March 13, 2009

UAB School of Medicine seniors find out where they will be conducting their residency training and in what field on Match Day, coordinated by the National Resident Matching Program. Approximately 16,000 fourth-year medical students across the nation will receive their residency assignments simultaneously on Match Day. UAB will have 160 graduates participating in the match.

Match Day ceremonies will be held in Volker Hall, lecture room A. Media crews should enter the building at the 7th Ave. entrance across from Children's Hospital. Go to the plaza level, up the outside staircase.

Match Day activities will begin about 10:45 a.m. on Thursday, March 19.

Following graduation from medical school, new physicians spend at least three years in a residency program, receiving advanced training in their chosen field. Fourth-year medical school students across the country apply to their desired residency programs through the National Resident Matching Program and receive their acceptances on Match Day, begun in 1952.

In addition to graduates of accredited U.S. medical schools, some 18,000 independent graduates will participate. Independent applicants include former graduates of U.S. medical schools, U.S. osteopathic students and graduates of foreign medical schools.