The Ides of March was far from a time of misfortune for the New York Medical College School of Medicine (SOM) Class of 2024 as they celebrated taking the next step in their medical training on the recent Match Day. Gathered outside the Medical Education Center in Valhalla, at precisely noon, they were at last able to rip open the envelopes that held the key to their futures and learn where they were matched to medical residency programs, as family and friends proudly looked on. Each year, the results of the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) are disclosed simultaneously at medical schools around the country. This year’s match included the largest number of applicants in NRMP’s history, with a record number of 50,413 applicants total, 44,853 applicants who certified a rank order list (active applicants), and 41,503 certified positions in 6,395 residency training programs.
“Matching at Harvard for orthopedic surgery is a dream come true,” said Thomas Gagliardi, SOM Class of 2024, an Armonk, New York, resident, who matched at Massachusetts General Hospital. “New York Medical College (NYMC) did so much for me, and I could not be more grateful for all the people who helped me get to this point. My family, friends, colleagues, every teacher I’ve ever had in my life, everyone has played a role in this day. I could not be more excited to become the best orthopedic surgeon and physician I can possibly become starting in a few months.”
“I am beyond excited to be heading to the University of California – San Francisco for internal medicine residency next year,” said Katherine Lo, SOM Class of 2024 and president of the SOM Student Senate. “This has been my dream ever since high school and I’m so thrilled to be going home to San Francisco. My NYMC experience has been beyond anything I could have ever imagined. From the amazing faculty I have had the privilege of learning from, to the classmates and peers who have become some of my very best friends, I’m immensely grateful for all my role models and mentors who have supported and guided me along the way. It has been such an amazing journey, and I could not be more excited for the next step in my medical career.”
The Class of 2024 will go on to train in 18 states and the District of Columbia at 77 different institutions, including at NYMC major clinical affiliates Westchester Medical Center and NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan, as well as local clinical affiliates NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, Lenox Hill Hospital, Northern Westchester Hospital, and Greenwich Hospital. They will also train at other major top-tier, research-intensive, academic medical centers across the country, including Beth Israel-Deaconess, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Massachusetts General of the Harvard Medical School, Brown, Dartmouth, Mount Sinai, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Weil Cornell, New York University, and Yale.
The top career choices for the Class of 2024 were internal medicine, emergency medicine, anesthesiology, general surgery, psychiatry, radiology, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology and neurology.
During the event, several members of the SOM administration offered their congratulations. “Now it’s real — you’re all going to be doctors, and you’re all going to train at terrific places,” said Neil Schluger, M.D., SOM dean. “Congratulations to all of you. We’ll watch you with pride and excitement for what you will accomplish in your careers.”
“You are the first graduating class at NYMC to navigate preclinical and clinical years, sit for step exams, and undergo residency interviews amidst the ‘new normal,’” said Mill Etienne, M.D. ’02, M.P.H., vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion and associate dean for student affairs. “This positions you to understand first-hand that normalcy is relative and ever-evolving, equipping you to fearlessly navigate, promote, and embrace paradigm shifts and to not mindlessly accept the idea of ‘this is how it’s always been.’” “As we approach the moment to find out where you will all be going, remember that no matter what is in that envelope it marks the crowning achievement of all you have accomplished and all you have worked for,” said Susan Rachlin, M.D., senior associate dean for student affairs. “Any program will make you the specialist of your choice, so please relish and treasure this moment.”
