American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC) celebrated more than 300 residency matches on Friday, March 16—one of the largest Match Days on record for the university. The revelation began moments after 1:00 pm ET, when graduates received an email from the National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP)® with their residency placement. With that news in hand, they took to social media to share their first place of employment as resident physicians.
“I am so excited to say I will be part of the FIRST all female class in the history of neurology residency at the University of Minnesota (my number 1 spot)!” Bindi Parikh posted on Instagram. “I could not be more proud to be a part of such an amazing team and to represent my Caribbean medical school community at such a fine institution! When the world said no, we came together and said yes! Thank you so much for all the support - I could not have made it without the help of family, friends and even strangers along the way.”
AUC graduates earned positions in 38 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, landing in a variety of postgraduate medical training settings, such as large university-affiliated academic medical centers, rural-based programs, busy urban hospitals, and major regional healthcare systems. The diversity in graduates’ residency program choice is evident in the initial 2018 AUC match list, which includes the geographic distribution of graduates as well as their specialty.
AUC has a strong history of sending graduates into critical primary care specialties and in underserved communities where the need is particularly great. The trend continued this year with the majority of students matching into Internal Medicine and Family Medicine. But 2018 was also a year of notable competitive placements, including a Dermatology residency at Florida State University College of Medicine, an Orthopedic Surgery residency at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, and a Child Neurology residency at Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education in Jacksonville, Florida.
“We are so proud of what our AUC graduates have accomplished,” said Heidi Chumley, MD, Executive Dean at AUC. “They’ve worked incredibly hard for this moment and we believe they will be phenomenal physicians in both residency and beyond.”
According to the NRMP, the 2018 Main Residency Match was the largest in history with 33,167 positions offered. This year, the number of available first year (PGY-1) positions rose to 30,232, an increase of 1,383 (4.7%) over 2017. Primary care specialties, including Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics, saw a combined increase of more than 600 positions over the last year.
International medical graduates (IMGs) like those from AUC continue to make up a large contingent of residency applicants. This year, 2,900 US citizen IMGS and 3,962 non-US citizen IMGs matched into PGY-1 positions. Both US citizen and non-US citizen IMGs achieved the highest match rate for these groups since 1993.
In addition to celebrating Match Day on social media, AUC graduates attended Match Day receptions in Detroit, Miami, and New York City. In Sint Maarten, home of the university’s medical sciences campus, students and faculty gathered Friday afternoon to watch the results pour in on social media.