Home » News

Geisel Students Find Their “Match”

Spirits were high as graduating medical students and their friends and family gathered to celebrate Match Day 2016. One of the most anticipated and exciting days of a medical student’s education, it is the day they discover where they will start their residency training after graduation. This year, 81 Geisel fourth-year medical students were among the 18,187 U.S. allopathic seniors and 17,057 other applicants vying for 30,750 first-year positions in more than 4,800 residency programs across the U.S.

“We are extremely proud of the accomplishments of our students,” says Interim Dean Duane Compton. “Their passion and dedication is inspiring and I’m extremely pleased in seeing their hard work translate into matching with some of the top residency training programs throughout the country.”

Once again, primary care was the most popular specialty choice among Geisel students with 41 choosing residencies in family medicine, internal medicine, or pediatrics. Anesthesiology, orthopedic surgery, psychiatry, and urology were the next most popular specialties. This year, New York, California, New Hampshire and Massachusetts were the most popular destinations.

“Match Day was an incredible confluence of jubilation and nerves. For me, and for so many medical students in Geisel and across the nation, it represents the culmination of four years of medical education and is a beloved harbinger of much-anticipated beginnings as a new doctor,” says Shreya Shrestha. “It was hard not to feel humbled and overjoyed by the outpouring of love and support from fellow students, faculty, administration, and of course, family. It was a beautiful and powerful ceremony.”

Every year, fourth-year medical students submit their top choices for residency programs into a computer program operated by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC). Residency programs also submit lists of applicants in their order of preference. The lists are then compared against each other utilizing the AAMC’s computer algorithm, matching students to their residency program.

 

Scenes from Match Day 2016

Photos by Jon Gilbert Fox