On Monday, March 17, Joshua Gepner MD'08 nervously checked his e-mail for the decision that would impact the next several years of his life. At the top of his inbox was the notification he'd been waiting for: an e-mail from the National Resident Matching Program. He had been successfully matched with a medical residency program.
NRMP, the not-for-profit organization that runs the competitive match process that each year pairs medical students nationwide with medical residency programs, announced on March 20 that this year's success rate in the matching process nationwide was the highest in the last 30 years.
This year's process saw the highest number of residency program applicants in the history of NRMP - 28,737 students vied for one of 22,240 first-year residency positions. Of these applicants, 15,242 were U.S. medical school seniors, with other applicants coming from international schools, said Philip Szenas, director of research for NRMP.
Of the U.S. seniors, 94.2 percent were successfully matched with residency programs, and 84.6 percent of them were matched with one of their top three residency programs, according to an NRMP press release. Although this is the highest rate of matching in three decades, it is only up a fraction of a percent from last year, Szenas said.
Alpert Medical School was no exception to this year's matching success. Sixty-nine students from this year's graduating class of 77 were matched, according to the medical school's online match list. After leaving College Hill when they graduate in May, they will disperse across the country - from Florida, to Oregon - or stay put in Rhode Island. Not all members of the class chose to apply for a residency through the NRMP.
"My recall is that Brown always does well in the match," Julianne Ip '75 MD'78, associate dean of medicine and a medical student adviser, wrote in an e-mail. "I was personally thrilled for every one of my advisees and for the entire class," she said. "They all seemed extremely pleased and I know I was extremely proud of them."
Associate Dean of Medicine Philip Gruppuso said Brown's rate of matching is much higher than many other institutions nationwide.
Gepner, perhaps like others who were matched, waited on pins and needles for three days after receiving the preliminary e-mail from NRMP in order to find out exactly which program he was matched with. On March 20, matching ceremonies were held on College Hill and nationwide. On that day, in front of local media, friends and family, Brown med students opened their letters to find out where they would be living for the next three to seven years.
Gepner, who will be doing his residency at Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine, said he was very pleased. Although Oregon was his first choice, Gepner said he ranked the program second because he didn't think he would get in, so he instead put as his top choice a program he thought he was more likely to get into.
"To be completely honest, I had thought the (Oregon) program was too good for me," Gepner said.
"It's always kind of an emotional, stressful experience," said Liza Aguiar MD'08, who was matched with Rhode Island Hospital, about "match day." Her classmate, David Ain MD'08, agreed. "I think the whole process can be pretty nerve-wracking," he said.
The NRMP uses a computer program to match students to programs depending on how the student and the residency program ranked each other after an application and interview process, Szenas said.
For local Rhode Island programs, this year has the been the most successful match-up in six or seven years in terms of getting their desired applicants, said Dominick Tammaro, associate residency director for the internal medicine programs at Rhode Island Hospital and co-director of the medicine pediatrics program at Alpert. Nine med school seniors will be completing their residencies at local hospitals, according to the Med School's online match list. "We always have some degree of partiality to our own students," Tammaro said.
Although Brown does well each year in terms of matching, not everyone leaves the matching process happy. Though it's rare not to match, Gruppuso said, a few students each year do not.
The reason some students don't match is usually because they are in a competitive specialty or they want a very specific geographic location, Gruppuso said.
Those students who aren't matched often take part in what is called "the scramble," Szenas said. According to the press release on NRMP's site, unmatched residents are sent lists of residency programs that still have vacant spots, and students can then contact the program directly in order to discuss placement in those open positions.
Aguiar, Ain and Gepner were all pleased with the results of their match. Both Aguiar and Ain were matched with their first choice programs. Aguiar said that it seemed their peers were also satisfied with the results.
"From what I saw on match day, everyone was pretty happy," she said. "I think our class did pretty well this year."
