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Match Day 2026
Published March 16, 2026; updated March 23, 2026
This week, students from the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy learned where they will be training for residency on Match Day. UNC Adams School of Dentistry and clinical psychology students have matched in recent months.
After years of hard work, hundreds of Carolina medical students participated in a decades-old tradition of finding their match at the same time as others around the nation.
Keep scrolling to learn more about Match Day.
How does Match Day work?
During their final year of medical school, students complete applications, essays and interviews with residency programs across the country. The students then rank their top choices for residency, and residency programs across the country. The students then rank their top choices for residency, and residency programs do as well. The National Resident Matching Program algorithm matches students and programs based on these mutual rankings. All graduating medical students in the U.S. learned their results at the same time on March 20.
As of 2026, 88 UNC School of Medicine students will start their residency in North Carolina, and 45 of those students will begin their training at UNC Health’s hospitals. The UNC School of Medicine currently has graduates practicing in 95 North Carolina counties.
Medical students commit to serving NC
The Community Health Training Program is helping Matthew Hutchins and Christiana Daniel turn their dreams of becoming rural family medicine physicians into reality.
Eshelman School of Pharmacy
Doctor of pharmacy students from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy learned their matches on March 18. The school once again secured the No. 1 residency rate among U.S. pharmacy schools with more than 65 students submitting a rank list. Eshelman’s overall match rate was 94.2%, and the school was No. 1 among North Carolina pharmacy programs.
Adams School of Dentistry
On Jan. 21, soon-to-be graduating students, staff and faculty gathered in West Lobby at Koury Oral Health Sciences Building to celebrate that important next step in their educational journeys; their residency matches.
Clinical Psychology students make a match
Scholars like Nick Myers in the nationally renowned, comprehensive doctoral program received internship placements on Feb. 20.
My dream is that Match Day is a day of reflection and realizing how far I, and all my classmates, have come.
Leah LeClair, fourth-year UNC School of Medicine student
Meet Carolina doctors
Dr. Henry Fisher: A day in the life
After a patient with a possible brain edema, what’s next for a pediatrician-in-training who matched with UNC Health in 2025?
Alisa Eanes: Serving rural communities
Inspired by and grateful for her Carolina experience, Eanes is now giving back to the state as an OB-GYN in western North Carolina.
Ricardo Crespo Regalado: Teamwork shapes a future surgeon
Crespo Regalado had plans of studying medicine from a young age, and chose to do so in Chapel Hill.
