Members of the MD Class of 2026 are ready to learn their match.

Student Life

MD Class of 2026 Match into Residency Training Programs

Students learn where they will spend the next 3-7 years in specialty training.

At exactly noon EST, on Friday, March 20, more than 15,000 fourth-year medical students from across the country, including 135 at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, opened envelopes to discover where they would be spending the next three to seven years. Gathered in the George Sherman Union’s Metcalf Hall on the Charles River Campus, families and friends celebrated as the soon-to-be MDs matched to residency training programs where they would learn their specialty under the supervision of experienced physicians.  

“When you started, I helped to welcome you to medical school, but now, in what seems like a nanosecond to me, I get to welcome you as a colleague,” said Kristen Hanssen, MD, associate dean of admissions.

Match Day traditionally falls on the third Friday in March, which this year happened to be the first day of spring, a day of new beginnings. Organized by the Student Affairs Office and the Student Match Day Committee, the event was the public part of a process overseen by the National Resident Matching Program, which uses an algorithm to pair students with residency programs according to preference lists developed by the students and the programs.

“I want to wholeheartedly congratulate you, and we are so proud of every one of you,” said Hee-Young Park, PhD, dean ad interim. “The programs that are receiving you are extremely lucky and fortunate to have you.”

Priya Garg, MD, associate dean of medical education, congratulated the class on being the first to fully experience, across their years of education, the new team-based learning curriculum. Feedback from the class spoke of the high value they placed on working collaboratively, she said.

“Medicine is about connections; it’s about the people and support systems that keep you well; it’s about the small moments with your patients and your soon-to-be fellow residents, your colleagues,” said Garg.

“My top two was a coin flip, so I’m very happy,” said Joshua Lepson, who matched into the internal medicine residency program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Lepson was 15 and in the middle of swim practice at Brookline High School when he experienced the worst headache of his life. He’d lost his sense of balance and orientation and had to be helped out of the pool.

Once home, his mother Johanna Klein, MD’94, a primary care physician, recognized something was wrong. He was rushed to the hospital with a brain hemorrhage that affected his motor skills and required years of rehabilitation to recover.

“The sense of my body in space was completely disrupted,” Lepson said. “It was definitely a profound disruption to my life.”

He went from active teen to relearning how to walk. Despite long absences, Lepson kept up with schoolwork. When prospects looked dim, he relied on a will fueled by what he calls “delusional self-belief.”

“I thought, ‘Why can’t I get back to the way I was? Why not me?” he recalled. “I think that shaped the way I view any challenge now.”

Angela Jackson, MD, associate dean of student affairs, counseled the class to be humble and kind.

“You know a lot. You will learn even more. Your skills will grow … But remember to stay humble and teachable,” she said. “Listen to the nurses, to your peers and to the medical students you will be working with and teaching, and not just to those who outrank you.

“Be kind always … to everyone, but especially to yourself,” said Jackson.

It was indeed the kindness, commitment and care of the doctors and healthcare professionals tending to his sister, who has cerebral palsy, that set Jeet Kothari on the path to becoming a doctor. Kothari matched into a pediatric residency at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, University of Michigan Ann Arbor.

“It was one of my top choices, I’m really happy,” said Kothari after opening his envelope.

A first-generation American, his parents immigrated to the US from India. His father is a homebuilder and his mother a pulmonologist. His mother’s dedication to her profession and her patients during the Covid-19 pandemic impressed on him the sense of purpose and sacrifice imbued in a medical career.

Even so, following his second year in medical school, with its rigorous academics, he decided to take a year off and went home to Atlanta where he did some research and worked as an Uber driver. He also reconnected with his sister’s experience and her caregivers.

 “In that process, I rediscovered why I wanted to do medicine and ultimately pediatrics,” he said. “Her physicians really saw her as a person – a human and not the sum of her conditions – and that really made me want to be that type of pediatrician.”

Youssef Younossi is headed into the neurology resident program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.

“I’m over the moon happy,” said Younossi. His parents immigrated from Afghanistan. Growing up with several physicians as family members, Younossi was acquainted with the realities of a medical career but wanted to be sure it was what he wanted before committing to medical school. He enjoyed finance as an undergraduate, but after three years at a private equity firm in Washington, D.C., the joy was gone, and he felt a lack of meaning behind the numbers, Younossi said.

“I didn’t feel like I was making the impact I wanted to make,” he said. “So, I turned back to medicine, because I knew that in medicine you never question your purpose. There’s a lot of tough aspects to it, but I think most people don’t ask ‘What am I doing here?’ It’s very clear what your impact will be.”

Heather Miselis, MAMS’00, MPH’00, MD’04, associate dean of alumni affairs, told the assembled students that as an alumna she, and other alumni, understood the significance of the day, “the mix of emotions, the thrill of discovering our match, the relief of knowing our hard work and commitment to the study of medicine paid off.

“We also remember the uncertainty that accompanies such a significant transition,” she said. “Remember that you are part of a network of engaged and supportive alumni who have walked this path and stand beside you, ready to encourage and guide you.”

Following graduation in May, 44 medical students will be staying in Massachusetts, 17 at BMC. New York (25), California (16), and Rhode Island (8) were the next most popular states. The class matched in a range of programs, with the top specialties being internal medicine (28), surgery (15), neurology (11), pediatrics (11) and emergency medicine (10).

As part of Match Day festivities, Atul Gawande, MD, was announced as convocation speaker for the MD/PhD ceremony. The former assistant administrator for global health at USAID, Gawande is the author of four bestselling books, including Being Mortal, and is a professor of surgery Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Also announced was that the MD Class of 2026 selected Amos Mwaura (CAMED’26) as a student speaker.

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