Click here for Match Day 2019 results.
Green and gold filled the lawn outside Ulele March 15 as senior medical students from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) gathered to learn where they will spend their residency training after graduating from medical school.
Called Match Day, the annual event is held at all medical schools across the country to reveal where senior medical students will go to conduct their residencies, the next step in their medical education. The day is a culmination of nearly a year of students applying to, interviewing with, and ranking their preferred residency programs — Match Day is when students learn which residency programs chose them. This year’s NRMP main match was the largest in history: a record-high 38,376 applicants submitted program choices for 35,185 positions, the most ever offered in the Match.
For USF MCOM, festivities began with Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, who congratulated the Class of 2019.
“You have worked very hard to get here and you’re about to embark on an equally exciting next three to seven years,” Dr. Lockwood told the crowd.
Dr. Charles Lockwood and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor.
Then, special guest U.S. Representative Kathy Castor stepped up and urged everyone to enjoy their residencies and to remember Tampa.
“I am so proud everyone has matched,” Rep. Castor said. “You’re going to scatter out across the country to help lift affordable health care for all families. Here’s my message to you. As you embark on your careers, come back to the state of Florida. Come back to paradise. You can count on USF Health to continue to be a world leader, not just in academics but in finding new treatments and cures for the future.”
At noon, the first envelope was drawn, going to Samantha Steinberg, who matched to an internal medicine residency at University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC.
Samantha Steinberg gets the first envelope at Match Day.
One by one, senior students came forward to accept an envelope, open it, and discover their futures. The Morsani College of Medicine has a long-standing tradition for handing out envelopes one at a time in random order, allowing each student time to open and announce to their classmates where he or she is headed.
Another MCOM tradition: the cash box! As each student is called — in random order — they place a dollar in a box. The final envelope holder gets the cash. This year, the final match call went to Ariel Crocker, who is going to University of California San Diego Medical Center in a family medicine residency.
Ariel Crocker wins the cash at Match Day 2019.
Then, in what might be their last photo as a class, the crowd of newly matched students huddled together for a group shot and shouted GO BULLS!
Stats from 2019 USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Match: 164 students matched; 38 students (23%) are staying at USF; 71 (43%) are staying in Florida; and 63 students (38%) chose primary care as their specialty (internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics). Click here for the full list of USF Health MCOM Match. Click here for more details about the nationwide Match from the National Residency Match Program (NRMP).
Communications team covering Match Day 2019: Freddie Coleman, Torie Doll, Travis Jordan, Allison Long, Ryan Noone, Elizabeth Peacock, Sandra Roa, Emily Wingate, Sarah Worth, and Michelle Young.
Sawyer the dog wore a lei at Match Day.
