Anticipation and ritual: medical hopefuls discover their training destinations on Match Day
The National Residency Match Program (NRMP) played a pivotal role in placing medical graduates from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry into residency and fellowship programs across the United States. This algorithm-based process, which uses a Nobel Prize-winning algorithm, ensures a fair, equitable, and efficient placement of applicants into available residency slots.
On Match Day, held at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry's Class of '62 Auditorium on March 17 at noon, 70 students from the class of 2023 received letters indicating their training institutions as residents. The remaining 32 students will stay at the University of Rochester Medical Center for their residency training.
The process involves students and residency programs each submitting ranked lists of their preferences. The NRMP's algorithm then tries to match each applicant to their highest-ranked program that will accept them. This method optimizes placements to achieve the best fit from both applicants’ and programs’ perspectives.
The University of Rochester Medical Center will host 190 incoming residents and 70 fellows for their training this summer. The majority of the 2023 graduates staying in New York State are at the University of Rochester Medical Center (44). The 2023 graduates going to Pennsylvania are 10 in number. Nine 2023 graduates will be in California, and the rest of the graduates will be in 18 other states.
Medical students from across the country received letters indicating their training institutions as residents. For instance, Ericka Scott matched with Emory University for her OBGYN training, while Clare Lennon matched with UR OBGYN for her medical training. Petra Rantanen, a student from the Internal Medicine department, posed for a photo with her mother on this momentous occasion.
David R. Lambert, MD, senior associate dean for medical school education at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, expressed excitement for the graduates' transition. The process considers the preferences of students and the programs where they apply to make the best possible match for all.
Students who participated in the early matches in urology and ophthalmology and students in the military were already notified of their training sites prior to Match Day. The NRMP's matching system has a significant impact, as demonstrated by the 47,208 applicants who participated in 2025, resulting in 43,237 positions filled. This process promotes transparency, fairness, and optimization in placing thousands of medical graduates annually into residency training programs.
