WCM-Q students celebrate successful Match Day

Soon-to-graduate students of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) celebrated gaining places on residency programs at some of world’s leading healthcare institutions on another highly successful Match Day for the college.

Match Day is a key turning point in the career of every medical student as they discover where they will continue their training after they have completed their MD degree and graduated.

This year, final-year WCM-Q students met for a ceremony to hear members of their class had gained places on elite programs at renowned institutions in Qatar and the US, including Hamad Medical Corporation, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Case Western/ University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, UC Davis Medical Center, and Johns Hopkins Hospital, among others. The students are due to graduate in May and will join their residency programs in the fall.

WCM-Q achieved a 93 percent match rate for students who applied to U.S. residency programs, a level which far exceeds the average 59 percent match rate for international medical graduates, demonstrating the college’s status as one of the world’s leading destinations for international medical education. Five WCM-Q students matched to Weill Cornell Medicine-affiliated NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital campuses.

Deema Al-Abdullah, who came through WCM-Q’s one-year Foundation Program before joining the college’s Six-Year Medical Program, matched with the orthopedic surgery residency program at Hamad Medical Corporation. She said: “Being able to go to WCM-Q while remaining in my home country was a huge opportunity for me. It has been tough but with hard work anything is possible. I am so thankful for the experiences I have had and I can’t wait to get started at HMC in orthopedic surgery, which is the specialty I have been most passionate about throughout my seven years at WCM-Q.”

The medical specialties the soon-to-be doctors of the Class of 2025 will be pursuing once they receive their MD degrees are anesthesiology, child neurology, dermatology, diagnostic radiology, emergency medicine, family medicine (osteopathic), general surgery, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedic surgery, pediatrics, psychiatry, and preventive and community medicine.

Mohammad Yaghmour matched with the general surgery residency program at Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He said: “Studying at WCM-Q has really been the best of both worlds. You get to access the prestigious education system of the US while being able to stay around your own family, which is everything that I could have asked for. I am very grateful and if I had my time again I would definitely make the same choice to study at WCM-Q.”

Match Day is a highly competitive process, with many thousands of students in the US and all over the world vying for a limited number places through a program administered by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) in Washington, DC. This year was the largest match in the NRMP’s 73-year history, with a record 52,498 registered applicants competing for 43,237 available positions.

Dean of WCM-Q Dr. Javaid Sheikh said: “All of us at WCM-Q are immensely proud of the incredibly high standards reached by our graduating class in their residency matches. They have shown exemplary commitment to the study of medicine and I have no doubt that they will go on to thrive in their new roles. It gives us great joy to see them stepping up to become dedicated physicians working to protect and enhance the health of patients in Qatar and all over the world.”