Athens
Mar 19, 2021
AU/UGA Medical Partnership Announces Eighth Successful Match Day
Athens, GA – Students at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership participated in a ‘Virtual Match Day’ at noon on March 19 to receive their post-graduation assignments for residency programs.
This marks the second year that the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the usual Match Day plans—in past years, students, faculty, and staff gathered in George Hall on the UGA Health Sciences Campus to celebrate with family and friends. The Class of 2021 opted to have their own private celebrations with family and friends instead of a socially distanced event on campus. This year, students also had to interview virtually with most residency programs because of travel restrictions due to the pandemic.
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 (NRMP) 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.
“Graduating Medical College of Georgia (MCG) students from the Augusta University/ University of Georgia Medical Partnership experienced their ‘rite of passage’ today when they learned where they will spend the next several years on their journey to becoming licensed physicians,” said Dr. John Francis, Campus Associate Dean for Student and Multicultural Affairs. “The match is representative of all the hard work these students have accomplished over the past four years. We are so proud and fortunate that these students are part of our campus and community.”
“This is the eighth successful match at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership,” said Campus Dean, Dr. Michelle Nuss. “The accomplishments of these 38 MCG students have landed them at top-tier residency programs across the nation. The students will be going to 18 different states plus Washington D.C. in 17 different specialties, with 65 percent staying in the southeastern United States and 46 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 Emergency Medicine (5), Internal Medicine (5), Family Medicine (4) and Anesthesia (4), with 32 percent of all matched students doing an internship or residency program in Georgia.
AU/UGA Medical Partnership participants in Match Day 2021 received the following residency appointments. They are listed by name, residency institution and specialty:
