A bit nervous and with great anticipation, Jade Edwards delicately and deliberately unsealed the white envelope containing her future.
She unfolded the paper inside, took a deep breath and read.
"Oh my God," Edwards exclaimed. A wide smile emerged. She glanced at the letter again, and then shared the news. The Weill Cornell Medical College senior got her first choice residency in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee.
"I worked very hard for this and I'm just so happy," she said as she hugged her fellow medical students and faculty who got her to this moment.
Edwards was one of 94 graduating Weill Cornell M.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. students who learned where they will be doing their residency training — the next three to seven years of their medical careers — during national Match Day Friday.
At the stroke of 12 p.m., a red velvet rope was withdrawn and students poured toward a table in Griffis Faculty Club filled with envelopes. Within moments, the room was filled with shouts of joy, clinking champagne glasses and the sound of students frantically calling home with good news.
Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher toasts the Weill Cornell Medical College seniors who matched during Match Day Friday.
"Match Day is one of the most exciting days of the year," said Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College. "The room is just filled with joy, and I'm so proud of our students. We think our graduates are the best of the best, and that's what this match shows."
More than 40,000 graduating medical students around the globe competed for approximately 25,000 residency positions in the largest match in the National Resident Matching Program's history. More than half of U.S. seniors matched to their first choice.
The results at Weill Cornell were equally exceptional, Dr. Glimcher said. Of the 94 students matched, 88 will receive their training at the top 50 institutions as ranked by U.S.News & World Report. Fourteen will complete their residences at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and two at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. In total, 30 seniors will stay in metropolitan New York.
Among them are Juvy Abdullah, who was matched at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell for internal medicine, and Jason Lehman, matched at Hospital for Special Surgery for orthopedic surgery. What they've accomplished, they said, is as much a relief as it is surreal.
"I think it just shows that hard work pays off," Lehman said. "I think everyone here worked really hard. I think there were times during medical school when we didn't think this day would come, and it's just great to see that it did and everyone is happy."
Abdullah had much to celebrate with her fellow seniors Friday. Staying at Weill Cornell was exactly what she wanted.
"I had such an amazing time during my clerkships that it just felt right," she said.
Match Day is the culmination of a four-year journey for graduating medical students, one of the final milestones before graduation but one that is just as pivotal in their burgeoning careers in medicine.
"It's absolutely critical where you do your training as an intern and a resident because when you graduate from medical school you're not ready to be a physician yet," Dr. Glimcher said. "We want our students to go to the very best hospitals to do their training and this year they really knocked it out of the park."