UK College of Medicine Celebrates Match Day, Including First Ceremony at Bowling Green Campus

Match Day is always a special event for the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. This year, the college added to the excitement by celebrating an incredible milestone in its mission of training more physicians in Kentucky, for Kentucky.

The college’s first regional campus in Bowling Green, Ky., which opened in 2018, celebrated its first Match Day on Friday, March 18. Because of the regional campus celebration, the Class of 2022 was the College of Medicine’s largest group of students recognized at this annual event.

“Match Day is a pivotal day in the life of a fourth-year medical student,” said Todd Cheever, MD, MS, associate dean of the Bowling Green Campus. “It’s so exciting to finally be at that point here at the Bowling Green Campus.”

At noon EDT on Match Day, medical students across the country simultaneously open letters to learn the location and specialty of their residency program. Ahead of the day, students list their top choices, and the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) pairs those choices with the needs of hospital residency programs.

The UK College of Medicine Class of 2022 celebrated students from Bowling Green, the Rural Physician Leadership Program in Morehead, Ky., and the main campus in Lexington, Ky. At each campus, remarks were delivered by key leadership including Mark Newman, MD, executive vice president of health affairs for UK HealthCare, and Charles Griffith, MD, MSPH, acting dean of the College of Medicine.

In total, 147 students matched into 66 different institutions and 19 different specialties. Approximately 37 percent chose to pursue a residency in Kentucky, aligning with the College of Medicine’s mission of training more physicians to address the state’s shortage and advance health care in the Commonwealth.

The college’s class size will be even larger next year when the College of Medicine-Northern Kentucky Campus holds its first Match Day next spring.