The sound of ripping envelopes echoed through George Hall at noon on Friday as fourth-year students at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership opened their letters for Match Day.
Tommy Johnston and Ashley Catanzerite receive a couples match to Wake Forest University in orthopedic surgery and otolaryngology, respectively, during Match Day for students in the AU/UGA Medical Partnership at George Hall on the Health Sciences Campus. (Chamberlain Smith/UGA)
Inside each envelope was a personal letter revealing where the student would be pursuing their postgraduate medical education.
“This is our 12th Match Day at the Medical Partnership, and we are so proud of this class. We are so excited to see all the amazing achievements each of you will accomplish during your careers,” said Dean Shelley Nuss. “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.”
Match Day is an annual event that takes place after students participate in interviews and visit residency programs in Georgia and across the country. To determine the postgraduation assignments, the students ranked residency programs where they would like to complete their training, and 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 to align the choices of the applicants with those of the residency programs. Most students were matched via the NRMP, but some participated in smaller match programs, including ophthalmology. The final pairings are announced simultaneously across the U.S. at noon on Match Day.
Erica Brownfield, senior associate dean for the new UGA School of Medicine, and Dean Shelley Nuss during Match Day for students in the AU/UGA Medical Partnership at George Hall on the Health Sciences Campus. (Chamberlain Smith/UGA)
Students from the Class of 2025 will be going to 17 states plus Washington, D.C., in 15 specialties, with 65% percent staying in the southern United States. Seventy percent will be joining primary care/core specialty programs — defined by the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce as internal medicine, family medicine, OB-GYN, pediatrics, psychiatry, general surgery and emergency medicine — which is the highest in the history of the Medical Partnership.
“The accomplishments of these talented 46 students have landed them at top-tier residency programs across the nation, and 70% are going into primary care and core specialties, which is critical to combat our lingering physician shortage,” said Nuss.
The most popular specialties from the Medical Partnership Class of 2025 include internal medicine (15), psychiatry (6), family medicine (3), OB-GYN (3), pathology (3) and orthopedic surgery (3).
