LUCOM earns 98.7% placement rate during 2025 Match Day

Alongside all medical schools nationally, Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) celebrated its fourth-year student-doctor class on Friday, March 21, during the annual Match Day. Gathered in the Montview Alumni Ballroom, LUCOM participants achieved a 98.7 percent placement.

This year marked the fifth time in the last six years that LUCOM achieved a greater than 98 percent placement rate.

The day is a culmination of medical schools guiding their senior students through the four-year curriculum and the celebration of a significant milestone as they receive their future assignment for residency placement, often referred to as the phase of Graduate Medical Education (GME), the specialty training that follows medical school graduation.

The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) is a private, nonprofit organization that uses a computer-based algorithm to match the preferences of fourth-year medical students with the preferences of residency program directors. The NRMP also conducts Fellowship Matches for more than 75 subspecialties through its Specialties Matching Service.

The Match process begins every summer as students enter their fourth year of medical school and apply and interview to numerous residency programs throughout the country offering specialty training in medical and surgical specialties. Medical students and program directors rank programs and applicants, respectively, in order of preference and submit the preference lists to the NRMP.

LUCOM had 151 student-doctors match into 15 different specialties, with 65.6 percent in a primary care specialty, which includes Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychiatry and Internal Medicine/Pediatrics. Other specialties that student-doctors matched into were Emergency Medicine, Anesthesiology, Neurological Surgery, General Surgery, Pathology, Orthopedic Surgery, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (ONMM). These soon-to-be physicians will be serving communities across 32 different states and Canada. The top five states were Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, and Ohio.

McClain Vail, who matched at ChristianaCare in Delaware, said it was a stressful time, but he’s very thankful.

“It’s just a culmination of four years of dedication and hard work,” he said. “I’ve wanted to be a doctor since I was a kid, so it’s full circle that we’re finally here and we finally know where we’re going. It’s easy in the first two years to just think you’re just creeping along, but what you learn in those years really pays off when you’re treating patients. It’s the ‘why’ behind what you’re doing. Just lean on the people who care about you the most and you’ll go far.”

Kyle Neuman, who became LUCOM’s first student-doctor to match in LUCOM’s ONMM (Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine) Residency, was thrilled to be the first student to do so, but he doesn’t want to be the last. The residency is housed within the Collaborative Health Specialty Services (CHSS) office.

“It is special,” he said, noting it follows years of work after being in the military and coming to visit LUCOM nine years ago from California. “My hope is that I’ll be the first of many more to come. This specialty isn’t very well known, and as it grows, more and more people will become aware of it. I’m excited. This is a great opportunity for me, but it’s also great to see the ONMM specialty grow.”