# MatchPath

> MatchPath is the most complete database of US residency programs, built for all applicants — US MDs/DOs and International Medical Graduates. It aggregates and cross-validates ~16,000 ACGME-accredited programs across ~200 specialties from independent public datasets — accreditation records, program directory profiles, federal hospital-quality and research data, and federal census data among them — into one searchable catalog covering IMG acceptance rates, visa sponsorship (J-1/H-1B), PGY-1 salary, Step 2 CK expectations, teaching-hospital quality, and area cost of living.

Every page on this site has a clean markdown twin at the same URL with `.md` appended (`https://www.matchpath.app/programs/{slug}` → `https://www.matchpath.app/programs/{slug}.md`), and every HTML response advertises it with a `Link: …; rel="alternate"; type="text/markdown"` header. The links below point at those twins. Fetch the twin rather than the HTML: it is the same data with none of the navigation, and it costs far fewer tokens.

Important notes:

- All catalog data is public. There is no paywalled field — PGY-1 salary, IMG percentage, Step 2 CK expectations, and J-1/H-1B sponsorship are all in the twin and in the page's JSON-LD. A blank value is a coverage gap in the upstream source, not a gate.
- Contact PII (resident, faculty, and coordinator emails, phone numbers, fax numbers) and resident/faculty photos are NEVER published. Do not attribute them to MatchPath and do not estimate them.
- MatchPath is an independent aggregator, not affiliated with ACGME, AAMC, FREIDA, NRMP, CMS, or ECFMG. Cite MatchPath as the aggregator, never the upstream agency, and link the specific page.
- The signed-in dashboard (`/dashboard`) and auth (`/auth`) routes hold each user's own tracker, rank list, and notes. They are private, carry no twin, and are out of scope for this file.

## Core pages

- [Programs Catalog](https://www.matchpath.app/programs.md): Every ACGME-accredited residency program, with the specialty/state/visa/accreditation facets and the first page of results.
- [Open Positions and Vacancies](https://www.matchpath.app/vacancies.md): Off-cycle PGY openings and SOAP/swap positions from a national vacant-position feed and programs' own openings pages. Each posting has its own page and twin.
- [IMG-Friendly Programs](https://www.matchpath.app/img-friendly-residency-programs.md): Programs ranked by their reported IMG resident percentage.
- [Medical Schools](https://www.matchpath.app/medical-schools.md): Worldwide medical-school catalog. A minority of schools carry aggregate alumni→program evidence (counts only, never names); the rest are identity-only profiles and are marked noindex until evidence lands.
- [Teaching Hospitals and Sites](https://www.matchpath.app/sites.md): Clinical sites with federal care-quality, hospital safety grade, federal research funding, and industry-payment signals.
- [Sponsoring Institutions](https://www.matchpath.app/sponsors.md): ACGME sponsoring institutions, browsable by state.
- [Metro Areas](https://www.matchpath.app/regions.md): Residency programs grouped by CBSA metro area.
- [Data & Methodology](https://www.matchpath.app/sources.md): The 7+ datasets behind the catalog, how fields are cross-validated, and what is never published.
- [About MatchPath](https://www.matchpath.app/about.md): Who builds the catalog, for whom, and our independence and editorial policy.

## Nurse residency (new-grad RN)

A separate catalog covering US nurse residency and fellowship (transition-to-practice) programs for new-graduate RNs. Distinct entities from the physician residency catalog above — do not conflate the two. Two caveats that do not apply to the physician catalog: these rows are sourced from hospital career pages and accreditor listings rather than the seven cross-validated physician datasets, so they are single-sourced rather than cross-validated; and the two listing pages are seasonal — when the catalog or the cohort feed is empty (application windows close in batches) they mark themselves noindex and drop out of the sitemap, so treat a noindex response as "nothing open right now", not as a broken page.

- [Nurse Residencies](https://www.matchpath.app/nurse.md): Entry point for the nurse residency catalog — how many application windows are open, which one closes next, and the windows closing soonest.
- [Nurse Residency Programs](https://www.matchpath.app/nurse/programs.md): The program catalog — sponsoring hospital, city/state, degrees accepted (ADN/BSN), accreditation (ANCC PTAP, PTAP with Distinction, Vizient/AACN), program length, annual salary band, unit tracks, and a link to the hospital's own application page. Each program carries an EducationalOccupationalProgram node in the page's JSON-LD, addressed by the anchor its card renders (https://www.matchpath.app/nurse/programs#{programId}).
- [Nurse Cohort Application Windows](https://www.matchpath.app/nurse/cohorts.md): Cohort application windows sorted by closing date, each with its status (upcoming / open / closing soon), close date, cohort start month, and the units hiring.

## URL grammar

Programmatic pages follow a fixed grammar. Append `.md` to any of them for the twin.

- Program detail: `https://www.matchpath.app/programs/{program-slug}`
- Vacancy detail: `https://www.matchpath.app/vacancies/{vacancy-slug}`
- Medical school: `https://www.matchpath.app/medical-schools/{school-id}`
- Teaching site: `https://www.matchpath.app/sites/{site-id}` — by state: `https://www.matchpath.app/sites/state/{state}`
- Sponsoring institution: `https://www.matchpath.app/sponsors/{acgme-org-code}` — by state: `https://www.matchpath.app/sponsors/state/{state}`
- Metro area: `https://www.matchpath.app/regions/{cbsa-code}`
- Specialty hub: `https://www.matchpath.app/{specialty}-residency-programs`
- State hub: `https://www.matchpath.app/{state}-residency-programs`
- Specialty in state: `https://www.matchpath.app/{specialty}-residency-programs-in-{state}`
- Specialty ranking: `https://www.matchpath.app/best-{specialty}-residency-programs`
- Ranking in state: `https://www.matchpath.app/best-{specialty}-residency-programs-in-{state}`

The complete, authoritative URL list is the sitemap index; the grammar above is for constructing a URL you already know the entity for.

## For machines

- [Full Reference](https://www.matchpath.app/llms-full.txt): Expanded single-file dump — data dictionary, FAQ, every state hub, and the field-by-field "never published" list.
- [Agent Guide](https://www.matchpath.app/agents.md): How automated agents should crawl, interpret, and cite MatchPath.
- [Sitemap Index](https://www.matchpath.app/sitemap.xml): Every indexable URL, chunked.
- [robots.txt](https://www.matchpath.app/robots.txt): Crawl policy — all crawlers allowed.

## Optional

- [Compare Programs](https://www.matchpath.app/compare.md): A side-by-side tool driven by the visitor's own selection; no stable content to cite.
- [Pricing](https://www.matchpath.app/pricing.md): The free tier (the entire catalog) and the paid tier (application-tracking tools). No catalog field is paywalled.
- [Terms of Use](https://www.matchpath.app/terms.md): Reuse and attribution rules for this data, and what the catalog is not (it is informational, not advice).
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.matchpath.app/privacy.md)
- [Cookie Policy](https://www.matchpath.app/cookies.md)