April 2, 2001

On March 22, at exactly 12:05 p.m., UConn School of Medicine students, along with medical students across the country in the Class of 2001, tore open envelopes that held the key to their futures - which residency program they will enter.

"We had an excellent match this year," said Anthony Voytovich, associate dean for Medical Student Affairs. "Everyone has a position for July, and we placed our students into some excellent programs."

Some of those programs are at institutions such as Mass. General, Johns Hopkins, Beth Israel Deaconess, Brown, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Lukes, Chicago, Tufts Oregon Health Science University, University of Texas-San Antonio, and Duke.

For the class as a whole, 61 percent received their first choice of residency programs; and 86 percent placed within their first three choices.

More than half (55 percent) of the class have chosen primary care specialties, which include family practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics.

UConn medical students will be in top residency programs in 18 states. Twenty-eight of the medical students will be in residency programs in Connecticut; 19 will stay at UConn Health Center, five will go to Yale, two to Middlesex Memorial, and one each to Hartford and St. Raphael's hospitals.

"I'm pleased that many of our students have chosen to stay in Connecticut and that so many chose to stay at UConn," said Voytovich. "It reinforces the fact that we offer an outstanding medical education and deliver outstanding doctors into the community."

The National Resident Matching Program was established in 1952 to provide a way to end the chaotic state of applicants and programs being forced to make commitments before all options could be considered. The program also provides a common time for the announcement of appointments, and a mutual agreement that honors the commitment to offer and accept an appointment when a match results.

Jane Shaskan