Rutgers Medical Students—Committed to Improving Care—Learn Their Futures on Match Day

Competing in Division 1 gymnastics fulfilled a lifelong dream for Leah Gneco, but serious injuries got in the way.

She was a college sophomore when a surgeon determined she had withstood too much physical damage to ever return to the mat and would likely even have trouble keeping up with her friends and family on hikes and vacations. Yet, he waited until six months after surgery to tell her - otherwise, he worried, she might not have been motivated during physical rehabilitation.

Gneco was devastated. She understood the doctor's reason for withholding the information, but she would have preferred to know sooner so she could have planned more realistically for her future. She decided to enter the medical field to treat patients the way she wished she had been treated.

"We need more doctors who not only care about whether surgery is done right, but also a patient's mental health afterwards and how the procedure will impact their function and future," Gneco said. "It motivated me to be that doctor."

On March 20, during the nation's annual Match Day event, the fourth-year student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) learned where she'll complete the next step in her training as an anesthesiologist.

That day, Gneco was among thousands of medical school students across the country - including her RWJMS classmate Sofia Chapman and Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) students Sidney K. Chu and Rachel Lee-Carey - who found out which hospitals had accepted them as residents. The scene was similar at both Rutgers campuses and throughout the United States, as medical students opened envelopes at the same moment nationwide to learn what the next phase of their careers would look like.

After meeting for interviews earlier this year, the students and hospitals ranked each other in order of preference, and the National Resident Matching Program used an algorithm to pair them.

"Match Day is a proud and defining moment not only for our students, but for the entire community of mentors, faculty, family and friends who helped make this achievement possible," said Robert L. Johnson, dean of NJMS and interim chancellor for Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. "Watching this dedicated class take their next steps reaffirms the strength of our mission and the bright future of healthcare. Today, we celebrate not only where they matched, but also the purpose and promise they carry forward."

At NJMS, 187 graduating students participated in Match Day, with 93% matching to a program of their choice, mirroring this year's national match rate of 93%. Among those students, 78 (41%) matched to a New Jersey program - 56 (31%) of those to a residency program at Rutgers and 37 (20%) specifically to a program at NJMS. Other NJMS students matched at top institutions including Johns Hopkins, UCLA Medical Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Duke, Emory and the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

At RWJMS, 153 graduating seniors participated in match processes this year, with a match rate of 96%. Among those students, 50 (33%) matched to a New Jersey program - 30 (20%) of those to a Rutgers residency program and 25 (16%) specifically to a program at RWJMS. Other RWJMS students will complete their residencies at top institutions including the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford Health Care, Cedars Sinai, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine.

"Match Day marks an extraordinary milestone in the journey of our medical students," said Amy P. Murtha, founding dean of RWJMS. "The Class of 2026 has demonstrated remarkable dedication and talent, earning placements at many of the nation's most prestigious residency programs across a wide range of specialties. We are incredibly proud to see them carry forward the values of excellence, compassion and service that define our school."