Each year in March, future physicians across the globe experience Match Day, a milestone when they learn where and in what specialties they will continue their training in residencies.
³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ students did particularly well on Match Day, as they always do. This year, ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Louisiana will celebrate its first graduating class and its first Match Day. Across all four ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ campuses, 602 ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ students matched—an overall final match rate of 99.8%. ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ’s match rate has been 99% or higher in each of the last four years.
This good news for ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ’s campuses comes amid good news for the overall 2024 match, which is administrated by the . This year’s process included more than 50,000 applicants, an increase of 4.7% over last year. According to NRMP, graduating Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs) across the country are increasingly likely to match; the DO match rate has increased 4.2 percentage points.
The match process typically takes several rounds to complete. ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ students matched at a rate of 95.6% in the initial round of matching, which is considerably higher than both the Doctor of Medicine (MD) average of 93.5% and the DO average of 92.3%.
Our students’ commitment to the ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ mission of preparing globally minded and community-focused physicians to meet the needs of rural and medically underserved populations, is evident in their matches. More than 47% of ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ students will attend residency in a rural area, 55% will complete a residency in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and more than 47% will head to a medically underserved area (MUA).
Furthermore, more than 72% of ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ students will head to residencies in ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ’s target region—Appalachian and Delta states. Over the last four years, the top five states for ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ graduates are Virginia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and that is true this year as well. In addition, 41 ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ students were accepted into a military residency, continuing ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ’s commitment to providing care for the United States armed forces.
Highlights from Each ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ Campus
³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Louisiana, graduating its inaugural class, had a match rate of 100%. The top three states for ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Louisiana students are Louisiana, Texas and Florida. Students who matched into primary care specialties account for 60% of the class, helping to fulfill ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ’s mission. The remaining 40% matched into specialty fields, many in other areas of need, such as psychiatry, surgery, emergency medicine and orthopedics.
³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Carolinas had a match rate of 100%, with 67% matching into primary care specialties. The top three states are South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida. Seventy percent of ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Carolinas students will be going to a residency in an Appalachian state.
³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Auburn had a final match rate of 99.3%, with approximately 60% matching into primary care specialties. The top states are Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Virginia had a match rate of 100%, with 66.5% matching into a primary care residency. Top states are Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.