Every year on Match Day, the third Friday in March, thousands of fourth-year medical students across the U.S. simultaneously learn where they will spend their residency training, marking a career defining milestone. Without residency training medical school graduates cannot become licensed physicians.
Graduating medical students gathered in person with family and friends on Dartmouth’s campus for the eagerly anticipated and emotional annual event—one of the most celebrated and important days of their medical education. On March 18, for the first time since 2019, Geisel Dean Duane Compton, PhD, noted his pleasure at being able to be with everyone celebrating Match Day together.
In his welcoming remarks, Compton said, “Today represents one of your most important milestones and achievements. On behalf of all the faculty and staff who have been there to support you, challenge you, and nurture you, I want to be the first to formally congratulate you and tell you that we are exceedingly proud to share this moment with you.
“I am grateful to each of you and humbled by your dedication to the lives of others through medicine and healthcare, and for your commitment and contributions to our small community. Your career path will take you far beyond the borders of our small town, you will soon find out how far; we are excited to learn where you are going and the impact you will have on the communities you will be serving.”
Richard Pace ’22, amid cheers from his classmates, said in celebrating this significant milestone, we are also celebrating those who, “helped us get here—family, friends, loved ones … along with everyone in the Geisel community, including physicians and nurses. We are also celebrating years of hard work, sacrifice, struggles, our own resilience, and the lifelong friendships we have made. And finally, we are celebrating our potential to heal others, to ease their burdens, and to be a force for good.”
Moments later, precisely at noon, shouts of joy erupted when 98 Geisel students, including three in the military match, opened their envelopes and learned where they will begin residency. Later, students took to the stage to share their residency destinations and thank those that helped them reach this important milestone in their medical careers.
The Match® is an intense process where 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, 47,675 U.S. and international medical students and graduates were registered in the main residency match, down 2.1 percent from last year, while 42,549 vied for 39,205 residency positions, the largest number on record since the first national Match® 70 years ago. Along with a record high of 6,087 programs.
Primary care, which includes residencies in family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine-primary care, and pediatrics, remained strong among Geisel students. General surgery and psychiatry were the next most popular specialties. California, Massachusetts, and New York remained the most popular destinations.
Members of Geisel’s class of 2022 will begin their residencies at some of the most prestigious programs in the U.S., including Massachusetts General Hospital, Yale-New Haven Hospital, and UCLA Medical Center, among others.
Congratulations to the Class of 2022! If you missed the excitement, you can watch the full Match Day 2022 event video below.
