Emergency Medicine Residency Open House Guide for IMGs
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Emergency Medicine Residency Open Houses: A Strategic Guide for IMGs

September 19, 2026

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Before You Apply: What Emergency Medicine Residency Open Houses Can Show You

Open houses, meet-and-greets, and second looks announced for the 2026–2027 application cycle, and how to decide which ones are worth your time.

IMGPrep Outcome Data

100% Match Rate

IMGPrep has maintained a 100% match rate for its Emergency Medicine IMG candidates over the past ten years within a highly selected cohort, reflecting a structured advisory process focused on specialty alignment, clinical preparation, and program-level targeting.

IMG physician attending an emergency medicine residency open house with program faculty

Emergency Medicine applicants apply broadly. According to the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD) 2025–2026 Data Book, 4,093 applicants submitted 210,975 applications to Emergency Medicine programs during the first year of ResidencyCAS. That is an average of 51.55 programs per applicant, with a median of 42. Among the 892 IMG applicants, the average was 68.72 applications per applicant, with a median of 60.1

Yet applicants can have firsthand clinical experience at only a small fraction of those programs. U.S. clinical experience is an important part of preparing for Emergency Medicine residency, but even several rotations expose an applicant directly to only a handful of the programs they may ultimately consider.

Programs increasingly maintain extensive websites and welcome questions from prospective applicants, but there are aspects of a residency that are difficult to understand from a website alone. Choosing where to apply is an important decision. One of these programs may become your professional home for the next three or four years.

This is where Emergency Medicine residency open houses can be valuable.

What an Emergency Medicine Residency Open House Is For

A residency open house is an informational event for prospective applicants. Open houses may be virtual or in person and typically provide an opportunity to hear directly from program leadership, faculty, chief residents, and current residents.

Programs may discuss their curriculum, clinical sites, patient population, resident experience, program culture, fellowship and career opportunities, and what distinguishes their training environment.

Why Attend?

Open houses provide something a program website cannot fully replicate: an opportunity to interact with the people who actually train and work there.

Emergency Medicine-specific evidence supports their value. In a study of virtual town hall meetings hosted by four Emergency Medicine residencies, attendance improved applicants’ self-reported knowledge of program specifics, including elective rotations, emergency department layout, specialty tracks, and fellowship opportunities, as well as their understanding of the culture and “feel” of a program. Attendees also reported feeling more comfortable contacting program members afterward.2

Research in other specialties is consistent. In a study of general surgery applicants, 94.7% reported an improved perception of the program after attending a virtual open house, and 90.9% said the experience made them want to apply.3 In another study of pathology applicants, 91% found virtual open houses beneficial, while 63.2% attended open houses for programs they had not initially been considering.4

Across studies, applicants particularly valued direct interaction with current residents and faculty, candid discussion of program strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunity to better understand program culture and resident camaraderie.2,3,4

For an applicant considering dozens of programs, an open house can therefore help answer an important question: Is this somewhere I could actually see myself training?

Keep Open Houses in Perspective

IMGPrep recommends viewing open houses as an opportunity, not another application requirement.

Residency application season already creates considerable anxiety around demonstrating interest, from geographic preferences and program signals5 to questions about attending events and communicating with programs. Research suggests that open houses themselves can contribute to this pressure. In one general surgery study, 68.4% of respondents reported feeling some obligation to attend,3 while a pathology study found that 30% felt obligated and 17% felt overwhelmed by the number of events available.4

It also helps to understand where open houses fit within the larger application process. Emergency Medicine now uses ResidencyCAS rather than ERAS. Applicants unfamiliar with the system should review IMGPrep’s Emergency Medicine ResidencyCAS Guide when developing their application and program strategy.

If you are genuinely interested in a program and your application falls within the criteria that program considers, attending its open house can be worthwhile. It gives you an opportunity to learn more, ask informed questions, interact with the people who train there, and naturally communicate genuine interest in the program.

Keep the distinction clear: attending an open house is not a means of bypassing a program’s screening criteria or application requirements. It should complement thoughtful program selection, not substitute for it.

Scores, U.S. clinical experience, SLOEs, visa policy, year of graduation requirements, and other program-specific selection criteria continue to matter. Applicants evaluating these factors should review IMGPrep’s IMG-Friendly Emergency Medicine Residency Programs and Step 2 CK Scores for Emergency Medicine Residency.

How to Prepare for an Emergency Medicine Residency Open House

Most Emergency Medicine residency open houses include an overview of the residency followed by opportunities to interact with residents, faculty, or program leadership. Depending on the program, this may include:

  • Resident panels and question-and-answer sessions
  • Curriculum and clinical training presentations
  • Discussions with program leadership
  • Breakout sessions with current residents
  • Virtual or in-person tours
  • Information about rotations, research, fellowships, and resident life

Research the program before attending. The greatest value comes from asking questions that cannot easily be answered by reading the program’s website.

Listen carefully to how residents describe their experience, what the program emphasizes about its training, and what distinguishes it from other programs you are considering.

An open house may help you decide that a program deserves a place on your application list or, just as importantly, that it does not.

EMRA Residency Program Fair

Applicants looking for exposure to a larger number of programs may also consider the EMRA Residency Program Fair on October 4, 2026, from 3:00–5:00 PM CT in Chicago, held at McCormick Place during ACEP26. More than 175 Emergency Medicine residency programs are expected to participate, providing applicants with an opportunity to interact with programs from across the country.

Post-Interview Open Houses and Second Looks

Some Emergency Medicine programs also offer optional events after interviews. These serve a different purpose from pre-application open houses by allowing interviewed applicants to gather additional information before finalizing their rank order lists.

Post-interview Emergency Medicine events, 2026–2027 cycle
ProgramDateEvent
Cooper University Hospital / CMSRUDecember 15, 2026In-Person GME Open House
Cooper University Hospital / CMSRUJanuary 19, 2027In-Person GME Open House
University of Rochester Medical CenterJanuary 21, 2027In-Person Second Look
Cooper University Hospital / CMSRUFebruary 9, 2027In-Person GME Open House
University of CincinnatiJanuary–February 2027In-Person Second Looks, dates TBA

Applicants should review the individual program’s instructions regarding eligibility and registration.

Do not interpret an optional Second Look as a hidden requirement. Programs may explicitly state that attendance has no bearing on ranking.6

More on Emergency Medicine for IMGs

Consult with IMGPrep

Emergency Medicine residency in the United States requires strong clinical preparation, targeted rotations, and careful application strategy. For international medical graduates, effective program selection requires understanding how clinical experience, SLOEs, examination performance, visa status, year of graduation, geographic preferences, and overall candidacy align with individual programs.

IMGPrep provides individualized advising for international medical graduates pursuing Emergency Medicine residency training in the United States.

Consult with IMGPrep to develop a structured Emergency Medicine application strategy, including clinical rotations, SLOE planning, program selection, and ResidencyCAS application preparation.

Work With IMGPrep on Your Emergency Medicine Application

An individualized strategy built around SLOE planning, rotation timing, program selection, and ResidencyCAS application preparation.

References

  1. Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD). CORD Data Book, Academic Year 2025–2026. CORD; 2026.
  2. Comp G, Townley K, Blazar E, et al. Virtual Town Hall Meetings to Convey Emergency Medicine Residency Program Information to Students. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2022;23(4):525–531.
  3. Ho JW, Joung RH, Krueger M, et al. Understanding General Surgery Applicant Expectations and Perceptions in the Virtual Interview Process. Journal of Surgical Education. 2022;79(6):e61–e68.
  4. Salah HT, Mirza KM. Pathology Residency Open-House Events: A Novel Marketing Paradigm. American Journal of Clinical Pathology. 2021;156(6):950–953.
  5. Pelletier-Bui AE, Fallon T, Smith L, et al. Program Signaling in Emergency Medicine: The 2022–2023 Program Director Experience. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2024;25(5):715–724.
  6. Alweis RL, Williams CM, Luther VP, et al. AAIM Guidelines for Interview and Post-Interview Communication for Graduate Medical Education Recruitment. American Journal of Medicine. 2019;132(9):1106–1111.