Resident applicants at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership gathered on Friday at noon in George Hall on the UGA Health Sciences Campus for Match Day, an event celebrating the next step in their medical careers.
Sealed envelopes addressed to each member of the class of 2022 were opened at noon. Inside each envelope was a personal letter revealing where the student will pursue his or her postgraduate medical education. This year’s Match Day theme was “If I weren’t a doctor …” where students dressed up as professions they would’ve pursued if they had not entered the world of medicine.
Medical Partnership student Raveena Patel, middle, holds her envelope and poses for photos with her classmates before opening their match letters on Match Day inside George Hall at the Health Sciences Campus. (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)
An annual event, Match Day takes place after students participate in interviews and visits to residency programs in Georgia and across the country. To determine the post-graduation assignments, the students ranked residency programs where they would like to complete their training, at the same time the residency programs ranked the student applicants.
The lists are then submitted to the nonprofit organization National Resident Matching Program in Washington, D.C., which uses an algorithm that aligns the choices of the applicants with those of the residency programs. Most students were matched via the NRMP, but some students participated in smaller match programs, including ophthalmology.
The final pairings were announced simultaneously across the U.S. at noon.
Medical Partnership student Andrew Brodmann holds his 16-month-old son, Luke, as he picks up his letter on Match Day inside George Hall at the Health Sciences Campus. (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)
“This is the ninth successful match at the Medical Partnership,” said Campus Dean Dr. Michelle Nuss. “The accomplishments of these 40 MCG students have landed them at top-tier residency programs across the nation. The students will be going to 18 different states in 15 different specialties, with 65 percent staying in the southeastern United States and 45 percent joining primary care programs. Thank you to the faculty, administrators, staff and physician mentors in our community who have devoted their time and efforts to educating our future physicians.”
Some of the most popular specialties this year included internal medicine (10), pediatrics (five), anesthesia (four) and psychiatry (four) with 25 percent of all matched students doing an internship or residency program in Georgia.