The number of residency slots affiliated with member schools in the U.S. rose 6% from AY 2016-17 to AY 2018-19, and 64% since 2008-09, according to ASCO’s 2018-19 Residency Program Funding and Promotion Survey report, released in December. Of the 467 slots in 2018-19, 48% were Veterans Administration (VA) residencies funded by the VA. Twenty-nine percent were residencies in external (non-VA) institutions and funded externally, and 22% were residencies in the clinics of the schools/colleges funded by the school/college.
For U.S. residency programs funded by optometry schools, stipends ranged from $25,000 to $55,000; the average for all schools was $38,037, a 4% increase from two years ago. (Each school is weighted equally regardless of the number of residency slots.) Stipends for externally-funded programs ranged from $30,000 to $87,552 and stipends funded by the V.A. ranged from $31,965 to $42,118.