Fourth-year Alpert Medical School students gathered with faculty, administration, families and friends in Andrews Dining Hall Thursday at noon to participate in the annual medical event Match Day, when students find out where they will be working for the next few years.
Every year, medical students matched into residency programs gather at a reception and are given the results of their application to the National Resident Matching Program. These results tell students at what hospital they will be working and in what specialty they will be training for the next several years.
The event provided food and desserts — including champagne with strawberries — as well as a jazz band featuring Associate Dean of Medical Education Philip Gruppuso.
Match Day is a "big deal," said Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing.
The students gathered into lines and waited until they were given the envelopes containing the decisions.
This decision determines "where you're living, where you're training," said Judy Lin MD'10.
As the students received their envelopes, their anxiety soon dissipated and was replaced by cheers, claps, hugs and high fives. Not long after, many students were already on their cell phones to inform family and friends who could not be at the event about their results.
"The match was really good this year," Wing said. Most students were placed into their first choice programs, he added.
"I'm really excited," said Peter Davis MD'10, who was placed into a residency in pediatric neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which he said was his first choice.
"I'm elated," said James Miller MD'10. "The majority of the class matched where they want to be," he added.
Ninety-four students were placed into residencies in different states across the country and in Canada. Out of this number, 16 were matched into hospitals affiliated with the Med School.
Mary Sutter MD'10 expressed excitement about staying at Brown for a residency in family medicine at Memorial Hospital, addingthat a lot of great students would be remaining in Providence with her.
"Our class did awesome," Sutter said.
"It's definitely a relief," said Lawrence Yu '06 MD'10. "It's nice to get everything over with," he added.
The most popular specialty into which students were matched was internal medicine, with 15 matching into that field. This number does not include those who will have a preliminary residency in medicine before moving on to a specialty. The next most popular was pediatrics, with 14 matches. Other common specialties included emergency medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, radiology, psychiatry and family medicine.
"There are no real metrics to compare ourselves to other schools," Associate Dean Gruppuso wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "We look at the proportion of our students who are pleased, and it is very high — even though many of our students are trying to match in highly competitive specialties and programs."
The magnitude of the excitement in the room became apparent when Wing stood up at the podium. People were so thrilled that he could not quiet them down. When Wing was able to gain the attention of the room, he expressed his congratulations to the class of 2010.
"The match this year was spectacular," he said. This class was "one of the best that has ever gone through Alpert Medical School," he added.
"Congratulations on the match, congratulations on your work," Wing said as he raised a glass to toast the class.
