UR Medical Students Preparing to Meet their Match
Fourth-year medical students here and around the country will find out Friday where they will spend the next several years in training for their first jobs as physicians.
At noon on March 15, during an emotion-filled Match Day event coordinated by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), approximately 100 students from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry will simultaneously open sealed envelopes to learn where they’re headed for their residencies.
The event will take place in the medical school’s Class of ’62 Auditorium with a celebration luncheon to follow in Flaum Atrium.
“Students will be experiencing many, many different emotions, including relief that it’s over, and often, elation that they’ve achieved what they wanted,” said David R. Lambert, M.D., senior associate dean for medical student education. “It’s a very exciting day all over the country. In addition to the students, there’s a lot of anticipation on the part of medical schools and administrators like myself who really want our students to be happy – to get the best match that they want.”
For students, the process begins in the fall of their final year of medical school, when they apply to residency programs across the country in their chosen specialty. Applicants take part in interviews in the fall and early winter, and between mid-January and late February applicants and program directors rank each other in order of preference. Those preference lists are submitted to NRMP, which then uses a computerized mathematical algorithm to match applicants with programs.
The results are sealed and remain confidential until the dramatic opening of the envelopes occurs precisely at noon on Friday.
Those unable to attend the University of Rochester ceremony on Friday can view the livestream and/or watch live coverage on UR Medicine’s Facebook page.
The NRMP is a private, non-profit organization established in 1952 at the request of medical students to provide an orderly and fair mechanism for matching the preferences of applicants with those of residency program directors. The NRMP, American Medical Association (AMA), and Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) are hosting online Match Week (#Match2019) celebrations on Tagboard and YouTube, where match participants and the medical education community can post pictures, videos, and congratulatory messages.
