The 2024 class of medical students from the University of Missouri School of Medicine learned March 15 where they will be training in their chosen specialties as resident physicians.
“Match Day” marks the occasion where medical students from across the country open the envelope that contains their residency match. This year’s class from the MU School of Medicine was highly sought after: 97% of the class received a residency program match. That exceeds both this year’s U.S. MD match rate of 93%, and the overall applicant match rate of 80%.
In the MU School of Medicine’s class of 2024, 26% will stay on the MU campus for their residency training, 39% will remain in Missouri and 39% selected residency programs in primary care fields.
In this year’s graduating class, 27 students were assigned to the Springfield Clinical Campus for their last two years. The Springfield campus was established in June 2016 in partnership with CoxHealth and Mercy health systems.
The National Resident Matching Program conducts an annual match process designed to optimize the choices of medical students and residency program directors. Students rank their residency program choices in order of preference, and program directors rank students. The data is put into a computer, and the best match for both is made. In the third week of March, results of the matches are announced. In the 2024 Main Residency Match, more than 44,000 medical school graduates competed for approximately 41,000 residency positions in more than 6,300 residency training programs.
While the majority of medical students match through the National Resident Matching Program, an increasing number of students match through early residency match programs. One student from the class of 2024 matched in December through the United States military match program; five ophthalmology students matched through SF Match in January; and two students matched in January through the American Urological Association’s match program.
