It’s a Match! All 123 West Virginia University School of Medicine medical students matched into a residency program during the National Residency Match Program (NRMP) celebration on Friday, March 20.
Match Day is the culmination of many years of hard work for medical students nationwide. Many students consider it the most exciting day of their medical school experience – learning where they’ll complete their residency training.
Prior to Match Day, final-year medical students complete numerous applications and interviews at specialty residency programs of their choice.
Students rank the places where they would like to continue their medical training. The residency programs, in turn, rank the applicants. The information is entered into the National Resident Matching Program which uses a Nobel Prize in Economics algorithm to produce a list of “matches.”
During celebrations across the School’s three campuses – Morgantown, Charleston, and Eastern, students opened envelopes showcasing the programs where they matched into residency for the next three to seven years.
This year’s class includes 15 rural scholars, 15 MATTER students who will graduate on an accelerated path to residency in August, and six military matches.
“We are thrilled that all our students secured residency training all across the country in so many different specialties,” Norman Ferrari, MD, chief academic officer for Medical Education, said. “It speaks well to the quality of our graduates and the hard work of our faculty in shaping their development of physicians along their medical education journey.”
Forty-nine percent of the graduates will remain in West Virginia for their training. The other students have matched from to coast and in places as far away as Hawaii.
The class will be spread across 22 states in 22 different specialties, with primary care being a top area of interest for the upcoming graduates. Fifty-nine students will enter internal medicine, family medicine, OBGYN, pediatrics, or medicine pediatrics.
Students secured positions in different match programs, including the Military Match, the San Francisco Match for Ophthalmology, the Urology Match through the American Urological Association, and the NRMP.
The WVU School of Medicine offers the most graduate medical education offerings in the state. With 95+ residency training programs, 43 of which are the only ones of their kind offered within West Virginia, WVU attracts many applicants from schools across the country.
The incoming class of residents will begin their training in July.
For more information on the WVU School of Medicine, visit medicine.wvu.edu.
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ct 3/20/26
CONTACT: Cassie Thomas, Executive Director
Communications and Marketing
WVU Health Sciences and School of Medicine
304-376-1829; Cassie.Thomas@hsc.wvu.edu