WVU graduating medical students learn their residency placements during 2022 Match Day celebration

One-third of West Virginia University’s graduating medical students will remain in West Virginia for their residency programs. The placement announcements were made as part of the University’s Match Day celebration, Friday, March 18, on the Morgantown, Charleston and Eastern campuses.

Match Day is a national celebration where medical students learn in which U.S. residency programs they will train for the next three to seven years. For WVU’s School of Medicine, the celebration unites more than 110 students, families, faculty members and friends on the three campuses as they unveil their “match.”

For students, the Residency Match process begins in the final year of medical school, when they apply to the residency training programs of their choice. Following interviews at programs across the country, applicants and program directors rank each other in order of preference and submit those lists to the National Resident Matching Program, which processes them using a computerized mathematical algorithm to “match” them.

Stats for the Class of 2022 include:

• Students placed in 19 different specialties across 24 states.
• Forty-eight percent of students matched in primary care specialties. Twenty-one percent matched in hospital-based specialties, and 15 percent in surgical specialties. 
• The top three specialties include internal medicine, followed by family medicine and emergency medicine.
• The Class of 2022 also achieved a 100 percent first time pass rate on the USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 exams.

“As medical students who completed half of their training during a global pandemic, these students have already learned an important lesson for any incoming physician – the ability to adapt and excel regardless of the circumstances. Their resilience is remarkable,” Norman Ferrari, M.D., chief academic officer and vice dean for medical education for the Doctorate of Medicine program, said.

The 2022 National Residency Match provided matching services to more than 42,000 applicants.

WVU has the largest number of graduate medical education offerings in the state, with nearly 75 specialty training programs, all of which are fully accredited. One-half of those training programs are the only such specialty programs offered in the entire state.

Residency training begins at WVU in July for residents from medical schools across the country.

“Our Graduate Medical Education programs are highly sought after by graduates from schools across the country, and all of our WVU positions filled,” Dr. Ferrari said.

The WVU School of Medicine’s medical degree commencement ceremonies take place on Friday, May 13, at 7 p.m. at the Creative Arts Center in Morgantown.

For more information on the School of Medicine, visit medicine.wvu.edu.