Two future pediatricians hugged in celebration at Match Day 2019. Monica Amoo-Achampong, right, was matched with NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and Alison Celello with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. “I love the opportunity to work initially with parents as caregivers and eventually work directly with patients as adolescents and young adults,” Ms. Amoo-Achampong says. 

Hopeful and nervous, elated and grateful. These were some of the emotions expressed at Match Day 2019, the celebratory event in which graduating medical students opened an envelope to learn which residency programs they will attend during the next phase of their training. During the event on Friday, March 15, 121 students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai were matched to residency programs throughout the country, including highly competitive ones at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center; Massachusetts General Hospital; the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center; and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Thirty-five students will remain within the Mount Sinai Health System to continue all or part of their graduate training. They were among about 27,000 students around the nation who participated in the Main Residency Match®, the largest so far. The Match is managed by the National Resident Matching Program, a nonprofit organization that uses an algorithm to align the preferences of applicants with those of residency programs.

Ted Pak, who matched with Massachusetts General Hospital (Internal Medicine), with Sonia Jarrett, MD, an ISMMS graduate who is now a pediatrics resident at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. View a video of Match Day 2019.

“Before we send you all to get those envelopes in a massive, rugby-type scrum, let’s take some time for thanks,” said Peter Gliatto, MD, Senior Associate Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education and Student Affairs, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He led the students in a round of applause for the “incredible support” they had received from the faculty, mentors, family, partners, and friends who were gathered in the Annenberg West Lobby. Jasmine Tatum was elated to be matched at Stanford University in Psychiatry. “I feel so privileged to be entering a field where I can help care for the whole person, not just the biological elements, but the psychological and social components as well.” She says she chose Stanford because of its excellent clinical training and emphasis on resident wellness—plus the campus is near family.

Ted Pak was looking forward to the “endless research opportunities” in his match: internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Mr. Pak, who intends to specialize in infectious diseases, said Mass General was his No. 1 pick because it is “team-oriented, with a great research infrastructure, diverse patients, and a strong teaching culture.”

Syed Haider, right, who matched with Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (General Surgery), was congratulated by Peter Gliatto, MD.

The class members will receive training in 22 specialties, including 23 graduates in Internal Medicine; 12 in Emergency Medicine; 11 each in Pediatrics and Psychiatry; 8 each in Anesthesiology, and Obstetrics and Gynecology; 6 in General Surgery, and others in specialties including Family Medicine, Neurology, and Radiation Oncology. As its graduates were receiving their matches, Mount Sinai was extending offers to students from around the country. The new residents, who will arrive in July, include graduates from 16 of the nation’s top 20 medical schools. “I am thrilled with my match results,” says Giselle Lynch, who will have a residency in Ophthalmology at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE), after a preliminary year in Internal Medicine at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey. “After completing a research year in NYEE’s Retinal Imaging Laboratory, I felt connected to their commitment to their patient population and clinical research.”

Syed Haider matched at the General Surgery program at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He says his interest in surgery stemmed from his childhood in Pakistan, when a cousin was injured in sectarian violence and saved by emergency surgery. “From very early on, I saw surgery as a force against extremism and surgeons as the heroes in this conflict,” he says. Later, as a medical student, “I learned to dress wounds and suture skin to close incisions, and I observed and felt the deep connection between the surgeons and their patients,” he says. “I feel incredibly blessed and lucky to pursue my dream of becoming a surgeon, and grateful to the Icahn School of Medicine.”