Department of Communication & Public Affairs

News Release
March 15, 2007
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Contact: Jerry Carey
Phone: (856) 566-6171
careyge@umdnj.edu

UMDNJ Sends More Than 300 New Physicians to Hospitals Nationwide on Match Day

NEWARK/NEW BRUNSWICK/CAMDEN - Laughter, tears and shrieks of joy erupted at noon today on the campuses of the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School moments after 312 medical students opened envelopes that contained their futures. Today was Match Day across America, the day when thousands of medical students discover where they will spend their years of residency training following their upcoming graduation.

"I want to congratulate our graduates, who embody the core values of this university and who have worked so hard during the past four years as they met their dreams to become physicians," said Dr. Bruce C. Vladeck, interim president of UMDNJ. "We're proud of their record of achievement and thrilled to see that they will participate in residency programs both here in New Jersey and at some of the premier hospitals across America."

Once again, the match rate for UMDNJ graduates far exceeded this year's 93 percent national average. Both Robert Wood Johnson and New Jersey Medical School matched 99 percent of their graduates to residency programs.

"This was the second consecutive year that we've posted our highest ever match rates," said Dr. Peter S. Amenta, interim dean of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "It's a tribute to the talent and dedication of our students as well as to the commitment of our faculty."

Between the two schools, 312 graduating students enrolled in the match program, 149 from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and 163 from New Jersey Medical School. Following graduation, 55 will pursue residencies in UMDNJ programs, while 36 will enter residencies at other programs in New Jersey. Many of the UMDNJ students matched to residency programs at well-known institutions across the country, including Johns Hopkins, Yale, Brown, Columbia Presbyterian, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, The Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education.

"The match rate and the number of premier programs that our students matched to speaks volumes about the quality of our medical schools and the caliber of our students," said Dr. Robert Johnson, interim dean at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. "Many of our students matched to extremely competitive specialties, including radiation oncology, dermatology and neurosurgery."

Conducted annually since 1952 at America's allopathic medical schools, Match Day is the culmination of a process in which the National Resident Matching Program in Washington, D.C., matches allopathic (M.D.) medical school graduates along with graduates of osteopathic (D.O.) and foreign medical schools to the residency positions available across America. This year, nearly 28,000 individuals, including a record-setting 15,200 graduates of allopathic schools, were vying for the 21,845 available first-year residency positions.

UMDNJ is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Last year, there were more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.