Graduating Emory University School of Medicine medical students from the Class of 2014 gathered on campus today for the highly anticipated moment when they discover where they will train as residents. Approximately 100 students simultaneously opened sealed envelopes in the presence of faculty, staff, friends and family during the suspenseful annual Match Day ceremony.

The Emory students were among 17,374 US medical students who applied for residency positions at US teaching hospitals through the National Residency Match Program (NRMP) that annually matches students with residency programs.

"Once again, this year our students matched in some of the nation’s top residency programs and will be training in a diverse variety of medical and surgical fields," says J. William Eley, MD, MPH, executive associate dean for medical education and student affairs, Emory University School of Medicine.
"These outstanding results are testimony to the dedication of our faculty, staff and especially our students who have fully committed themselves to a life of service," says Eley.

Of the 128 Emory graduating seniors, 125 participated in a match program. Some of the most popular specialties chosen by Emory's graduating seniors in the

NRMP match include: Internal Medicine (26), Pediatrics (16), General Surgery (15), and Emergency Medicine (14).  In addition to Emory, students will receive their residency training at prestigious institutions such as Yale, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt, Columbia, NYU, University of Chicago, UCLA, Northwestern and Washington University, among others.

Prior to today’s NRMP match, three Emory graduating seniors had matched into the military residency match, four students had gained matches in Urology, and four students had matched in Ophthalmology. Forty graduating students will spend all or part of their residencies in the State of Georgia, 38 of those in Emory's Affiliated Residency Training Programs.

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 US teaching hospitals.