Winter/Spring 1980

Match Day 1980

“Match Day is the culmination of several months of planning, counseling, and decision making on the part of senior medical students, deans and faculty, as well as hospitals participating in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). The program was developed during the 1950s when there were more internship positions available than there were medical school graduates to fill them. As a result, many hospitals were exerting pressure on students to sign contracts for their internships early in their senior year; some even pressed for decisions early in the sophomore or junior years. In 1953, after several attempts to establish an equitable system for internship appointments, the basic rules of the existing NRMP were set. …

“This year, March 12 was Match Day. At Yale, of the 96 members of the Class of 1980, 42 students received appointments to the hospital of their first choice; 19 were appointed to the hospital they listed as second choice; and 10 to their third choice.”