Feinberg medical students’ excitement and anticipation erupted in a flurry of torn envelopes on March 21 as they discovered where they matched for residency training at this year’s Match Day celebration.
“Match Day signifies the beginning, the start of your career,” said Ateh Fonteh, who matched into general surgery at Thomas Jefferson University. “It also signifies the end of the road with all the people you’ve trained with since the first year.”
On Match Day, an annual tradition held on the third Friday of March, all fourth-year medical students around the country simultaneously learn where they will train as resident physicians for the next three to seven years.
This year, Feinberg students and their families attended the Match Day celebration at the Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center on Northwestern’s Chicago campus.
“This day is really a focal point of a student’s time in medical school,” said Eli Zimmerman, MD, associate dean for student affairs and associate professor in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology’s Division of Stroke and Vascular Neurology. “The energy in the room is electric.”
Residency matches are decided by the National Resident Matching Program, which utilizes an algorithm to pair graduating medical students with open training positions at teaching hospitals across the country. The model considers the top choices of both students and residency programs.
Marianne Green, MD, the Raymond H. Curry, MD, Professor of Medical Education and vice dean for Education, addressed students and their families before the envelopes were opened and matches were revealed.
“Every year, I say this year’s match class is the best we’ve had yet,” Green said. “And this year’s class was no exception.”
This year’s class saw 148 students match in different ACGME-certified residency specialties, with 68 percent of Feinberg’s matching students heading to programs affiliated with a top 25 U.S. medical school.
“Northwestern really fosters self-starters,” said Scott Wu, who matched into emergency medicine at Stanford University. “What I’ve gotten from Northwestern is dedicated resources in the form of faculty mentorship and grants. I’m really glad I took advantage of those resources to get me where I am.”
Some of the most popular specialties students matched into included internal medicine, anesthesiology, neurology and general surgery.
Match Day marks the beginning of a new chapter for Feinberg medical students, many of whom will leave Chicago for training across the country.
“I’m so excited to be training at an awesome program and I’m so excited for a little road trip out to Colorado,” said Lily Bui, who matched into obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado. “I’m overwhelmed with emotion. I think I’m most excited to become a doctor and live out my dreams.”
This year’s Match Day celebration also saw 12 students matched as couples, allowing the pairs to continue their medical education at the same geographic location.
“The couples match for us was an exciting but stressful time and it was great to have someone going through the same thing,” said Frank Yanko, who matched into anesthesiology at The University of California, San Francisco, along with his partner Fabiola Echevarria, who matched into dermatology. “It’s such a level of support that I was able to have. We’re really happy with where we ended up.”
“We’re really looking forward to our future and what’s next in San Francisco,” Echevarria said.
