Many health professions require additional training after graduating from a health professions school in order to obtain a license to practice.  Students graduating from allopathic and osteopathic medical schools must do additional training in residency programs, and many graduates are interested in completing that training in US residency programs.  US allopathic and osteopathic residency programs currently have separate graduate medical training accreditation systems.  They will be moving to one system of accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) beginning in 2020. 

Medical school graduates are usually selected for US allopathic residency programs through participation in the National Residency Matching Program (“the Match”).  Here are some statistics from a press release from the National Residency Matching Program regarding the Match that took place in spring 2018:

• 37,103 US and international medical school students and graduates vied for 33,167 positions, the most ever offered in the Match.  Available first-year (PGY-1) positions rose to 30,232
• US allopathic medical school seniors matching to PGY-1 positions: 94.3%
• US osteopathic medical school seniors/graduates matching to PGY-1 positions: 81.7%
• US citizens who are seniors/graduates of international medical schools matching to PGY-1 positions: 57.1%
• Non-US citizen international medical graduates matching to PGY-1 positions: 56.1%