168 UAMS medical school graduates match for residencies
by March 25, 2025 6:12 pm 838 views
Kathleen “Katie” Kinder and her daughter celebrate Kinder's match into an orthopaedic surgery residency at UAMS. After applying to UAMS, Kinder discovered she was related to UAMS founders P.O. Hooper, M.D., and James A. Dibrell Jr., M.D. Photo courtesy of UAMS/Bryan Clifton.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Match Day on Friday (March 21) led to 168 placements for residencies in 30 states. Match Day is where medical school graduates learn where they will spend the next four years to become full-fledged doctors.
Dr. Becky Latch, associate dean of student affairs for the college, said all 160 seniors who participated in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) found a match. This includes students who attended the UAMS main campus in Little Rock and those who attended UAMS’ Northwest Regional Campus in Fayetteville.
In addition to the students who participated in the NRMP, eight UAMS seniors who are pursuing careers in ophthalmology, urology, or the military participated in separate, earlier match programs.
The NRMP uses an algorithm to match lists of seniors and institutions across the country after each student and institution ranks their choices. Nationally, 47,208 seniors who are on the verge of becoming medical doctors or doctors of osteopathic medicine, including graduates of foreign medical schools, matched to just 40,041 available U.S. residencies.
“This is our medical school’s Christmas,” Latch said. “This is our biggest celebration and what makes us the most happy all year. We’re so excited to see the results today.”
74 UAMS seniors matched to residency programs in Arkansas, while 94 matched to residencies in 29 other states and the District of Columbia.
About half — 79 students — are headed to residencies in a primary care specialty: internal medicine, pediatrics, Med-Peds (half internal medicine and half pediatrics), family medicine, and obstetrics/gynecology. This is the same percentage of primary care residencies as attained by the class of 2024. Another 38 seniors are entering surgical residencies, while 13 are heading toward emergency medicine residencies.
“We have 26 students who are going into an internal medicine residency, with a close second in family medicine at 24 students,” Latch said.
Internal medicine at UAMS includes cardiovascular medicine, gastroenterology and hepatology, hematology and oncology, infectious diseases, nephrology, pulmonary and critical care, and rheumatology and immunology, among others.
Eight seniors obtained residencies in anesthesiology, and 10 are headed to psychiatry residencies.