INDIANAPOLIS — Today is Match Day — better known as The Match by medical students. Nationwide, fourth-year medical students will find out where they will receive their residency training, the final phase of their training to practice medicine.
Indiana University School of Medicine medical students will gather with family and friends for the noon event at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Campus Center, Room 450.
The day symbolizes the end of the all-consuming four years of medical school and the beginning of specialized residency training in the area the student selected for a career path. It is a time for reflection, a time for contemplation and a time to celebrate. Tradition has it that each graduating class selects a theme and dress in costume for the Match Day gathering. This year, the theme is St. Patrick’s Day so some colorful and creative getups can be expected.
This year, 304 fourth-year IU medical students will participate in the National Resident Match Day, which coordinates thousands of medical students’ and U.S. hospital programs’ preferences. During their senior year, students apply and interview for their preferred residency positions throughout the nation; their selection is administered through the National Resident Matching Program of the Association of American Medical Colleges
“Over the past few years, the residency match has become increasingly competitive and stressful, but IU students continue to do well,” said Dennis Deal, director of Academic Records-Medical Student Affairs. “We’re happy that a large number of our students will be staying at the IU Medical Center and in Indiana for their residencies, but we are also sending graduates to many other prestigious programs in the country, including Mass General, Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, the University of Michigan, Duke University and the Cleveland Clinic, to name just a few.
“Our students are well received nationally. The quality of the training our graduates receive is highly regarded,” Deal said.
The National Residency Matching Program, with the results released each year during the third week of March, is the main pathway by which most medical school graduates enter their residency training under the supervision of veteran physicians.
Students in the IU School of Medicine Class of 2013, who will receive their medical degrees May 12, accepted residency positions in 36 states, including Indiana. Among the Match Day highlights:
• 41 percent of the students will pursue at least part of their residencies in Indiana.
• 80 students will be residents at IU Hospital, Riley Hospital for Children, other IU Health facilities, Wishard Health Services or the Roudebush VA Medical Center.
• 40 percent of IU School of Medicine graduates will enter primary-care programs, which includes internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, primary internal medicine and combined internal medicine-pediatrics.
The IU School of Medicine, the second largest medical school in the United States with more than 1,300 students, has nine medical education centers throughout the state. The programs are: the IU Medical Sciences Program (Bloomington), IUSM-Evansville, IUSM-Fort Wayne, IUSM- Muncie, IUSM-Northwest, IUSM-South Bend, IUSM-Terre Haute, IUSM-West Lafayette, and on the main medical education campus at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.