Match Day March 19, 2010

Photos

Laughter, tears and shrieks of joy erupted at noon on Thursday, March 18, on the New Brunswick and Camden campuses of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School moments after 150 medical students opened envelopes that contained their futures. Today was Match Day across the United States, the day when thousands of medical students discover where they will spend their years of residency training following their upcoming graduation. Once again, RWJMS’ match rate of 98 percent exceeded the national average of 93.3 percent.

In New Brunswick, there are 101 students graduating in 2010.  Of these, one student withdrew from the NRMP as a result of matching in the Armed Forces Match and 98 matched in a residency of their career choice.
In Camden, there are 49 students graduating in 2010; 48 students matched in a residency of their career choice.

Of the 150 graduating students, 39 matched to programs in New Jersey and of these, 27 students matched to UMDNJ programs.

More

Match Day
A Parent’s Perspective in 2009
By Joyce Nussbaum

Click to see the 2008 Match list, the 2009 Match list.

More 2009 news: Central Jersey.com, UMDNJ, CourierPostOnline, BCTNow

The atmosphere at the Clinical Academic Building of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick was that of excitement and anticipation as students along with families and friends waited for the noon hour to open their envelopes.

On a large screen we could see the Camden Campus same scene, and they could see the room in New Brunswick.

It’s called Match Day because it’s the culmination of four long years of medical school, where getting “matched” with a program in a desired specialty is perceived as paramount to success. It is, after all, where the student doctors will spend the next three to seven years training at their preferred hospital/specialty and what career path they will be able to take.  They have applied to and spent months  interviewing at many programs, and worked very hard to get to this point. By mid-February the students have ranked their choices and so have the programs, which are all sent to a national computer program which then crunches the choices into a Match List for all the programs.

According to the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP), 2009 had the largest match of students to programs in history. The NRMP serves as a venue for matching the program preferences of students with those of residency program directors.

“We saw an across the board increase in applicants this year ... this is likely the result of medical school expansions across the nation,” said Mona M. Signer, executive director of the NRMP.

Dean Amenta, Drs. Seiden,  Dickson, Laumbach, Kiss and Rodgers all spoke briefly to the assembled audience. The assembled were told that nearly 30,000 students nationwide and overseas had applied for residency places and according to Dr. Seiden the students of RWJMS had had a "phenomenal match.”

At midday the envelopes were feverishly opened to shouts of joy. There were tears, hugs and kisses of congratulations  from family members as well as classmates and friends. The alumni provided cider cocktails for the students for the toast after envelopes were opened. 

Overall Match Day was a noisy but exciting experience that I am sure will live with our medical students for many years to come.

Congratulations and Good Luck to all of our students as they go out and about across the country to begin their residency programs.