COM Fourth-Year Students Match With Residencies on Match Day
TAMHSC
COMOIACommunicationsNews2005 News ArchiveCOM Fourth-Year Students Match With Residencies on Match Day
Students, along with their spouses, children, parents and friends, gathered at the Hilton Garden Inn across the street from Scott & White Hospital in Temple. They milled around, talking and taking pictures, collectively enduring the last hour of waiting before they found out what residency they matched with. The students then gathered to take an official class photo, followed by a brief welcome by Dr. Christopher Colenda, the college dean. Dr. Colenda then announced the student names at random, and they came one by one to receive their sealed, white envelopes from Dr. Kate Fallon, Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Admissions.
Anticipation built as the list of names yet to be called grew shorter and shorter, as the last student to receive his or her envelope would also win the fishbowl placed on a table at the front of the room. But this wasn’t just any fishbowl - this fishbowl was filled with money, contributed by attending faculty and staff, as well as each member of the class. The last name called, and this year’s lucky winner, was Joseph Newman.
And just like that, the waiting was over, as students were instructed to open their envelopes. As they did so, the room filled with noise - everything from shouts of excitement to the popping of champagne corks. Students and their families laughed, hugged and cried together, as they learned the news that officially commences the next chapter in their lives.
The 2005 Match Day saw 100 percent of the 66 fourth-year students match with residencies of their choosing through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). Forty-two percent selected residencies in primary care, with 47 percent staying in-state. Twelve students will complete residencies in pediatrics, followed by eight in family practice, and seven each in internal medicine, OB/GYN and general surgery. Sixteen M4s, or 24 percent of the class, were matched with residencies at Scott & White and will remain in Temple. College of Medicine graduates will move all over the country, with students accepting positions in 23 states and the District of Columbia.
More than 14,700 U.S. medical school seniors applied for residencies this year through the NRMP. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a record number of positions (24,012) were available this year, and 22,221 were filled. Nationwide, 78 percent of students were matched with a residency program and of those, 83 percent were matched with one of their top three choices.
