Incoming medicine students celebrate Match Day 2020 amidst COVID-19

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused the cancellation of the College of Medicine’s traditional high-energy Match Day celebration, but it could not dampen student excitement of matching to residency programs around the country. Instead of hearing their names called individually and stepping onto the Kresge Auditorium stage to blaring music and wild cheers, students this year learned their match results by visiting MedOneStop at noon, Friday, March 20. Instead of one large celebration, this year most students celebrated individually with their family and friends and through social media.

Jacqyln Riemersma (pictured), a fourth-year med student, matched into obstetrics and gynecology at UC Medical Center. She was at home with her fiance, parents and sister when she learned she got her first pick for residency.

“I was so happy and my mom has this crazy video on Facebook of me screaming my head off,” said Riemersma, who also posted a picture on Instagram.

She said she decided her passion was helping patients in OB/GYN during her third year of medical school. Riemersma was doing a clinical rotation at UC Medical Center. “I fell in love with the program and the patients at UC Medical Center. This has been a really memorable Match Day.”

This year 156 College of Medicine students matched. There were 40,084 U.S. and international applicants in the 2020 match, a record number. Of the matched UC students, 36 will do at least part of their residency at hospitals in Greater Cincinnati. Of those, 17 will stay at UC Medical Center, eight at Cincinnati Children’s, three each at Christ Hospital and Kettering Health, two each at Good Samaritan, Jewish and St. Elizabeth hospitals and one at Wright State University Boonschoft School of Medicine. The most popular residencies were internal medicine with 38 students; pediatrics/Med-Peds with 20 students; family medicine with 14 students; and emergency medicine and surgery, both with 12 students.

Among the prestigious programs UC students matched to were Baylor College of Medicine; Case Western Reserve University; Cleveland Clinic; Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center; Emory University; Johns Hopkins University; New York Presbyterian Hospital; Stanford University; University of California, San Diego; University of Chicago; University of Iowa; University of Michigan; University of Pennsylvania; University of Pittsburgh; University of Southern California; Vanderbilt University; and Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Students matched with programs in 28 states and the District of Columbia. Fifty-three matched with programs in Ohio. Other most-matched states were Michigan with 11; Kentucky and Texas, both with nine; Illinois with eight; and California and Pennsylvania, both with seven.