UNC School of Medicine “Match Day” Launches Medical Students into their Residencies

Along with medical schools all over the United States, the UNC School of Medicine held its “Match Day” on Friday, March 16, 2018. On each Match Day, medical students from across the country find out where they will be going to complete their residency training.

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UNC School of Medicine students share their residency "matches" on Match Day 2018. (Photo: Business Wire)

For the last several months, medical students have crisscrossed the country, visiting and interviewing at various programs. The students rank their top choices and the residency programs do the same. The National Resident Matching Program matches students and programs based on these rankings.

Since students have rated their top destinations, they have a sense of where they might be going, but they don’t know for sure until they run (literally) down the stairs of UNC’s Medical Biomolecular Research Building auditorium (packed to the ceiling with medical students, family, friends and School of Medicine faculty) and receive the iconic blue envelope which holds their Match results.

Many students then walk into the hallway to find some privacy for this life-changing moment, while others go back inside the auditorium to share the result with their friends and families.

Here’s what the UNC School of Medicine Class of 2018 found in those blue envelopes:

• 168 UNC students matched into 24 specialties
• Students will complete their residency training in 30 states and the District of Columbia
• 67 students, nearly 40 percent of the class of 2018, will complete their residency training in North Carolina
• The most popular specialties were: Internal Medicine (34 students), Family Medicine (32 students), OB/GYN (14 students), Pediatrics (14 students), Emergency Medicine (13 students)

“Congratulations to you all on this memorable occasion,” said Wesley Burks, MD, Executive Dean of the UNC School of Medicine. “You’ve thought for years about the type of doctor you would like to become, and now you are here ready to begin the next phase of your training. This is a day you will always remember.”

VIDEO: To see the true emotion of Match Day, take a look at this brief video from UNC’s 2018 Match Day.

About UNC School of Medicine

The UNC School of Medicine (SOM) is the state’s largest medical school graduating approximately 180 new physicians each year. It is consistently ranked among the top medical schools in the US and is among the most well funded for its research efforts. More than half of the school’s 1,700 faculty members served as principal investigators on active research awards in 2016. Two UNC SOM faculty members have earned Nobel Prize awards.

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