Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine Has First ‘Match Day’

The first expected graduates from the inaugural class find their residencies, in time-honored tradition, but a first for the medical school

The envelopes are open, and the first students from the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine have discovered where they will have their residencies to start their medical careers. These first members of the 2018 cohort are on track to complete their three-year medical education at the School, with the first-ever commencement planned for June 3.

The students from the inaugural class are among an estimated 44,000 who found out today where they will “match” through the National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP).

In the COVID-19 era, they were unable to gather in person, due to social-distancing recommendations.

Instead, the students today celebrated Match Day® by tearing open their envelopes – then toasting one another from afar, via video conferencing, with champagne flutes sent to them by the School.

“Match Day is cause for great excitement every year as the graduating class discovers where they will begin training in their chosen medical specialty,” said Bonita Stanton, M.D., the School’s founding dean. “But words cannot adequately describe the excitement of a medical school’s first Match Day and a Match Day for those students graduating after completing a three-year curriculum rather than the traditional four-year curriculum. Every graduating class is special – but this class feels especially special – although I am pretty sure that next year’s class will also feel ‘especially special’ as well!”

“We have so many talented students coming through our School,” said Jeffrey Boscamp, M.D., vice dean of the medical school and a professor of pediatrics.  “We cannot wait to see what their careers will do for our health network – and the medical world at large.”

According to the NRMP, the Program is a private, non-profit organization established in 1952 at the request of medical students to provide an orderly and fair mechanism for matching the preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions with the preferences of residency program directors. Each year “the Match” encompasses more than 44,000 registrants and 37,000 positions through its Main Residency Match, along with Fellowship Matches for more than 65 subspecialties through its Specialties Matching Service (SMS).

The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine students still have to graduate. But their “matches” are across a variety of specialties including Anesthesiology and Internal Medicine, among others, where they are expected to spend their residencies to finish their medical training.

The new residents are a subset of the inaugural class who will graduate as part of the three-year option available through the School. The other students in the class have opted for a four-year track to their studies.