Students Exude Excitement on Match Day 2009

CINCINNATI—At 26, twins Tony and David Sheyn are moving apart for the very first time in their lives—by choice. The brothers, both fourth-year University of Cincinnati College of Medicine students, picked different geographic sites for their residency programs: Tony in ear, nose and throat surgery at Wayne State University in Detroit and David in radiology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

They learned their medical career path on Thursday, March 19, on Match Day, along with their 149 soon-to-be graduates of the college and nearly 30,000 other senior medical students across the country. Fifty-five students will complete residency training in Cincinnati, with 28 students matching at University Hospital and eight with Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.     

It’s called Match Day because it’s the culmination of four long years of medical school, where getting “matched” with a program in a specialty you desire is perceived as paramount to success. It is, after all, where they’ll spend the next three to seven years training at their preferred hospital/specialty. 

According to the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP), 2009 had the largest match of students to programs in history. The NRMP serves as a venue for matching the program preferences of students with those of residency program directors.

“We saw an across the board increase in applicants this year ... this is likely the result of medical school expansions across the nation,” said Mona M. Signer, executive director of the NRMP.    

As is tradition at UC, students gathered and celebrated to thunderous applause in Room E-351 of the Medical Sciences Building, with opening remarks by the administration. 

“I’m ecstatic,” Tony Sheyn says of getting matched with his first choice.

To learn more about residency matching, visit www.nrmp.org.