What a match!

Faculty members, friends and family packed the Celestin Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans Friday (March 18) to cheer on members of the Tulane University School of MedicineClass of 2016 as they learned where they’ll spend the next chapter of their careers.

This year’s Match Day was one of the largest with 203 graduating seniors placed in residencies across the country, including 21 in Louisiana, said Dr. Marc Kahn, Peterman-Prosser Professor of Medicine and senior associate dean of student affairs.

“We’re really excited about this year’s match,” said Kahn, noting that more than 26,300 students participated in the program nationally. “That’s an all-time record.”

“We’re really excited about this year’s match … an all-time record.”

Dr. Marc Kahn

VIDEO: Watch graduating medical students meet their matches.

Tulane’s class was bigger this year because it was the first to include students from two accelerated programs, the Health Education Adaptive Learning Experience, a three-and-a-half-year program for PhD research scientists and the Tulane Accelerated Physician Training Program (TAP-TP), which allows undergraduates to complete their medical and undergraduate degrees within seven years, including a year of public service.

“It seems like it’s been a full transformation for me,” said TAP-TP student Brian Templet, who joined Tulane as a freshman in 2009. “It’s been a long road. It’s cool to see it all pay off.”

Templet was matched in a family medicine residency locally at East Jefferson General Hospital.

This year, 73 students — almost 36 percent of the class — matched in primary care. There was also an increased interest in emergency medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics, Kahn said.

Alex Bernadett was elated to get his No. 1 choice. He’ll spend his family medicine residency in Seattle at Swedish Medical Center.

“There are no words to describe how I feel about our class and everyone in this room,” he said. “We are all so lucky to be here.”