Memorable Match Day for UA College of Medicine Class of 2009

A total of 124 graduates were matched with residency program across the nation as part of the UA College of Medicine's Match Day ceremony.

By Jean Spinelli, AHSC Office of Public Affairs
March 24, 2009

Every few seconds cheers erupted from the members of the Class of 2009 at The University of Arizona College of Medicine, as students attending the Match Day ceremony learned where they will spend the next several years as resident-physicians.

The Match Day ceremony was held at DuVal Auditorium on March 19 and was packed with students' families and friends. Match Day is a ceremony coordinated for medical students each year throughout the nation to occur at the same day and time.

Members of the class of 2009 receive traditional Match Day sealed envelopes containing letters showing where they will be doing their residency training.

The theme of the UA College of Medicine Match Day was "Oh, The Places You'll Go" (from the book by Dr. Seuss), and many participants wore Cat-in-the-Hat hats and dressed like other Dr. Seuss characters.

Students followed another Match Day tradition and placed a $1 bill in a container as he or she accepted the Match envelope. The last student to receive their Match Day envelope collects the money in the container.  

Match Day is the culmination of a year's work in the complex process that matches the nation's graduating medical students with residency programs throughout the country. 

Residency programs vary in length according to medical specialty, from three years for general medicine/family practice specialties to eight years for the most specialized of surgeons.

The class of 2009 includes 124 graduates – 66 women and 58 men. About half of the graduates will remain in Arizona for their residencies, and 43 students will go into primary care.

UA College of Medicine Class of 2009 Profiles

• Rachel (Brownstein) State, 26, pursued a spot in the match as a "triple boarder" – a residency in pediatrics, adult psychiatry and child psychiatry. She was matched with the University of Utah Health Sciences Center in Salt Lake City. With only 10 programs nationwide and 22 spots available, this was one of the most nerve-wracking events she'd ever waited for, she said. State got married less than a week before Match Day.  

• Laura Mercer, 25, will pursue a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Ariz. To be closer to her family, Mercer moved to Phoenix for her third-year clinical clerkships at the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix in partnership with ASU. She hopes to practice in Arizona in an underserved community.  

• Tom Oberg, 30, will pursue a residency in ophthalmology at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center in Salt Lake City. A former Marine, he will be the first doctor in his family – not counting his wife, Christy (Buck), who graduated from the UA College of Medicine in 2002 and practices medicine at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System. Oberg's ultimate goal is to work at a VA hospital in the Southwest. 

For applicants who participate as a couple, the match process is more challenging. In addition to each deciding on a specialty, the couples must coordinate their match lists, taking into consideration the distance between residency programs as they create and rank pairs of choices.

Among the couples in the UA College of Medicine class of 2009 are Michelle Burke and North Noelck, both 27, who will be married in April. Both were matched at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland: Burke for a residency in pediatrics and Noelck for a residency in medicine.

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