The Match®—one of the most anticipated and celebrated moments in the life of medical students takes place every year at noon on the third Friday in March. It is the day when graduating medical students across the U.S. simultaneously learn where they will begin their residency training.
This year’s celebration returned to Spaulding Auditorium in the Hopkins Center for the Arts on the Dartmouth campus where Interim Dean Steven D. Leach, MD, welcomed family, friends, and special guests, including Dartmouth Provost Santiago Schnell, PhD, to this important milestone.
Leading off the congratulatory remarks, Leach said, “Match Day is often described as a single moment in time, but it represents something much larger. It reflects years of preparation, growth, resilience, and discovery.”
He noted the day also celebrates Geisel’s community—one that supports medical students with steady guidance and care to shape them into physicians who will serve their patients and communities with compassion.
And no matter how the day unfolds, whether with cheers, laughter, pride or tears, Leach said, “Know this: each of you is ready for what comes next, and each of you carries the values of Geisel in your heart.”
Sharing her thoughts about the deep gratitude medical students feel for those who supported them on their journey, Sonia Chimienti, MD, dean of educational affairs, also spoke about the students’ dedication, passion, and hard work that made this moment possible. She closed with an Irish Blessing wishing them enduring love, laughter, faithful friends, peace, and joy.
Provost Schnell, a mathematician, noted that in mathematics, a matching is a precise thing. “You have two sets—in this case, people and places—and the problem is to pair them so that the right element from one set meets the right element from the other. A perfect matching leaves no one unplaced,” he said, adding, “Medicine asked everything of your son, your daughter, your partner—and you gave what was asked. Today is yours as much as theirs.”
Delivering the class toast, Titilayo (Titi) Mabogunje MED ’26, said, “I take great comfort in knowing as we mark on the map the different programs we’ll be scattered to, we also mark all the places our light will spread—to new hospitals, new communities, new patients. No matter how hard the winds of life blow, I see 96 flames burning bright.”
At noon, Tara K Cunningham, EdD, MS, associate dean of student life, led the countdown for the 94 members of the MD Class of 2026 to open their envelopes. Following shouts of joy and celebration, students took to the stage to share their residency destinations, which spanned 22 states and 21 specialties at some of the most prestigious programs in the U.S., and thanked those who helped them reach this important milestone.
Match Day 2026 Photo Gallery (Photos by Rob Strong):
Primary care, which includes family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics, remained a strong choice among Geisel students, with 30 percent of the class matching into those specialties. Anesthesiology and psychiatry were the next most popular specialties. California, Massachusetts, and New York remained the most popular destinations. And this year, eight students matched into residency programs at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
The Match® that began in 1952, is an intense process where medical students submit their preferences of residency programs via a computer program managed by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) that matches applicants’ preferences. Residency programs also submit lists of applicants in order of preference. The lists are compared against each other utilizing the NRMP’s computer algorithm.
The 2026 Main Match broke records with 48,050 applicants who certified a rank order list vying for a record 44,344 certified residency positions—outpacing last year’s Match. And the top ten specialties, including internal medicine, all saw an increase in residency positions filled.
The 2026 Match list is available here (NetID required).
You can watch a highlight video of the Match Day 2026 event here:
You can watch a video of the Match Day 2026 event here: