Another Look at “Second Looks” from the AY 2025 Internal Medicine Recruitment Cycle

July 2026

Offering In-Person “Second Look” Visits Was About Equal Among Most Internal Medicine Training Program Types, But Slightly Higher for Community-Based Programs

Sources: 2025 APDIM Annual Surveys of Internal Medicine Residency Program Directors. Program type obtained from AMA-FREIDA Online®: AMA Residency & Fellowship Database®.

Notes: n= is the number of survey respondents. Results were statistically weight-adjusted to more closely represent the total survey-eligible population of 497. Military programs were collapsed into “Community-Based, University-Affiliated” or “Community-based,” depending on whether they were affiliated with a U.S. medical school. Survey response rate and representativeness of the results are reported in the source linked to above. Comparison of “Community-Based” to “All Programs:” Adjusted Wald (Pearson) Chi-Square (1 degree of freedom); p=0.335.

How Does Number of First-Year Resident Position Interviews Compare to Whether Internal Medicine Training Programs Offered In-Person “Second Look” Visits?

Sources: 2025 APDIM Annual Surveys of Internal Medicine Residency Program Directors. Number of interviews for first-year resident positions obtained from AMA-FREIDA Online®: AMA Residency & Fellowship Database®.

Notes: n= is the number of survey respondents. Results were statistically weight-adjusted to more closely represent the total survey-eligible population of 497. Survey response rate and representativeness of the results are reported in the source linked to above. Comparison of number of first-year position interviews between "Offered" and "Did not offer:" Nonlinear (Adjusted Wald) test (1 degree of freedom); p=0.562.

How Does Original Accreditation Year Compare to Whether Internal Medicine Residency Programs Offered In-Person “Second Look” Visits?

Sources: 2025 APDIM Annual Surveys of Internal Medicine Residency Program Directors. Program original accreditation year obtained through ACGME Accreditation Database System Online (Public).

Notes: n= is the number of survey respondents. Results were statistically weight-adjusted to more closely represent the total survey-eligible population of 497. Survey response rate and representativeness of the results are reported in the source linked to above. Comparison of program original accreditation year between "Offered" and "Did not offer:" Nonlinear (Adjusted Wald) test (1 degree of freedom); p=0.225.

In July 2025, the Alliance recommended that internal medicine residency program in-person visits for applicants “…should be optional, including open houses or program-sponsored second looks. Programs that opt to conduct second looks should do so as part of the NRMP Rank Order List Pilot.” This month’s Data in Brief explores the offering of in-person second-look visits during the 2024-25 academic year (AY) resident recruitment cycle, prior to the Alliance recommendations.

From the 2025 APDIM Annual Survey of Internal Medicine Residency Program Directors, 58.0% of community-based programs reported to offer in-person second-looks, compared to 51.8% overall (p=0.335). Programs that offered second looks conducted a median of 200 first-year resident position interviews, compared to a median of 230 among those that did not (p=0.562). Finally, the median original accreditation year of programs that offered second looks was 1980, compared to 1971 among those that did not (p=0.225).

The 2026 APDIM Annual Survey will launch later in August and again query programs about whether they offered in-person second-look visits, this time for the FY 2026 recruitment cycle.

For more information or if you have questions about these findings, please contact surveys@im.org.