TEST: Match Day gallery

March 23, 2021

One of the hardest parts of the past year for soon-to-be graduates of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis was not being on front lines as doctors during the global pandemic.

But that will soon change. On Friday, March 19, the medical school’s 105 physicians-to-be participated in celebrations for Match Day, the momentous milestone when U.S. medical students learn where they will train as residents after graduation.

Preethi Kesavan told her classmates: “I actually never open any test results,” so even though it wasn’t technically an exam score, she had her husband do the envelope-opening honors. “I’m going home,” said Kesavan, who will specialize in diagnostic radiology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Like her peers, class president Connie Gan said she is eager to help relieve some of the pressure burdening health-care workers since the pandemic began a year ago. “Huge stress has been placed on many health-care providers with little reprieve,” said Gan, who matched in general surgery at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in Portland. “As a medical student, it has been tough to observe from the sidelines and not fully contribute and help alleviate the workload. I am looking forward to playing my role by taking care of sick patients soon.”

Many students said the pandemic directly influenced their career paths. “It strengthened my interest in becoming a physician-scientist,” said Jared Goodman, who matched in neurology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “I have been amazed by the rapid research response. Translating genome sequence to vaccine in less than a year is a wondrous feat of collaboration among scientists, physicians and patient volunteers.”

Many of the university’s multitalented medical students will stay in St. Louis for residencies at Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. Others matched at hospitals throughout the United States, including Massachusetts General Hospital, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston; University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center; Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore; Yale New Haven Hospital; Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.; New York University Grossman School of Medicine; University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston; the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; the Cleveland Clinic; New York-Presbyterian Hospital, affiliated with both Columbia University and Cornell University; and hospitals affiliated with Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

Highlights involving this year’s soon-to-graduate class:

Of the 105 matched students, 25 will begin their training at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and three at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Besides Missouri, the states where the greatest number of School of Medicine students will train include California, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Altogether, this year’s class will be represented at hospitals in 22 states and Washington, D.C.
With 25 students, internal medicine reigns as the most popular specialty for residency training.
The next largest group of students — 24— will train in surgery, including six in orthopedic and five in neurological, and four each in plastic and general.
Overall, the National Resident Matching Program recorded 48,700 applicants registered and 38,106 positions offered, the largest ever. Since 1952, the National Resident Matching Program has acted as a clearinghouse to fill positions at U.S. teaching hospitals, pairing the preferences of graduating medical students with those of residency program directors. Based on ranked lists provided by both groups, a match is generated by a computerized mathematical algorithm.