The USA College of Medicine Class of 2021 will celebrate matching into residency programs with a planned in person event following a year in which the event was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Match Day is set for Friday, March 19, in the Student Center Ballroom on the USA campus. The time of the ceremony has not been determined.
The event is approved to be held in person by the USA Reopening Committee on the condition that it be limited to the members of the Class of 2021 and the staff necessary to facilitate the ceremony. In addition, students will arrive and depart in groups of 10 in keeping with social distancing guidelines.
“We are glad that the class will be able to celebrate this important occasion together, even socially distanced,” said Kelly Roveda, M.D., associate dean for student affairs at the USA College of Medicine. “In addition, the ceremony will be live-streamed so that family and friends will be able to participate virtually.”
After interviewing virtually with residency programs across the nation, medical students rank their programs in order of preference. Training programs, in turn, rank the students who interviewed. The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) uses a mathematical algorithm to designate each applicant into a residency program with the results announced nationwide on March 19.
At the USA College of Medicine Match Day ceremony, the students will take turns announcing their placements and pin the geographical location on a map on stage. Although no group photo is planned, students will be photographed individually as they pin the map.
In 2020, USA medical students celebrated virtually when they matched in 23 states, with 42 students matching out of state and 23 matching within Alabama.
