Students celebrate Match Day 2020
On Friday, March 20, graduating medical students at Eastern Virginia Medical School joined medical students across the nation in celebrating Match Day by learning where in the country they will spend their residences.
Due to public health concerns regarding COVID-19, the traditional ceremony wasn’t held. But students were able to pick up their Match Day envelopes at a drive-through at Smith-Rogers Hall, with a few faculty members and EVMS President Richard V. Homan, MD — at an appropriate distance away— cheering for them.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, nearly 35,000 U.S. and international applicants matched to residency training positions at the nation's teaching hospitals this year. A total of 146 students participated in Match Day and are headed to several of the nation’s most prestigious residency programs, including the Mayo Clinic.
See the Match Day 2020 List of where EVMS students matched.
“This is an exciting time in the lives of our medical students,” says Ronald Flenner, MD (MD ’89) Vice Dean of Academic Affairs. “We are very proud of the work and dedication our students have put forth to get to this point in their medical school careers.”
EVMS by the numbers:
- Students matched in 15 specialties
- 41% of the class is pursuing primary care
- 30% of the class will stay in Virginia for at least their first year of residency
- The top represented specialties were internal medicine at 18%, pediatrics at 11%, surgery at 13%, emergency medicine at 13% and family medicine at 7%.
The matching process is organized by the National Resident Matching Program, which uses an algorithm to pair medical students and residency programs. Fourth-year medical students across the nation apply to residency positions in their chosen specialty — such as pediatrics or surgery. After hitting the interview trail, the students rank the programs according to those they would prefer to join. The programs, in turn, rank the students they feel will make the best fit. Nearly all applicants learned the results of that ranking process at the same time.
See all of the photos from the Match Day drive-through.