Events

Class of 2025 Celebrates Residency Placements on Match Day

Graduating students discover their next phase of medical training in programs across the country

March 21, 2025

Members of KPSOM’s 2025 graduating class celebrate their residency placement news at the school’s Match Day event on Friday, March 21.

Joy and gratitude were in the air as members of the Class of 2025 learned where they have been accepted for residency training after graduation at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine’s Match Day event.

With family, friends, and loved ones in attendance, the students celebrated receiving the long-awaited news revealing where they will receive immersive training in their chosen specialties at hospitals and medical centers across the country. Match Day marks a major step in each fourth-year medical student’s path to becoming a physician, and Class of 2025 members described the emotion and excitement of waiting for the final decision to arrive in their email inboxes on Friday morning—as well as the anticipation of graduating from medical students to doctors-in-training.

“There was a lot of anxiety building up to this moment,” said student Shaheed Muhammad. “But being able to share it with my classmates truly makes it something that we’ll remember forever. So, I feel a lot of joy, not only for myself, but also for everyone that I've been on this journey with.

“I'm really excited to feel like a doctor, to feel like I'm able to make that difference, to feel like I'm able to put in the orders myself and connect with patients without another person in the room,” Muhammad added. “To just really, finally feel like I'm the primary care provider and that I can make a difference.”

For KPSOM Dean and CEO John L. Dalrymple, MD, who assumed leadership of the school in mid-2024, this was his first Match Day at the helm. And it was only the second Match Day in the history of the school itself, which opened its doors in 2020.

“On this day, the second match in the history of [KPSOM], I have been blown away to see where our graduates, our soon-to-be graduates, have matched,” Dalrymple said. “Not only the specialties and the subspecialties that they've decided to match into, but also the locations where they have matched into programs across the country, and in some of the premier programs that any student would be thrilled to match into.

“I think it says a lot about our students, their competencies, their abilities, and their successes,” said Dalrymple. “And it also reflects the school that we have built here and what we've been able to do to help develop those students. They can not only pursue the specialties that they went to, but in the programs—anywhere in the country—that they really want to.”

Among the 2025 graduating class, 50% of students will remain in California for their residencies, with 8% of students matched to a Kaiser Permanente residency program for all or part of their training. The top three institutions with the most matches for KPSOM students are ISMMS Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, UC Davis Medical Center, and UC San Diego Medical Center. Internal Medicine (21%), Family Medicine (8%), Obstetrics and Gynecology (8%), and Pediatrics (8%) are the top specialties that students matched into, and 38% are matched into primary care specialties, including Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics.

The feeling of elation was palpable as students and their guests, as well as KPSOM leaders, faculty, and staff, gathered in a ballroom at the Pasadena Convention Center for the celebration Friday afternoon. Congratulatory remarks were delivered by Dalrymple and other school officials.

“What a journey you have been on to get to this day,” said Anne Eacker, Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs. “And all of us faculty, staff, your peers, your family and friends have been here alongside you, watching you navigate many firsts. Your first time wearing a white coat, using your stethoscope, providing challenging news to a patient and their family. You've each been on your individual and collective yellow brick road and now you're almost to the Emerald City of residency.”

Dean and CEO John L. Dalrymple, MD, delivers remarks at the 2025 KPSOM Match Day Celebration event at the Pasadena Convention Center.

Match Day is observed by more than 150 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). Beginning the Monday of Match Week, student applicants find out if they have been matched to a residency program, but they don't learn which exact program until Friday of that week, hence the term “Match Day.”

At the KPSOM celebration, Class of 2025 students took the stage to share where they matched and in what specialty they will receive their training, then each pinned their match locations on a large map of the United States. The students thanked their families and friends, as well as their faculty mentors and others, for supporting them through the challenges of medical school. Many expressed how much they will miss the close-knit community of students that have rallied around one another over the past four years.

KPSOM student Victor Escobedo at the Match Day celebration event.

“When I started at KPSOM, I was honestly really insecure being kind of a non-traditional student,” said Daniel Zhong. “I was worried that I wouldn't fit in. I was worried that, you know, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the workload. The main thing that's happened to me is just because of the amazing faculty here, and especially my classmates, I learned to really believe in myself and find my passion, which is in psychiatry. When I started this journey, I didn't know what my purpose in life was. But now, at the end of this road, I finally feel like I have it.”

Students at KPSOM and other medical schools began applying to residency programs in their chosen specialties last September. In the post-COVID era, many interviews are now conducted virtually as well as in-person, enabling applicants to remotely visit and evaluate prospective residency programs. Students rank their preferred programs, while residency program directors interview and evaluate the students. Most, though not all, matches are assigned through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), which oversees the process nationally and uses a computerized mathematical “matching algorithm” to place applicants into residency and fellowships at US teaching hospitals.

Class of 2025 Celebrates Residency Placements on Match Day

Blazing the Trail into Residency

Students Reflect as Match Day 2025 Arrives

Class of 2025 Celebrates Residency Placements on Match Day

Blazing the Trail into Residency

Students Reflect as Match Day 2025 Arrives

Class of 2025 Celebrates Residency Placements on Match Day

Recent News