EVALUATING THE 2025 UROLOGY RESIDENCY MATCH: AN ANALYSIS OF APPLICANT PREFERENCE SIGNALING, INTERVIEW FORMATS, AND...

To evaluate the association of preference signaling, interview formats, and traditional applicant demographics with urology match outcomes. Program interview formats were also compared between 2025 and 2026 cycles.

Blinded 2025 data for all 555 applicants (accessed under official Society of Academic Urologists Board approval) and publicly available data from 148 programs were analyzed. Signal yield, a novel surrogate metric defined as the proportion of an applicant's signaled programs that ultimately appeared on their rank list, along with traditional metrics were used to construct multivariable models evaluating match success. Interview format transitions were analyzed via Sankey analysis.

The overall match rate was 72.6%. Mean signal was 34.4%. On univariable analysis, senior students (79.8%) and MDs (77.0%) matched at higher rates than prior graduates (40.0%) and DOs (51.7%). On multivariable analysis, signal yield emerged as a statically significant variable of matching across multiple models. Regarding 2025 interview formats, 40.5% of programs offered virtual, 19.6% offered hybrid, and 39.9% offered in-person interviews. Applicants ranked in-person programs higher on average than virtual programs (rank list position 9.4 vs 10.9). Among the subset of programs with data for both cycles, in-person formats increased from 43.0% to 66.4% of programs in 2026. This was driven by half (49.0%) of 2025 virtual programs transitioning to in-person evaluations in 2026.

Signal yield was independently associated with match success. Applicants from the 2025 cycle ranked in-person interview programs at higher average positions on their rank lists than virtual programs. In 2026, there was a substantial return to in-person interviews.