Following a promising national trend, more of Drexel University College of Medicine's soon-to-be graduates are choosing primary care specialties over other areas of medicine.

The students are among 254 graduates who this week were matched with their residency training at the annual Match Day ceremony at the College's Queen Lane campus.

At the traditional event — celebrated on the same day at medical schools around the globe — students simultaneously open sealed envelopes containing the name and location of their residency training, the final leg of their medical education that lasts from three to seven years. Screams of excitement and tears follow.

The most popular field for the group of Drexel graduates is internal medicine, which 62 students chose for residency, followed by pediatrics, with 29 students, and emergency medicine, 21. Nineteen students chose family medicine. Other areas of study include obstetrics-gynecology and radiology, general surgery, orthopedic surgery and ophthalmology.

Nationally, all three areas of primary care saw increases among U.S. medical school seniors this year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The largest jump was in family medicine, up 9 percent this year.