At 11 a.m. on March 17, cheers erupted as RUSH Medical College’s class of 2023 discovered where residency training would be taking them. Students gathered together with family and friends at the Union League Club of Chicago for Match Day, opening envelopes at the same time to find out where they would be taking the next step in their medical career journey.
“If you think back to when you started at RUSH and you put on that white coat,” Larry Goodman, MD, interim president, RUSH University said as he addressed the crowd. “You may have wondered if it fit very well, wondering what was going on, but now you know, it was actually a perfect match. That perfect match was you and medicine.”
An annual nationwide celebration, Match Day is the culmination of the process of applying to and interviewing with residency programs at health care institutions across the country. After the interview process is completed, students rank their programs and the programs in turn rank their applicants. A computer algorithm then matches students with the residency programs.
Depending on a student’s chosen specialty, a residency will last from three to six years and lead to eligibility for board certification in primary care or a medical or surgical specialty.
“The shortage of minorities in medicine is very well known,” Angela Kirori, class of 2023, RUSH Medical College said. “My biggest goal is to serve the population that I look like.”
This year’s graduating class has seen its challenges throughout their medical school career, including spending more than half of their medical training in a global pandemic. But the class of 2023 was resilient and through hard work and dedication the they have come out on top and are now ready to take on the new adventure that is residency.
“This class that we have is very special, we’ve grown very close over the last four years,” said Jesus Roberto Varela, Class of 2023, RUSH Medical College. “The anticipation of seeing where my friends are going to go is something I look forward to.”
2023 Match Day Results
133 students matched with residency programs in 22 specialties and combined programs in 27 different states. This year’s top specialties were Internal Medicine, Family Medicine and Psychiatry. Twenty-eight students will continue their training at Rush-affiliated residency programs and three students will train at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, with 39 total matches at Chicago-area institutions. Other graduating students will train at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Mayo Clinic and UCLA.
About Match Day
Match Day is the culmination of the process of applying and interviewing for residency programs at health care institutions across the country. Once students complete their residency interviews in January, they rank their choices in the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) system, and the residency programs in turn rank their top student picks. The NRMP system then matches students with the residency programs.
Depending on a student’s chosen specialty, a residency will last from three to six years and leads to eligibility for board certification in a medical or surgical specialty. The residency is composed almost entirely of the care of hospitalized or clinic patients with supervision by senior physicians.