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Joyful shouts filled the lobby of the New Research Building on the Harvard Medical School campus as 164 graduating students tore open the envelopes of long-awaited letters containing the momentous news of where they will begin their clinical training.
Dean for Students Fidencio Saldaña had just led a countdown to noon and rung the bell signifying that students could open their Match Day letters.
Faculty, family, and friends joined the students in celebrating the next steps in their careers as physicians.
Naeema Hopkins-Kotb, who matched in obstetrics/gynecology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Mass General, was joined by her mother, Stacy Hopkins, who traveled from the Philippines; her brother Hakeem Hopkins-Kotb, who was visiting from Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and her friend Lily Dukes, who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“I can only imagine this is what parents feel like when their children go off to the Olympics, win an Oscar, or fly to the moon,” said Dukes.
“This is a team win,” said Hakeem Hopkins-Kotb. “I’ve always believed in Naeema and what she can accomplish.”
Gilberto Gonzalez, an HMS alumnus and HMS professor of radiology at Mass General, said he was proud of his daughter Susan Gonzalez, who matched in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital.
“I’m so thrilled she’s carrying on the tradition, and I hope she becomes a great doctor, loves it, and is passionate about it,” he said. “It would be great if she goes into academic medicine too.”
“Growing up with my dad, I saw that medicine is a very rewarding career,” said Susan Gonzalez. “As a student here, I’ve seen how much things have changed for the better, that medicine is becoming more inclusive. I’m excited to work towards health equity for all.”
William Oles matched in internal medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He’s excited to launch his career there with his partner, Juanna Xie, a graduating student at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, who was also accepted into a program at UCSF. Xie celebrated her placement earlier in the year with her classmates.
“I matched in my first choice,” said Michael Liu, who will be going into internal medicine and primary care at Brigham and Women’s. “We need primary care doctors more than ever. Primary care is the best way to tackle problems of inequity in the health care system.”
His fiancée, Dylan Hass, who works in downtown Boston, was pleased Liu will be staying in town. “It’s exciting to see this whole plan come to fruition,” Hass said.
Top specialties and locations
The most popular specialty was internal medicine, which 51 students selected. Nine of those students matched in primary care-specific residencies and one is entering a community health-specific program. In other primary care-related fields, one student matched in family practice, two in medicine/pediatrics, six in pediatrics, and six in obstetrics/gynecology.
This year, 78 students placed at an HMS-affiliated training, internship, or residency program, while the rest placed in 77 programs across the country.
Some students are entering specialty care fields such as otolaryngology, interventional radiology, pathology, and child neurology. Surgical specialties include general, plastic, and thoracic surgery, as well as neurosurgery. Three students matched in oral and maxillofacial surgery programs. Nine will pursue nonclinical training.
Joyce Kang said she is excited about the next step in her career, where she will bring the work that she did in bioinformatics and genomics as a PhD student to her specialty match in dermatology at Memorial Sloan Kettering and the University of Pennsylvania.
Rahul Gupta spent time reminiscing as he opened another letter, one he had written to himself in 2017 when he embarked on seeking his PhD in statistical genetics and his MD at HMS.
“There are so many emotions and memories from this whole eight years that we’ve been training,” he said. Gupta will be doing an internal medicine residency at Mass General.
Students entering orthopedic surgery residencies congratulated one another. Alec Griswold is heading off to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Arinze Nwagbata will be at Stanford Medicine, and John Lee will stay local at Brigham and Women’s.
“It’s been a long five years — the realization of the work we put in and also realizing the work we will put in for the next five years of residency,” said Nwagbata. “I’m very thankful.”
Residency matching explained in brief
Similar scenes happened at medical schools across the country on March 21 with approximately 47,208 graduating medical students matched with 43,237 positions in 6,626 training programs.
An annual tradition, Match Day is celebrated on the third Friday in March with students learning the results at noon ET.
The National Resident Matching Program administers the match. During the year, students submit their applications and interview at hospitals across the United States. The hospitals rank the candidates they interviewed, and the students rank their top program choices. Then, the NRMP’s computer algorithm places students in residency spots, ensuring a fair and orderly process.
Ronald Arky, the Daniel D. Federman, M.D. Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at HMS, recalled his own experience when he graduated from medical school in 1955 as he watched this year’s celebration.
Arky was among the first students to experience the Match process when it was instituted. He said he was part of a group that tested the system before it was required of all medical students in 1956.
Since then, Arky has shepherded generations of students through medical school. His first year advising students at HMS during the Match process was 1963.
“It’s always great. And to see the happiness now that they know where they are going and what they are going to be doing,” said Arky.
Next: graduation
The Class of 2025 will come together again on May 29 in caps and gowns to celebrate graduation. Their careers officially launch in June or July, when most residency and training programs begin.
Images: Steve Lipofsky
