New York Medical College Seniors Have Virtual Match Day

From New York Medical College

VALHALLA, NY — Seniors at New York Medical College's School of Medicine participated this month in the annual exercise, along with graduating medical students across the nation, to learn where they were matched to medical residency programs

Although it was not the traditional in-person envelope opening ceremony, students learned where they matched online, and a livestream of the event allowed family and friends to join in the celebration. Conducted annually by the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP), the Match uses a computer algorithm to match the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency programs, to fill the available training positions at U.S. teaching hospitals.

“Match Day marks a major step forward in the medical education of our students as they learn where they will continue on the path to becoming physicians,” said Jerry L. Nadler, M.D., MACP, FAHA, FACE, dean of the School of Medicine and professor of medicine and pharmacology. “We are very proud of our students and the hard work they have demonstrated these last four years resulting in securing this impressive quality and breadth of residencies. This is especially meaningful given the challenges our students have had to endure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Class of 2021 should be offered deep congratulations for their hard work, dedication and resiliency.”

Some challenges posed by the coronavirus in the already intense residency application process included:

• COVID-19 shut down away rotations and weekslong stints at programs. These rotations often serve as auditions.
• Because travel was unnecessary, competitive students accepted more invitations to interview than usual, making certain programs more competitive than usual.
• The National Resident Matching Program saw the largest amount of submitted program choices ever, corresponding with the increased interest in careers in the medical field this past year, making the matching process more complicated and competitive.

This year, NYMC medical students, who will be training in 27 states at 104 different institutions, were matched at several of NYMC’s local affiliate hospitals, Westchester Medical Center Health Network’s Westchester Medical Center, NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan, NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, Lenox Hill Hospital, Greenwich Hospital and Phelps Hospital.

NYMC graduates matched at many well-known top-tier research-intensive academic medical centers as well, including three hospitals of the Harvard Medical School System (Brigham and Women’s, Massachusetts General, Beth Israel-Deaconess), Washington University-St. Louis, Brown, Cleveland Clinic, Duke, Emory, Mount Sinai, Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, Montefiore, New York Presbyterian-Columbia, Weil Cornell, New York University, Stanford, Northwestern, University of Washington-Seattle, University of California San Francisco, UCLA, Vanderbilt, and Yale.

SOM students were matched to residency programs in internal medicine, pediatrics, anesthesiology, general surgery, emergency medicine, psychiatry, family medicine and radiology, as well as in specialty programs such as neurology, neurological surgery, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, dermatology, ophthalmology, radiation oncology, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and plastic surgery.

The top career choices for the NYMC School of Medicine Class of 2021 were internal medicine, emergency medicine, pediatrics, general surgery, family medicine, anesthesiology, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology and radiology.

“We are so proud of our students who have worked very hard for this day,” said Jane M. Ponterio, M.D. ’81, senior associate dean for student affairs. “All of us here at NYMC share in our students' excitement and we congratulate them on this wonderful accomplishment. Today we celebrate not only where are students will be going after graduation, but also the outstanding physicians they will become. The NYMC School of Medicine has a long tradition of students matching in excellent training programs and this year is no exception.”

In all, 201 students in the Class of 2021 matched with residency programs in 27 states. 49 percent of those students matched with hospitals in New York state (16 matched with Westchester Medical Center). The top 6 states for matches were NY, CA, MA, NJ, PA and CT. The top matched specialties were Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, Anesthesiology, General Surgery, and Family Medicine. Additionally, two students were matched with programs in the military.