VCU School of Medicine Students Rejoice at Match Day 2012

By Eric Peters

Lauren Messinger, a VCU School of Medicine student, takes the small white envelope with her name on it from the podium set up in front of a congested ballroom. She begins to weave her way back to her husband through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd that has gathered on this unseasonably warm third Friday in March at the Bolling Haxall House on East Franklin Street.

Speckled throughout the crowd, some of the other envelope addressees are already crying and embracing loved ones, some calmly read what they’ve been given, others only stare at unopened envelopes, uncertainty lingering.

Messinger finds her husband and hesitates only slightly before digging into her package. She scans, quickly searching for the news, and almost immediately a smile takes hold and she ecstatically embraces her husband.

When she pulls away from the embrace she is still smiling, but now crying too. It soon becomes clear that the crying, screaming, shouting, kissing and hugging that now seems to fill the room has been the result of overwhelming individual and collective joy.

A joy VCU medical student Scott Abedi says has made this one of the best days of his life.

“This is up there with getting engaged, getting married and having a son,” he says.

This is Match Day, a day when graduating medical students throughout the U.S. learn where they will go for residency training in their chosen specialties.

“Inside that envelope is where you’ll be for the next five years,” said Ryan Robertson, who was one of 175 VCU School of Medicine students to participate in this year’s match.

Ninety-nine percent of VCU’s graduating medical students were matched by Match Day.

“We are extremely pleased with the 2012 Match results,” said Jerome F. Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the School of Medicine. “Our graduates will be moving on to outstanding programs in diverse medical specialties.  The great success of the class of 2012 is a source of great pride, as well as validation of our superb medical education programs.”

The matching process begins in December and January when students visit various hospitals around the country to rank their top choices. At the same time, hospitals rank their top candidates.

The data is sent to the National Resident Matching Program, which was established in 1952 to match medical students with residencies. An algorithm is used to establish the matches and the results are distributed to each student’s school to be opened on the third Friday of March.

Primary care specialties proved attractive this year with 38 percent of VCU’s graduates matching into internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics.

“I am absolutely proud of the number of our students entering primary care specialties,” said Christopher Woleben, M.D., associate dean of student affairs in the VCU School of Medicine. “It indicates that our students see the importance of providing quality preventative care and health maintenance to their patients, especially at a time when fewer students are entering primary care specialties nationwide.”

Many VCU students this year matched to prestigious academic medical centers across the country including Johns Hopkins’ anesthesiology and psychiatry programs, Yale’s Pathology and Ob-gyn programs and others at Duke, Brown, New York University, UC-Davis and VCU.

One of those students, Devin Miller, who was matched to Yale’s Ob-gyn program, deflected praise and congratulations to her classmates.

“I’ve never seen so much happiness among my friends, I’m so proud of our class,” she said under falling confetti and within earshot of proud, spontaneous exclamations like “UVa!” and “Boston!”

For medical schools around the country Match Day isn’t just about a class of students leaving, it’s also about filling residency slots.

“The VCU Medical Center had a very strong match, fully filling all its residency slots for the fourth year in a row,” said Mary Alice O'Donnell, Ph.D., VCU associate dean for graduate medical education. “Thirty-one of those new residents are VCU School of Medicine students who have chosen to stay on the MCV Campus for their post-graduate training.”

James O’Connor and his fiancée, Patricia Williams, are two of those students matched to VCU from VCU. The couple met at the school and will be married in June. O’Connor was matched to the internal medicine program and Williams was matched to the dermatology program.

“We’re thrilled they both got into a place they really like,” said Judge David Williams, Patricia’s father who lives in Louisiana. “Virginia is a great place to live and we love it. Now we really love it.”

VCU was one of O’Connor’s top choices, and he is thrilled to be staying in Richmond.

Woleben knows that feeling well. In 1997 he too was matched to VCU from VCU, and now serves as the person who guides all of the school’s medical students through the matching process. He proposed a toast before those faithful envelopes were handed out.

“To the soon-to-be doctors of 2012,” he said. “Enjoy your last few weeks of freedom.”

For more on Match Day 2012 including photos and student profiles, visit the VCU School of Medicine Match Day site.