Programs may begin reading this morning.

Dear Applicant,
At 9 a.m. Eastern this morning, residency programs may begin reading. That is what September 23 is, and for an application you already submitted it is the only thing that changes today.
Two things this week: a correction, and what September 23 actually is. The correction comes first, because it changes what you need in front of you.

Issue 003 told you that you need your AAMC ID to register with the NRMP. That is wrong. NRMP's own FAQ says an AAMC ID "is not required but it is recommended," because including it "will make it easier for programs to rank you" in the R3 system. Bring it if you have it. Do not let a missing number stop you from registering.
Two other lines from that issue were true to our experience and linked to nothing. "People lose whole cycles to this," about confusing ERAS with NRMP, and a P.S. saying that confusion "occasionally" costs a whole year. We have no published data for either, and our first rule is that every factual claim carries a primary source. Those two should not have run.

AAMC's wording, exactly: on Sept. 23, 2026, residency programs "may begin reviewing MyERAS applications and MSPEs in the PDWS at 9 a.m. ET."
May begin. Not must, not finish, not decide.
That sentence is also the only thing the AAMC timeline says about your MSPE. Today is when programs may start reading it. The page lists no separate release date, and we are not going to invent one. What the MSPE is, and the one section of it many schools let you help write, is here.
Which means everything submitted since September 2 has been sitting in the same place since you sent it. Submitting on the 3rd and submitting on the 22nd arrive on the same Wednesday morning, and it is this one.

Registration opened on September 15 at 12:00 p.m. EDT. You create an R3 account. That is the whole task.
The sentence on that page worth reading twice: "You must register for both the NRMP and the application service or process required by the program." One organization runs the application, a different one runs the Match, and doing one does not do the other. The long version is ERAS and NRMP are two different systems.
Standard registration stays open until January 29, 2027 at 11:59 p.m. EST. After that there is "a $50 additional fee for registration after January 29."

The Standard Registration Fee is "$85 for Main Residency Match." It "includes the listing of up to 20 unique NRMP program codes on the primary rank order list and up to 20 unique NRMP codes on all supplemental rank order lists combined."
Past twenty, each additional program code costs $30, "up to the maximum of 300 ranks." Lists of 100 or more ranks carry a separate length fee on top of that, from $50 to $200. Couples pay "an additional $45 per partner."
Then the part that is not really about money:
"The extra rank fee and the length of rank order list fee are due immediately upon certifying the rank order lists. Lists that have been certified with extra fees cannot be modified later with the intent to remove extra fees." And, plainly: "ALL Match fees are non-refundable."
None of that is a September decision. It matters now because of when it lands. You will certify a rank order list before the deadline on March 3 at 9:00 p.m. EST, and that certification click is the billing event. How long your list should be is not our call. What the button does is knowable in advance, so know it in advance. Our breakdown of cycle costs is here.

If you have not registered, register. A credit card, and your AAMC ID if you have one.
Then put two dates into your own calendar, not ours. January 29, 2027 at 11:59 p.m. EST, when standard registration closes and the $50 starts. And March 3, 2027 at 9:00 p.m. EST, the rank order list certification deadline. Neither is close, which is exactly why they belong in a calendar rather than in your head. Every remaining date through Match Day on March 19 is in Match 2027, every date that matters, and how we check all of this is here.
That is the week. Programs may begin reading; nothing about your file changes because they did.
Alex Rowan
Dear Applicant 🩺
P.S. Forward this to someone in your class who has not registered yet. The deadline is more than four months out. That is exactly why it gets forgotten.