Medical Students Meet Their Matches

The son of two hairdressers, a Belarusian immigrant whose family fled anti-Semitism, a married couple, and a mother of three were among the medical students in New York City who learned yesterday where they would complete their training.In scenes that played out at medical schools across the city and nationwide, students marked “Match Day” by opening letters telling them which residency programs had accepted them.At Weill Cornell Medical College, more than 100 students sipped champagne and celebrated their “matches,” ending a year of anxiety over the application process. “I’m not a stressed-out person, but this has made me very nervous,” one student, Anthony Rossi, 25, said.Nationwide, more than 15,000 medical school seniors nationwide applied for residency spots through the National Resident Matching Program, which uses an algorithm to pair students and teaching hospitals.This year, 28,737 applicants vied for 22,240 first-year residency slots, the highest number since the matching program began in 1952. Among the applicants, 15,242 were American medical school seniors, another record. Of those applicants, NRMP reported, 94.2% matched successfully.Mr. Rossi, who had applied for a dermatology spot, applied to New York programs only. “I didn’t want to move to Kansas, per se,” he said. Raised in Staten Island, he was drawn to medicine after watching his parents, both hairdressers, interact with clients. “I knew I loved the whole person-to-person interaction,” Mr. Rossi, who is Cornell’s class president, said.Unlike Mr. Rossi, many students apply to programs across the country to ensure that they will match somewhere. The result is a heavy dose of uncertainty.“You don’t even know what city you will be in,” another Cornell student, Elena Kamenkovich, said. At 12, Ms. Kamenkovich moved to Brooklyn from Belarus, where her family had experienced anti-Semitism. Not knowing any English, she relied on an older friend for guidance.Now 25, she aims to practice adolescent and child psychiatry, because her immigrant experience fostered a desire to help others navigate mental illness, she said. Yesterday, she matched at Cornell.For couples like Meade Barlow and Allison Langs, students at Mount Sinai School of Medicine who married last September, the match process required a coordinated effort.The couple, both 26, narrowed their applications to cities both of them liked, but there were tense moments. “I had to end up cutting my first choice altogether because there was no possible institution for him that wouldn’t entail an hour commute,” Ms. Langs said, adding that she hopes to specialize in pediatrics.Mr. Barlow, who applied for a surgical residency, said, “It was all a matter of compromise.”NRMP officials this year identified several trends, including an increased interest in family medicine. They said 1,156 students, or 7.6%, matched in family medicine, up from 7.2% last year. Other popular specialties included plastic surgery, dermatology, diagnostic radiology, and general surgery.School officials said competition is fierce for the top spots.“They are the cream of the crop rising to the cream of the cream of the crop,” the associate dean for academic and student affairs at Mount Sinai’s medical school, Dr. Suzanne Rose, said. Dr. Rose said surgery has become more popular among female students.One female student who aims to become a cardiothoracic surgeon, Tara Balija, juggled motherhood with her education.“It’s very difficult,” Ms. Balija, 30, a Mount Sinai senior and mother of three, said. “The thing is that I feel like I’m never the best at any one thing.”Yesterday, she matched at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J. She now has years of specialized training ahead of her. “That’s a little bit daunting,” she said.

Medical Students Meet Their Matches

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