At the end of March, fourth-year medical students from around the country nervously waited to learn where they would begin their next phase of training as resident physicians. Match Day is the crowning moment of the National Resident Match Program (NRMP), which matches thousands of medical students with residency programs at medical centers and teaching hospitals across the country.

Each year, medical school students submit their top three choices for residency programs to the NRMP, which uses computerized mathematical algorithms to align preferences of more than 30,000 students with the residency programs available at U.S. teaching hospitals.

On Match Day, a day filled with anticipation and emotion, students receive a sealed envelope containing information about where they will spend the next few years of their lives. Each student is in the spotlight — often surrounded by family, friends, and mentors — as envelopes are eagerly opened to reveal the future.

By Vanderbilt tradition, the Associate Dean for Students randomly selects names, and as each person receives the envelope, he or she places one dollar in a fishbowl. The last person called gets to keep all the money as a reward for patience in the face of high anxiety. This year, 117 fourth-year VUSM students are graduating, and 91 were on hand to participate in the annual tradition. Fayrisa Greenwald, who matched in psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, was this year’s fishbowl winner.

At Meharry Medical College, 76 students were matched with residencies at locations including the Mayo Clinic and Washington University in St. Louis. This year, 51 percent of Meharry students were matched with residencies in the primary care fields of internal medicine, pediatrics, family medicine and obstetrics and gynecology. Others matched in specialty fields including orthopaedic surgery and neurology.

Historically, Meharry has exceeded the national averages for students matched to primary care. The matches directly addresses the current shortage of approximately 9,000 primary care doctors and expected shortfall of up to 31,100 primary care doctors by the year 2025, according to a March 2015 study by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

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PHOTO: Photo of Dean Balser dropping a $1 in the fishbowl at Vandy. Photo by: Anne Rayner; VU

Possible Caption: Dean Jeff Balser kicks off an annual Vanderbilt Match Day tradition by dropping his dollar in the fishbowl.

WEB:

Vanderbilt Match Day Results: https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/programs/match-day

Meharry Match Day 2015:

http://www.mmc.edu/_modules/events/matchday2015.html

RELATED LINKS: National Resident Match Program: www.nrmp.org