It took many years for 180 University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine students to reach a crucial step in their journey to become the healers of tomorrow. It took just a moment to rip open an envelope and discover where that step will take them.
In a day that began with anticipation, then evolved into elation, fourth-year medical students gathered with their families and friends in the soaring atrium of the Anschutz Health Sciences Building on March 20 for Match Day – the day they learned where they will be heading after graduation for their clinical-training residencies, on their way to becoming licensed physicians.
“Here at CU, we are a community that celebrates achievement, and Match Day is one of those extraordinary moments in your life,” Dean John Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA, told the students. “You will remember this day forever.”
Match Day is a springtime ritual repeated each year at medical schools across the nation, under a system designed to bring order to the residency selection system.
From coast to coast, at the same moment on the third Friday of March each year, medical students nationwide learn which of the residency programs they applied for would be their next professional destination.
Sampson advised the students that “becoming an excellent physician while maintaining your love of learning, your autonomy, your passion, and your path – that should be your highest goal. I know all of you are going to do great things in your careers. We’re going to be cheering you along every step of the way.”
Photo at top: Fourth-year medical student Ry Hemond (center) is congratulated as students open their envelopes to learn their residency destination at the CU Anschutz School of Medicine Match Day 2026 celebration on March 20, 2026. Photo by Melissa Santorelli | CU Anschutz School of Medicine.
CU Anschutz School of Medicine Dean John Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA, poses with students at Match Day 2026. Photo by Melissa Santorelli | CU Anschutz School of Medicine.
Opening the envelopes
It was a busy day for Josiah Shaw. First, he and fellow fourth-year student Fady Wassef served as masters of ceremonies, warming up the crowd with gentle gibes about ChatGPT helping the students through medical school and scanning a QR code on the screen to get credit for attending.
Later, Shaw joined his classmates in stepping up to a table to pick up a black envelope with his match inside. Then came a seemingly long wait for the strike of 10 a.m., the appointed hour for the envelopes to be opened. Jeffrey SooHoo, MD, MBA, associate dean of admissions and student affairs, cautioned the students against holding the envelopes up to the light to read what was inside. “We put them in black envelopes for a reason,” he said. “This is not our first rodeo.”
At exactly 10 a.m. came a countdown, and then Shaw and his classmates tore open their envelopes. In quick succession came cheers from the crowd, bursts of tears, and hugs.
Shaw – for whom medicine is a second career after 10 years in engineering and who has lived in Denver most of that time – learned he had matched into emergency medicine at Harbor-University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center.
“I knew I would have mixed emotions, no matter what, and I was right,” the Oklahoma native said moments later. “There's no perfect place. There are different proximities to family, and different strengths and weaknesses in the programs. There is some bittersweet to it.”
But he added, “I’m really happy with where I matched. We’ve all worked really hard on the long journey to this moment today. It feels really good to be here.”
Each student placed a pin on a map to indicate where they will be residents. Photo by Melissa Santorelli | CU Anschutz School of Medicine.
‘I’m so lucky’
Nearby, Ry Hemond, originally from the Boston area, was grinning and bouncing with delight moments after learning they were matched into the child neurology program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
Good news? “Oh my gosh, yeah! CHOP was such a dream. It’s such an incredible program. And it’ll be so nice to be back on the East Coast. I’m so lucky!”
Hemond is deeply interested in rural medicine, and noted that CHOP has partnerships with hospitals in rural parts of Pennsylvania. “I hiked the Appalachian Trail, and Appalachia is one of the most medically underserved areas in our country,” they said.
The 180 students matched to residency programs in 34 states. Of the 59 students who will stay in Colorado, 39 will join CU Anschutz School of Medicine programs. One is Pritika Parmar, who matched into dermatology. She opened her envelope surrounded by family.
“I’m very happy. It was mostly shock when I opened it,” said Parmar, from the Denver area. “I’m really excited I got this far, and that I’m staying close to my mentors who have done so much for me.”
California was the No. 2 state on the match list, welcoming 22 CU Anschutz School of Medicine students, and Washington ranked third with nine. Of the medical specialties, the top five for matches were internal medicine (42), general surgery (19), emergency medicine (18), family medicine (15) and anesthesiology (11).
The Class of 2026 is the second to have been trained under the school's redesigned Trek Curriculum, focusing on the values of leadership, curiosity, and commitment while integrating basic science learning to coincide with clinical training cycles.
Students specializing in family medicine pose on Match Day. Photo by Melissa Santorelli | CU Anschutz School of Medicine.
How matching works
The residency matching system used today is a far cry from the chaotic system of decades ago.
In the early 1900s, hospitals competed in trying to lock up promising students as early as halfway through medical school. After 1945, it was agreed that residency offers would be made only to fourth-year students, but students often received multiple offers and were pressured to accept or reject one of them within hours.
In 1952, the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) was inaugurated and was refined in later years. Now, in September of their fourth year, medical students submit residency applications to hospitals and other programs, followed by interviews through the fall. Starting in February, both students and residency programs submit confidential ranked lists to NRMP officials reflecting their preferences for training.
NRMP then uses a mathematical algorithm to match student applicants into their most preferred residency position at a hospital that also prefers them. Students nationwide learned on March 16 whether they had successfully matched to a residency, and found out which one on Match Day.
A student poses in front of a Match Day 2026 balloon sign. Photo by Melissa Santorelli | CU Anschutz School of Medicine.
‘Go out and save the world’
Before opening their envelopes, students watched a video featuring clips of their parents, siblings, and other loved ones expressing their pride in what they had accomplished. “Go out there and save the world – one patient at a time,” one family member said in the video.
Later, keynote speaker Arun Kannappan, MD, associate professor of medicine, advised the students that as they enter into the medical profession, what success looks like will be up to them to determine, “whether it’s delivering excellent patient care, advancing science innovation and discovery, or leading a successful practice, mentoring or teaching, or making time to nurture relationships between your family and friends.”
Madeline Olson, addressing her classmates as student speaker, talked eloquently of her stepfather being treated for terminal cancer at CU Anschutz, and how “uncertainty is not an exception in health care, but the reality in which our patients and family live.”
Olson added: “If medical school has taught us anything, it is that we are capable of far more than we imagined. We've been stretched, challenged, and humbled, and we've kept going. We walked into rooms not knowing what we would say, and found the words anyway. We've been asked questions that we could not answer — more than I'd like to admit — and we learned how to respond with honesty rather than fear. We've made mistakes, learned from them, and come back the next day ready to try again. And in doing so, we've learned something extraordinary: that we can meet the unexpected, absorb it, and still move forward.”
Classmates celebrate at Match Day 2026. Photo by Melissa Santorelli | CU Anschutz School of Medicine.
'We will always be in your corner'
Next, students walked one by one across the stage to announce their residency destinations, with one shouting: “Thanks to everyone I ever met!”
Shanta Zimmer, MD, executive vice dean for education, referred to the procession of students in her closing remarks.
“I want to reflect back to you, parents and loved ones, that what I heard from every student who came across the stage was a thank you,” Zimmer said. “The full circle of pride and gratitude is something that we will see over and over again in their careers of medicine.”
She then told the students: “You've made some of the greatest friends in your lives and your time here at CU, and that's going to continue for the rest of your careers. I hope you count us, your faculty and your team, as your friends as well. Welcome to our profession of medicine. We will always be in your corner. Congratulations, class of 2026.”
