Press Release

Date: 03-15-13
Name: Patti Verbanas
Phone: 9739727273
Email: verbanpa@umdnj.edu

Years in the Making, Medical Student Dreams Are Realized

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NEWARK – Four years ago, hundreds of applicants waited anxiously for the news they had waited years to receive – that they had been accepted into one of the three medical schools at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). At noon today, following what was arguably the most exciting, if not nerve wracking, few minutes of their lives, more than 460 graduating UMDNJ medical students learned the destinations that await them following four years devoted to studying and to honing their clinical skills in preparation for careers as physicians. During “Match Day” celebrations at UMDNJ campuses in Newark, New Brunswick, Camden and Stratford, the UMDNJ students joined nearly 29,000 other medical students across the country in finding out where they had matched for internships and residencies beginning this summer -- information contained in sealed envelopes that they opened simultaneously.

Again this year, the graduating students from UMDNJ’s New Jersey Medical School, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and School of Osteopathic Medicine were extraordinarily successful in securing residency positions. Overall, 462 UMDNJ students, 97.3 percent of those who applied, succeeded in securing post-graduate positions. Today’s results include students from the School of Osteopathic Medicine who participated in February’s osteopathic match program and students who matched to residency programs related to their military service.

“Today marks an important day in the lives of our graduating medical students,” said Denise V. Rodgers, MD, President (Interim) of UMDNJ. “An overarching goal in all three of our medical schools is to teach students more than the science of medicine. It is our goal to train physicians who will be compassionate individuals who are highly skilled in the art of healing. Their success on Match Day echoes more than their academic achievement at UMDNJ. It speaks loudly and clearly to their dedication to learning and the depth of their concern for their fellow human beings. It is our hope that they will maintain a commitment to providing high quality, holistic healthcare to all throughout their careers. We wish them well”

Following graduation in May, the newly minted physicians will enter intern and residency programs across the nation. Of those graduating physicians, 133 will continue their training in New Jersey based residency programs, including 97 who matched to UMDNJ programs. UMDNJ students also matched to such prestigious out-of-state programs as Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Duke University.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is New Jersey’s only health sciences university with more than 6,000 students on five campuses attending three medical schools, the State’s only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and New Jersey’s only school of public health. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, which provides a continuum of health care services with multiple locations throughout the state.