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For yet another year, the pandemic has forced Match Day -- a rite of passage in medicine -- to be held virtually, or in a hybrid format.

It's a major shift in how new physicians celebrate the start of their careers, but institutions across the country have developed creative ways to preserve the traditions and community embodied by in-person celebrations.

At the same time, some have welcomed the opportunity to celebrate virtually, either alone or with a small group, for the sense of relief it brings.

The pandemic has also provided an opportunity to re-think the Match cycle, in terms of in-person interviews, the money students have saved, and the potential for increased prospects.

乌鸦传媒 interviewed medical school students and institutions across the U.S. to capture the spirit of Match Day 2021.

Preserving Match Traditions

Medical schools have gotten creative with their Match Day ceremonies this year. University of Massachusetts Medical School is hosting a . At the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, students will be invited to a virtual toast, as personalized champagne bottles or cookies were sent to their homes.

Clarence Braddock III, MD, the vice dean of education at the David Geffen Medical School at University of California Los Angeles, noted that -- in addition to the new technical aspects of this year's virtual Match Day ceremony -- there is also a different psychological feeling attached to this year's event.

Last year, graduating medical students were faced with a world of unknowns about their transitions into residency. Now, Braddock pointed out, all UCLA fourth-year students are vaccinated and students seem to have a much stronger sense of optimism.

The University of Pennsylvania's medical school will host a hybrid ceremony for Match Day this year.

"We have a small group of students who have chosen to actually get their match envelopes and be on site," said DaCarla Albright, MD, associate dean for student affairs and wellness at the Perelman School of Medicine. But the vast majority of students, she added, plan to celebrate at home with friends and family.

Additionally, the school organized a "celebration in a box" to send to all graduates in the match this year. A few days before Match Day, students picked up or received a package in the mail, containing t-shirts, balloons, signs, and other surprises to celebrate their results. Albright said that she hopes this makes the day memorable for graduates, even if they cannot be together.

"There are so many things this year that have been interrupted," said Sophia Yapalater, a fourth-year medical student at Penn who helped organize the Match Day celebration. Yapalater, who matched in an internal medicine residency position, said she and other colleagues who were also involved in planning wanted to create a sense of togetherness for students.

"Something that we've been thinking about is, how do we create community and cultivate our close relationships, even in a time that's been characterized by so much distance," Yapalater said.

Grateful for Virtual Celebrations

Jesse, a fourth-year medical student based in New Jersey, was slightly envious when last year's Match Day celebration was made virtual (he asked 乌鸦传媒 to use only his first name). If he were matching, it would mean that his family wouldn't be in attendance, as they didn't support either his decision to pursue a medical career or his identity as a trans person.

"I remember from first year, watching Match Day happen and feeling this pit in my stomach," Jesse told 乌鸦传媒. "It's a very big deal that your family is there and I knew that I would have people who would come, but it wasn't going to be my family."

When it comes to the togetherness that an in-person ceremony would typically bring, Jesse said that he doesn't feel like he is missing out. He recalled facing repeated acts of discrimination against him, as a trans man and a Jewish student, from his medical school community.

Jesse is looking forward to having the space and the privacy to open his Match Day results on his own, and take the time to process them. If the weather in New Jersey allows it, he plans to have some non-med-school friends over to hang out with on his front porch.

A Different Match Cycle

This year's Match cycle was interrupted by the pandemic, starting from the disruption of away rotations in the spring to a delayed residency application opening this fall. But despite the logistical challenges, some students said the pandemic offered an opportunity to validate their decision to go into medicine.

"Ultimately, the pandemic kind of refocused what is important for me and what I want to achieve by being a doctor," Yapalater, the medical student from Penn, told 乌鸦传媒.

Before solidifying her choice to apply for internal medicine residency positions this cycle, Yapalater, who has a background in public health, wanted to become an ob/gyn. But after she worked with families of COVID-19 patients in a virtual visitation program at the height of the pandemic, she felt a desire to adopt a broader, holistic approach to patient care. Six weeks before applying to residency programs, she decided to apply to internal medicine positions.

One of the major difficulties for residency applicants this year was the inability to visit programs in person, Yapalater said. Additionally, as students were able to take more interviews due to the relieved financial and logistical burdens of traveling from program to program, some believe that this year's match could be more competitive.

UCLA's Braddock noted a heightened sense of competition for this year's cycle, explaining that, due to the rising number of graduating students and the relatively static number of available residency spots, even the high-achieving students might feel more apprehensive going into Match Day.

"The prospect of not matching is a lot more foregrounded in people's minds than it has been in the past," he said. "That's not a new phenomenon, but each year it gets a little bit more pronounced."

However, students and administrators noted that there were also benefits to the virtual interview process. Prithvi Sankar, MD, director of medical student education at the Perelman School of Medicine, said that introduction of virtual interviews significantly reduced financial burdens for students.

"Normally, it would cost thousands of dollars for students to criss-cross the country and look at programs," Sankar said. This year students just needed a nice Zoom background, and were able to complete interviews from the school's campus or their homes.

Opportunity For Change

Donna Elliott, MD, who serves as both the vice dean for medical education at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine and as the chair-designate of the National Resident Matching Program, told 乌鸦传媒 that the rush to return to in-person interviews and away rotations after the pandemic may cloud the benefits of the virtual approach that was taken this year. Anecdotally, she said, many residency program directors seem pleased with the way this year's cycle has played out.

"By the time we reflect back on this year and get information ... about their satisfaction regarding the fit, we will already be in the next cycle," Elliott said. "And we may have gone back to our old way of processing without being able to really analyze, do we need to go back?"

Elliott said that she and other administrators are already in discussions about next year's cycle, noting that it seems like there will be a return to away rotations and in-person residency interviews; the future of the process must be decided in advance of any comprehensive evaluations or data-gathering about the efficacy of the past year's distinctive, virtual approach.

"It could be a big opportunity to make a big change," Elliott said.

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