It’s a Match
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o, its goal is not the romantic pairing of Match.com or eHarmony, but there’s no question about its life-changing potential. Fourth year medical students at UMDNJ were among the thousands nationwide participating in “the Match” and attending “Match Day” ceremonies, where — with family and friends cheering — they ripped open sealed white envelopes holding critical information about their professional futures.
The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) — established as a not-for-profit organization in 1952 — matches applicants’ preferences for residency programs with the residency program directors’ preferences for those applicants. This year, there were 28,737 applicants for 22,240 positions: 15,242 U.S. medical school seniors (94.2 percent matched successfully); nearly 1,900 osteopathic students (71.6 percent matched); and more than 10,300 graduates of non-U.S. medical schools (45 percent matched).
The match rate for the 297 participating seniors from UMDNJ’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and New Jersey Medical School was more than 97 percent. Many will stay in New Jersey: 46 students matched to residency programs at UMDNJ and 55 matched to other residencies in the state. Stanford, Duke, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Emory, the Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, University of Pennsylvania and New York University are among the other residencies where UMDNJ graduates will go.
From UMDNJ’s School of Osteopathic Medicine, 83 of 85 applicants (97.6 percent) successfully matched to either a DO or an MD residency program: 31 students matched to UMDNJ programs, five to other residencies in NJ, and 47 to programs outside of the state.