Medical Students Celebrate Match Day 2015
The nervous excitement in the room was palpable on Friday as the School of Medicine Class of 2015 lined up to get their yellow envelopes, each one containing the name of the hospital or program where they will spend their next years training as resident physicians.
Match Day is a yearly rite of passage, the moment when fourth-year medical students across the country simultaneously learn where they will be continuing their training.
The “match” is not made in heaven but through a computer algorithm developed by the National Residency Match Program. Applicants rank their most preferred programs while the programs similarly rank applicants, and the computer attempts to make the best possible match.
Being matched to one’s first or second choice can be a significant triumph for a graduating student since residency at a prominent institution is seen as a crucial launching platform for a successful career. Yet not every student aims for a career as a specialist at one of the country’s top medical centers. Many graduates see their future in primary care serving their community, and their first choice may be a program in a rural hospital.
Of the 177 UCSF School of Medicine graduates matching this year, 72 are headed for primary care tracks in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. For specialty programs, 105 students matched, including 18 to ObGyn, 17 to Emergency Medicine and 10 to Surgery.
As to region, 108 will stay in California, including 47 at UCSF, while the rest will take up residencies in other states, with the largest cohorts going to New York, Massachusetts and Washington State.
Slideshow photos by Mark Wooding
Students celebrate with a commemorative UCSF Match Day glass to mark the occasion.
UCSF students Kaitlyn Krauss and Jacob Mirksy share their match letters. Mirsky said: "Match Day was the most exciting day of medical school for me. It was in many ways the culmination of four years of hard work and a celebration of many more meaningful years in medicine to come."
UCSF's Obstetrics & Gynecology Program Administrator Julie Lindow (left) congratulates student Sirina Keesara on matching into an Ob-Gyn residency program.
Jeyling Chou pops open a champagne bottle to celebrate her "match" with a program in Santa Clara.
Tarann Henderson (left) and Matthew Abad-Santos matched with emergency medicine and surgery programs, respectively. "Match day gave me a sense of anticipation for my time as a resident," said Henderson.
Fourth-year UCSF medical students celebrate their matching with a residency program where they will spend the next four or five years training. Aaron Smith (second from left) was excited to graduating and begin his residency program: "My dream growing up has always been to become a doctor. Now when people call me a doc, I'm actually a doc! This is the fulfillment of what I've always wanted to do."
Fourth-year medical students Theresa Anne Poulos (left) and Michelle Meyer celebrate their acceptance into medical residency programs with friends and champagne at the annual event in Millberry Union on the Parnassus campus where students open their Match Day envelopes at the same time.