At 11 a.m. on March 15, cheers erupted as RUSH Medical College’s class of 2024 discovered where residency training would be taking them. Students gathered with family and friends at the Union League Club of Chicago for Match Day and opened envelopes at the same time to find out where they would be taking the next step in their medical careers.
“The envelope is a snapshot of time, and today is the beginning of your journey,” Cynthia Brincat, MD, acting dean, RUSH Medical College, said as she addressed the crowd. “We have taken this journey together, and I am so proud to have taken it with you. I want you to find your family, your faculty, all of the people who have been part of your journey and thank them because it is about to get really exciting.”
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 completing the interview process, students rank their programs, and the programs, in turn, rank their applicants. A computer algorithm then matches students with the residency programs.
“Today is emotional,” M4 student Kathleen Coogan said. “It’s an accumulation of everything we worked for, for four years. It’s the start of my career as a pediatrician. It’s the start of all of my colleagues’ careers. It’s an exciting day.”
Depending on a student’s chosen specialty, a residency will last three to six years and lead to eligibility for board certification in primary care or a medical or surgical specialty. One hundred forty-seven students matched residency programs in 29 specialties and combined programs in 30 different states. This year’s top specialties were internal medicine, family medicine and psychiatry.
“After Match Day, I’m looking forward to taking care of patients and being the best doctor I can be,” M4 student Daniel Leary said. “I matched in internal medicine at Northwestern. I’m very happy to be given this opportunity and looking forward to spending three more years in Chicago.“
The 2024 graduating class entered medical school as the global pandemic was in full effect. Students overcame all the obstacles that came with that and continued to thrive throughout their medical college education. Their resiliency, dedication and hard work for the past four years paid off with a successful Match Day and a bright future ahead.
“Congratulations to everybody today. Regardless of the outcome, this is exactly what it's meant to be,” M4 student Marissa Pharel said. Referring to Dr. Omar Lateef, president and CEO of RUSH, Pharel went on to say, “Like Dr. Lateef said, he never opened the right envelope, but it is always the right envelope. So whatever you opened, it’s what it’s meant to be. And take that in. Bask in that glory, and let’s keep moving forward.”
2024 Match Day Highlights
