On March 15 at noon, medical students at Emory University School of Medicine experienced their "rite of passage" when they opened envelopes to reveal where their careers as doctors will begin. 

The students gathered for the highly anticipated Match Day ceremony, joining medical school seniors across the country who applied for residency through the National Residency Match Program (NRMP), which annually matches students with their preferred residency programs.

Out of 140 Emory graduating seniors, the largest graduating class ever, 139 participated in the NRMP. Forty-five students will spend all or part of their residencies in the State of Georgia, and 42 will remain in Emory's affiliated residency training programs in either or both of their first or second years.

Some of the most popular specialties chosen by Emory's graduating seniors include Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, General Surgery and Emergency Medicine. In addition to Emory, they will receive their residency training at such prestigious institutions as Georgetown, Brigham & Women’s, Johns Hopkins, Baylor and Duke.  

The Match was established in 1952, at the request of medical students, to provide a fair and impartial transition to the graduate medical education experience. A computer is used to match the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency programs in order to fill the available training positions at U.S. teaching hospitals.

According to the NRMP, there were 17,487 U.S. graduating seniors who participated in this year’s match. The number of U.S. medical seniors who matched to primary care residency positions rose by almost 400 over last year.