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Match Day—A Medical School Milestone

On Match Day, thousands of fourth-year medical students across the U.S simultaneously learn where they will start their residency training after graduation. For medical students, the annual event is one of the most anticipated, exciting, and emotional days of their medical education. And each medical school has its own tradition of handing out the all-important letters to relay the news.

This year, in compliance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding social gatherings to limit the spread of COVID-19, many medical schools across the U.S., including Geisel, have changed their Match Day celebration. For Geisel, today’s Match was delivered at noon via email from the school’s Clinical Education Office to our 88 graduating medical students.

“This year’s Match Day celebration was bittersweet as we weren’t able to celebrate our news all together in our originally shared vision,” says Myriam Taibi ’20. “And yet we flourished—from the sweet social media posts, texts, and videos by classmates, we were able to tune in online and celebrate each other’s results virtually together. I am so excited for everyone’s next adventure.”

“We all would have preferred to celebrate with our graduating students in a more formal manner.  Unfortunately, this is not the Match Day celebration that any of us had anticipated, but it does not diminish the wonderful accomplishments of the Class of 2020,” says Duane Compton, PhD, dean of the Geisel School of Medicine. “These students have put in a tremendous amount of work to reach this day, and it is exciting to see them matching into some of the top residency training programs in the country. I’d also like to recognize our faculty and staff who dedicate themselves to helping our students reach their goals."

Medical students submit their residency choices via a computer program managed by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP)—residency programs also submit lists of applicants in order of preference. The lists are then compared against each other utilizing the NRMP’s computer algorithm, matching students to their residency program. This year, a record number—40,084 U.S. and international medical students and graduates—vied for 37,256 residency positions, the most ever offered since the first national Match in 1952.

Primary care was the most popular specialty choice among Geisel students, which includes residencies in family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine-primary care, and pediatrics. General surgery and emergency medicine were the next most popular specialties. This year, California, Massachusetts, and New York remained the most popular destinations.

Members of Geisel’s class of 2020 will start their residencies at some of the most prestigious programs in the U.S., including Harvard/Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Yale-New Haven Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, University of Michigan Medical Center, Duke University Medical Center, and others.

Congratulations to the Class of 2020! Check out our slideshow video highlighting where the class matched.