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Balloons falling, cheering, clapping, hugging, high fiving, and jumping for joy. These are the sights and sounds that filled the gymnasium on Loyola University Chicago’s Health Sciences Campus during the Match Day celebration on Friday, March 20, just after the fourth-year medical students (M4s) opened their personalized envelopes to learn where they matched for residency. The Stritch M4s, their families and friends, and members of the Stritch community gathered to celebrate the milestone and the hard work it entailed.
Match Day is an annual rite of passage for medical students in United States. At precisely 11 a.m. CT (noon ET), M4s across the country open the envelopes that reveal where they will continue their medical training in residency for the next three to seven years. The National Resident Matching Program uses a computerized algorithm to match applicants’ preferences with those of residency program directors. This year’s match was the largest to date, with more than 53,000 applicants competing for more than 44,000 positions in over 6,800 programs across the U.S.
Loyola’s Match Day program included a welcome from M4 Class President Athena Barrett and Class Vice President Phaedra Johnson, a blessing by Chaplain Justin Hoch, LSW, and remarks from Loyola University Chicago President Mark C. Reed and Stritch School of Medicine Dean Sam J. Marzo (MD ’91).
“We’ve worked tirelessly and grown a lot over the last four years both professionally and personally because of our training here at Stritch. We’ve also built a community together that’s so close knit and very supportive,” Johnson said. “We are growing today as future physicians and also as friends, and I’m really excited to see where we all end up.”
James Mendez, senior associate dean of student affairs, announced the Match Day statistics for the Class of 2026. At Stritch, 159 medical students matched in 24 specialties across 58 states. Primary care was the largest with 35%, and it includes family medicine (4%), pediatrics (5%), med/peds (3%), internal medicine (22%), and preliminary medicine (2%). Emergency medicine had 14% of student matching while anesthesiology, general surgery and obstetrics-gynecology each had 6% matching. Other matched specialties include dermatology, orthophaedic surgery, ophthalmology, psychiatry, and radiology.
