Match Day 2015: BUSM Fourth-Year Students Find Out Where They’re Headed

On Friday, March 20, BUSM fourth-year medical students joined their peers across the nation, counting down the clock until noon when they opened their envelopes to learn where they will be heading to next. Match Day is a nationwide annual rite of passage for graduating medical students when they are matched with residencies–the final stage of their formal medical education.

“This is really much more exciting than graduation,” said John Polk, MD, assistant dean of student affairs. “You know you’re going to graduate, right, but you don’t know where you’re going to spend the next three, four, five, six, seven years of your life.”

BUSM students matched in residencies across the country, with the majority concentrated in five states: 44 staying in Massachusetts, 32 to California, 24 to New York, six to Illinois (mostly Chicago), and six to Rhode Island (primarily Brown). Learn more about the results.

The Class of 2015 matched in a range of programs:

• 23 percent: internal medicine
• 12 percent: pediatrics
• 10 percent: emergency medicine (an unusually high percent)
• 8 percent: family medicine
• 8 percent: general surgery
• 20 students: Boston Medical Center
• 3 students: Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics (which pairs BMC and Boston Children’s Hospital)

Faculty and students gathered in the Hiebert Lounge to celebrate. Students pinned their new locations on a map shared their matches at a photo booth which could be viewed on Facebook.