It's a Match

Stacy Strehlow (left) and Grace Mak, both fourth-year medical students at Baylor College of Medicine, share in the excitment of this year's Match Day. Strehlow will enter the obstetrics/gynecology residency program at the University of Southern California. Mak will go to the University Hospital of Cincinnati to train in surgery.

On Thursday, March 16, fourth-year medical students around the country anxiously awaited the envelopes that would reveal the next step in their medical education.

This springtime ritual known as Match Day is conducted through the National Resident Match Program (NRMP), managed by the Association of American Medical Colleges, and is the primary route by which applicants to residency programs obtain training positions at U.S. teaching hospitals. Residency programs can range from three to seven years depending on the specialty.

Michelle and Greg White, married and anxious to be matched to residencies in the same city, hug at the UT-Houston Medical School's ceremony when they learn that Greg matched with the anesthesioogy program at The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston where Michelle had an early match in the ophthalmology residency program. (photo by Ester Fant)

Celebrations were in order at The University of Texas-Houston Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine ceremonies as participating students learned that all of them successfully matched to a residency. At Baylor, 91 percent of the 138 fourth-year medical students matched with one of their top three choices, with 72 percent receiving their first choice. Ninety-two percent of the 204 seniors at UT-Houston received one of their top three choices and 66 percent learned that they matched with their number one selection.

The number of students nationally who will enter a residency program in one of the generalist disciplines - internal medicine, family practice and pediatrics - declined this year. Fifty-one percent, or 6,931 graduating U.S. medical school seniors matched to residencies in one of these disciplines, the lowest generalist specialty Match rate since 1995.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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