The Envelope Please: MD Students Match to Their Future
Fourth-year medical student Natalie Nanez admitted to being nervous in the days leading up to Match Day, held in mid-March, when medical students across the country open envelopes at noon EDT to find out where they will go for their residency training.
“I’m nervous, but also pretty excited. I feel like it’s the culmination of so many things,” said Nanez.
Her envelope revealed she will be a resident at the Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics, her first choice, specializing in pediatrics. Nanez could finally celebrate with her parents, José and Maria, who had sacrificed much to get her to this point.
Both parents immigrated to the U.S. from Columbia 30 years ago and her father worked as a janitor, her mother as a housekeeper.
“They always said they wanted me to be educated and to go further than they were able to with the resources that they had,” Nanez said. “I saw how hard they worked, and it seemed like it was all done for me, to put me into this position. I’m eternally grateful to them.”
“She has worked hard,” said Maria Nanez. “I’m so proud of her. I’m so happy.”
Match Day is the product of an algorithm that matches fourth-year medical students to residency programs based on preference lists developed by both the students and the programs. Students will spend the next few years diagnosing, managing care and treating patients in their specialty under the supervision of experienced physicians.
It was a medical emergency involving her father that set Nanez on the path to medical school when a potentially fatal heart condition went undiagnosed by their primary care physician until her mother found a physician from Columbia who attended their church.
“Just being able to express themselves so freely and she knew his language, she knew the culture,” said Nanez, who can speak Spanish and would like to be physician who can bridge communication and cultural gaps for her patients.
In the faculty speeches leading up to the opening of the envelopes, Associate Dean of Student Affairs Angela Jackson, MD, assured students they were ready to be doctors, but that there will be times when they will feel they are not ready.
“You’re not going to feel like you’re ready but the one thing you know is that, while you don’t know all the answers, you know the questions to ask. You know how to find the information and you know how to learn,” said Jackson.
Priya Garg, MD, associate dean of medical education, recalled the fractured learning landscape that the Class of ’24 had to navigate as the first entering class to deal with the realities of a pandemic.
“Getting to know each other and the faculty was so much harder. Despite that, over the four years, you have created deep and meaningful friendships with your peers and memories that you will continue to look back on throughout your career,” said Garg.
“Some of you in the next four or more years are going to rely on your skills and competence to manage the most complex medical problems. Some of you are going to bring your deep empathy and ability to connect to help soothe patients in their most anxious moments. Some are going to dedicate yourselves to advocating for the most marginalized among us,” said Kristin Goodell, MD, associate dean of admissions.
It was a two-year deviation from the traditional path to medical school that brought Darienne Madlala to Match Day. Born in South Africa, she moved to Maryland with her mother and three sisters in her junior year of high school. Her mother was a medical anthropologist and her father, who passed away last year, worked in small business development for the South African government.
Madlala followed in her mother’s footsteps, joining the Peace Corps after her graduation from Amherst College and spent two years in Gambia at a women’s health clinic, where she worked with women who had experienced the trauma of genital mutilation.
“That really got me interested in women’s health,” said Madlala who matched in obstetrics & gynecology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
“I know that their patient population is very similar to BMC in that they treat a lot of substance abuse in pregnancy and that’s something I wanted to continue to address in residency,” said Madlala.
“Regardless of where you go to residency, you already carry an excellent education with a strong foundation of knowledge and skills to guide you in your path as physicians,” said Heather Miselis, MD, assistant dean of alumni affairs and director of student education for the department of family medicine.
Medical School Dean and BUMC Provost Karen Antman, MD, told students they had an unconventional medical education in their first year, but that it only made them better physicians.
“In addition to medicine, you learned flexibility and creativity, important skills in medicine, as well as disaster management, up close and personal,” said Antman. “You will grow and thrive wherever you are planted.”
Like other couples who try to match into residencies at the same hospital or city, fourth-year students Arturo Toro and Frances Rodriguez Lara had an additional worry coming into Match Day.
“Our biggest concern was not matching together,” said Rodriguez Lara, but the envelopes revealed they were both accepted into residency programs at Boston Medical Center, Toro in anesthesiology and Rodriguez Lara in otolaryngology.
Nine years ago, Rodriguez Lara relocated to Florida from Cuba with parents Oriel Rodriguez and Yadira Lara. Oriel Rodriguez said their daughter was driven to succeed.
“We arrived here with dreams and nothing but dreams but the minute we arrived here, she already had her goals ready, and she knew exactly what she wanted to do and she worked so hard for them,” he said.
Akshay Ravandur matched in diagnostic radiology at his number one choice Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. But he had his doubts he’d ever make it to Match Day as he navigated the fourth year of hospital rotations while applying for residencies and passing the required exams.
“This day seems like it’s real now,” Ravandur said.
Amanda Dalmau is from San Juan, Puerto Rico, she said the social justice aspect of the medical school and its teaching affiliate Boston Medical Center drew her to BU.
“And that’s why I wanted to stay,” said Dalmau who will be a pediatric resident at Boston Children’s Hospital. “I was very nervous, but I’m very happy now.”
Following graduation in May, 38 medical students will be staying in Massachusetts, including 15 at BMC.
New York (24), Pennsylvania (14), California (11), and Florida (8)) were the next most popular states. The class matched in a range of programs, with the top specialties being internal medicine (26), surgery (23), pediatrics (15), family medicine (13) and anesthesiology (12).
The event was organized by the Student Affairs and a Student Match Day Committee. During the festivities Monica Bharel, MD, MPH, a senior advisor to the Mayor of Boston and commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health from 2015 until 2021, was announced as the convocation speaker for the MD/PhD ceremony, and the MD Class of 2024 selected Bridgette Merriman as their student speaker.