1. Trends in NRMP Data from 2007-2014 for US Seniors Matching into Emergency Medicine
Gunalda JC, Hartman ND, Newmyer A, Lefebvre CW, Hiestand BC, Askew KL, Manthey DE
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

2. Are applicants ranking more programs?
Are Step scores
improving?
what we wanted to know
Are applicants ranking
more programs?
Are more applicants
AOA members?

3. STEP 1
2005
2007
2009
2011
2014
Mean score, EM (SD)
N/A
218.9 (18.8)
220.6 (18.2)
219.7 (18.1)
228.9 (17.3)
Mean score, all (SD)
220.4 (20.3)
224.3 (19.6)
225.2 (20.6)
230 (18.8)

4. STEP 2
The rightward skew of the 2014 numbers seems to be greater than the 2007.  So, while the mean may not be significantly increasing when compared to national means, it may be that we are getting a larger cohort of qualified, high scoring candidates than ever before.  More data analysis will have to be done to bear out whether or not that is true.
2007
2009
2011
2014
Mean score, EM (SD)
225.1 (20.3)
227.6 (20.6)
232.3 (18.8)
241.4 (15.7)
Mean score, all (SD)
224.5 (22.3)
229.7 (21.8)
234.3 (20.4)
242 (16.6)

5. More programs ranked? … AOA?
Year
Mean number of programs ranked (SD)
%AOA
2007
7.8 (3.4)
12.36
2009
8 (3.5)
10.93
2011
8.5 (3.5)
9.13
2014
9.2 (3.7)
12.04

6. Conclusion
Trends among EM applicants are similar to the national trend for USMLE board scores.
No significant increase in % of AOA applicants.
Students are not ranking more programs.
EM does not appear to have become more competitive over the years with regards to these metrics.