Logo for University of Iowa Health Care This logo represents the University of Iowa Health Care

UI Carver College of Medicine students learn where they will match for residency training

Date: Friday, March 19, 2021

After a year unlike any other, medical students graduating from the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine learned today where they matched for their residency training.

Following graduation from medical school, the next stage in a doctor’s career is several years of residency training in a chosen specialty area, such as pediatrics, surgery, or psychiatry. Based on interviews, almost all virtual this year, each student ranks which residency programs they want to enter, and each residency program ranks which students they want to select. The matching process pairs up students and programs.

At 11 a.m. (CT) Friday, March 19, along with every medical student across the nation, the UI students learned where they matched. At the Carver College of Medicine, graduating students received their results by email, but they were also able to collect the envelope containing their match result in person, with physical distancing, from the Medical Education and Research Facility atrium on campus.

“Match Day last year was one of the first events at the Carver College of Medicine to be disrupted by the pandemic. At the time, we rapidly pivoted to a virtual setting to celebrate the milestone event. A year on, and that flexibility, perseverance, and optimism have become second nature for our students and everyone involved in medical education,” says Christopher Cooper, MD, senior associate dean for medical education at the UI Carver College of Medicine. “We are so proud of the resilience our students have shown through the challenges of this year, and we are excited for what lies ahead for them in the next phase of their careers as physicians.”

Of the 144 students graduating this year from the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, 59 students (41%) chose primary care specialties. Twenty students matched in family medicine programs, 20 in internal medicine, four in obstetrics and gynecology, and 15 in pediatrics.

Thirty-nine Carver College of Medicine graduates will remain in Iowa for their first year of residency training, and 27 of these students will train next year at UI Hospitals & Clinics.

Geographically, the most popular states after Iowa were Texas, with 13 graduating students receiving their first year of residency training there, followed by California with 10 students, and Illinois with nine.

Most of the students who will earn medical degrees at the UI this year (132 of 144 students) obtained their match through the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP), a private, nonprofit organization that matches the preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions with the preferences of residency program directors. Nine students secured their residency outside of the NRMP, and three students deferred residency training.

See this year's match results, including individual results by name, state, and specialty.