship positions was almost twice the number of graduates from United States medical schools. Institutions and programs that had more applicants than positions and that confidently expected to have acceptances from their most promising applicants were content to make their offers of admission late in the students' senior year of medical school. On the other hand, institutions with fewer applicants understandably sought to recruit and appoint medical students earlier in their senior year or even in their junior year. These differences in appointment dates among programs obviously placed a great premium on how well . . .