Florida’s COVID-19 class of future physicians meet their match

After months of applications and interviews, medical student graduates in Florida, the U.S. and across the world learned on the same day (known as Match Day) in what facilities they will spend the next three to seven years completing the training needed to become board-certified.

Medical colleges in Florida held Match Day events, where students, who started their journey to becoming physicians in July 2020 during the height of COVID-19, were given the envelopes containing their acceptances.

At the Morsani College of Medicine at the University of South Florida, 180 medical students were matched, 31 of whom matched to USF Health. Six others matched to Lehigh Valley Health Network and two matched through the military. In a press release, the college said 33% of the students will train in Florida and 39% will enter primary care.

A total of 109 students from the FSU College of Medicine were matched with residencies. Roughly 45% of those who matched will stay in Florida to begin their residency training according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

The University of Central Florida College of Medicine had all of its 117 seniors matched with residency programs, including a record high 16 who are pursuing residencies in psychiatry.

The 128 medical school seniors at the University of Florida College of Medicine were matched with residency programs in 26 different states and Washington, D.C. Thirty-four graduating seniors were matched at UF (including UF Health Jacksonville and UF Health Halifax Health) and another 20 students were matched at other programs in Florida.

All 196 graduating seniors from the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami were matched with residencies. According to UM, the students will complete residency programs in 30 states. Fifty-three of its students are staying in Florida, including 35 who will intern at the University of Miami/Jackson Health System. Twenty-seven students will attend residency programs in California, 17 in New York and 11 in Texas.

All 113 graduating seniors at Florida International University College of Medicine matched. According to the university, 42% of the class will continue their medical training in Florida, and nearly a third will stay in South Florida.

Florida Atlantic University announced that 48% of the class of 2024 will conduct their residency in Florida, and 41% will specialize in primary care, including internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics. The class of 2024 also matched in some of the most competitive specialties, including psychiatry, orthopedic surgery, dermatology, plastic surgery, urology and a triple board specialty in pediatrics/psychiatry/child psychiatry, among others. In all, 56 students were matched, according to the university.

The Nova Southeastern Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine and the Nova Southeastern Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine also graduated medical students, as did the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine Bradenton Campus.

The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) essentially is responsible for Match Day. The NRMP method by which the medical student’s hospital preference and the hospital’s rating of the applicant are matched through a central office. The system has been in effect for 72 years.

According to the NRMP, there was a 4.7% increase in 2024 over the number of applicants for residencies in 2023, with a total of 50,413 applicants registered in the 2024 Main Residency Match.

The rise in applicants was driven largely by an increase of nearly 2,000 non-U.S. citizen international medical graduates and more than 600 osteopathic seniors over last year.

Included in the match were 6,395 certified programs, which is 125 more than last year. There were 41,503 post-graduate Year 1 and post-graduate Year 2 training positions for this year’s Match Day, which is 2.8% more than last year.