Match Day connects 116 UC Davis medical students with residency programs
By Edwin Garcia
Two-thirds of this year’s School of Medicine graduates will train in primary care
(SACRAMENTO)
It felt like the calm before the storm for Oliver Guevarra.
The soon-to-graduate medical student paced around his living room Friday waiting to learn where he would spend the next few years of his dream to become a doctor.
His loved ones tried their best to calm his nerves. His parents flew in from Los Angeles. His two sisters were at his side. His two best friends and mentor wouldn’t miss this memory.
Then 9 a.m. arrived — the moment UC Davis School of Medicine students like Guevarra, and tens of thousands across the country, receive an email that reveals where they’ll attend medical residency for the next three to seven years. Guevarra reached for his phone and read the news: “I got UCSF!” He broke into tears. He’s going to his top-choice academic medical center to train in internal medicine, a much-needed specialty.
A similar joyous scene played out at dozens of homes in and around Sacramento.
Most medical schools in the United States host the Match Day reveal on campus. UC Davis, though, is different: Ever since COVID-19, when large events were banned, fourth-year medical students have celebrated Match Day at home, on a class-wide Zoom beamed over Facebook. Afterward, they gather on campus to share their news.
Andy Kelly and Natalie Pearlman react to the joyous news that they matched together at UCSF, during a family celebration in Sacramento.
A happy couple celebrates with classmates: ‘We’re doctors!’
Brandon Swenson and Serena Ly wear a lot of hats. They’re medical students, a couple engaged to be married and, this morning, were the hosts of a Match Day breakfast party. More than a dozen family and friends enjoyed Swenson’s special sourdough waffles and mimosas, as everyone awaited the big moment.
“It just now hit me in the last five minutes that I’m actually matching,” Swenson said.
Swenson and Ly are taking part in what’s called a “couples match.” Their residency choices are linked, as they hope to be placed in the same city. Serena already learned that she matched with the Department of Urologic Surgery at UC Davis Health. Urology is one of a few specialties in which students get early notification of their matches. Today they’ll find out where Swenson will go.
“I know his hard work is going to pay off. I’m so excited to celebrate him,” Ly said, moments before learning of his match.
Also awaiting the big moment were classmates Maddy Larson, Emilie Allaert and Carly Robinson. The five students sat together, clasping smartphones, and clicking their screens at the exact same time.
Serena Ly and Brandon Swenson, engaged to be married this May, are a "couple's match," which means they will pursue residency training in the same city. Ly will go to urology at UC Davis Health, and Swenson to family medicine at Methodist Hospital of Sacramento.
Then it happened: The room filled with screams and shouts.
“Oh my God! Duke!”
“Your top choice!”
“He got his number one!”
“We’re doctors!”
Larson matched in cardiothoracic surgery at Duke University. Allaert and Robinson will go to the University of Southern California: Emily in internal medicine, and Carly in emergency medicine at USC’s Los Angeles General Medical Center.
Swenson, visibly elated, said he feels “lighter” to be relieved of the “what ifs.” He will go to his top choice: Dignity Methodist Hospital of Sacramento.
“I’m just so excited,” he said. “Excited to learn to be the best family medicine doctor I can be.”
A match made by computer
Match Day is among the most suspenseful and life altering events for medical students. To be a board-certified physician, each student needs to train in a residency program. But to get into one requires a combination of test scores, interviews, perseverance and luck. Students created a ranked list of their preferred programs at academic medical centers across the country. The leaders of residency programs also rank students. Then a computer matches them.
All 116 of eligible students matched into a residency at locations as near as UC Davis Health and as far as the East Coast. As is usual, most will stay in California, 82%. And two thirds of the class is on track to become primary care doctors, such as internal medicine and family medicine.
Primary care is hugely significant for a school such as UC Davis. It is a land-grant institution whose mission is to train students to care for Californians who most need it, especially in underserved communities.
Most students are happy with their match. Others, though, will end up moving to a state they have no connection to. Others will be separated from their partners for the duration of residency.
A total of 82% of graduating medical students will stay California, and two-thirds of all matches are in primary care, which speaks to UC Davis' mission of educating future doctors to care for the state's most vulnerable patients.
The match made for Natalie Pearlman and her partner Andy Kelly was their best-case scenario.
Their phones vibrated shortly before 9 a.m. and they each took a peek, then looked at each other, wondering if the news was too good to be true. “Can we just, like, double check?” Kelly said, picking up his phone again. Pearlman’s mouth drew wide open, as both put their phones down.
“Oh my God,” she said.
The verdict: Both got into UCSF.
Pearlman, co-president of her medical school class, will train in family medicine, because she wants to be a doctor to vulnerable patients. Kelly will train in the emergency department.
Going to San Francisco was their top choice.
Keeping a promise made to his grandmother
Guevarra, the student who paced in his living room awaiting his results, recounted his long path to medical school and said he’ll never forget his educational experience.
“This journey has been 10 years in the making,” shared Guevarra. “At times it has been a long and rocky journey, so to have these people here with me today is everything I could ask for.”
Like many other UC Davis students, he took a non-traditional route to medical school. After graduating from UC Berkely, he worked for five years then encountered the UC Davis School of Medicine Postbaccalaureate Program. It’s a yearlong program designed to help students become more competitive applicants to medical school, and it’s ideal for students who didn’t think about becoming a doctor earlier in life.
He was mentored by Olivia Campa, a post-bacc program leader and UC Davis Health internal medicine physician. And she, too, was at his side in the living room.
When Guevarra learned of his match, cheers and clapping erupted.
Guevarra’s mother and sisters tearfully hugged him while handing him tissues.
For Guevarra, who will train in internal medicine, Match Day held even more significance than just finding out where he would be doing his residency.
“My grandma was my best friend growing up and before she died, I told her that I would make my dream of becoming a doctor come true,” he explained. “To know that I matched at my first choice of UCSF and that I will be graduating soon — it brings me so much joy knowing that I am keeping my promise to her.”
Liam Connolly and Pamela Wu of the UC Davis Health News and Media Relations team contributed to this story.
All 116 eligible UC Davis medical students matched into a residency program where they will spend the next three to seven years after graduating in May.
