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Match Day 2018: An Impressive Day for the School of Medicine Class of 2018

a graduating student exited and overwhelmed by her Match results

In the early hours of March 16, the Medical Education Center lobby was deceptively quiet, empty of student activity—the calm before the storm known as Match Day 2018. By noon, the lobby was brimming with a boisterous crowd of 200 senior medical students, who were flanked by friends and family, as they opened envelopes that revealed their residency match results from the National Resident Matching Program. It was the largest match on record with almost 44,000 registered applicants and more than 33,000 positions offered. View the 2018 Match Day photo gallery below and the News 12 Westchester coverage. View the Class of 2018 match results by specialty and program

It was an impressive day for the Class of 2018, who achieved residencies in 30 states and at 126 different institutions across the United States. “We are truly represented around the country, in the many different specialties and across the nationally leading hospitals and amazing medical centers,” said Gladys M. Ayala, M.D., M.P.H., interim vice dean of the School of Medicine. “As a class, your top specialties are internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine and family medicine. But, we also have neurologists, radiation oncologists, psychologists, and if you need a surgeon, we have those too including a neurosurgeon, an orthopedic surgeon, and their partner in the operating room—an anesthesiologist.”

According to Dr. Ayala, every Match Day success story is the culmination of years of hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance—qualities NYMC medical students have in spades.

Take Arnoldys Stengel, whose entire face broke into an effervescent smile when she learned she’d secured a residency in pediatrics at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City—her top choise. “It’s been a long journey because I have wanted to be a pediatrician since I was a little girl from the Bronx. Even though at times it has been hard to keep going, I made it!” she explained.

Paying homage to the families that provided unwavering support, best friends Anurag  Saraf and Balu Vemula both asked their fathers to open their envelopes. “My whole family came to take part in the match; The reward was not just mine alone, but all of ours,” explained Mr. Saraf. Opening his son’s envelope, his dad was the first to learn he will do a transitional year at the Colorado Health Foundation in Denver followed by a residency in radiation oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Then, it was Mr. Vemula’s turn to make his father proud; his envelope revealing that he’d matched in emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. “My family has been my strongest support system throughout my education, and my parents have been with me every step of the way,” Mr. Vemula said.

Surrounded by his wife, Emma, and their five month-old son Owen, Dan Grossman said he knew the years of hard work and sacrifice paid off when he learned he’d secured a choice residency in family medicine at Ventura County Medical Center in California, “Four years ago, we moved to New York as a family when I began the program in 2014, and today we learned we are moving back to California. it’s a great program and we are going back home!”

Then there is Adam and Nadine Gordon, who met six years ago as NYMC graduate students. For the married couple, Match Day came with the added pressure of matching together. “I woke up this morning feeling very nervous and hopeful that we match together,” Mr. Gordon who serves as president of the SOM Student Senate, explained. They did, with Mrs. Gordon landing a residency in pediatrics and Mr. Gordon a residency in anesthesiology—both at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. “We started as graduate students, so for us this was the culmination of six years of hard work. To finally be at Match Day with Adam feels like a dream,” Mrs. Gordon said.

Just as the clock struck noon, Dr. Ayala closed with, “Whether you are going to a community hospital, a university hospital, a major academic institution, or one of the top NIH ranked institutions, there is no doubt you will be the best and make NYMC School of Medicine very proud.”

Class of 2018 Match Day