Baylor wraps up another successful Match Day!

Baylor College of Medicine students gathered with their families, peers and mentors for Match Day, the culmination of the National Residency Matching Program that pairs fourth-year medical students with residency programs across the country. This marked the final Baylor Match Day under the leadership of President, CEO and Executive Dean Dr. Paul Klotman, who will retire in June.

Match Day is held on the same date and time across the county. At Baylor, the festive, colorful and photo-op laden event was held at the outdoor courtyard with students tearing open the envelopes containing their match letter at precisely 11 a.m.

Baylor continued its strong tradition of its students matching into primary care fields, where physicians are most critically needed, with many students staying in Texas and at Baylor.

• 72 students, or about 40 percent of the students matching, are beginning their residencies in the primary care fields of family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, medicine/pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology or emergency medicine.
• 53 students matched with residency programs at Baylor College of Medicine.
• 90 matched with residency programs in Texas.

Leading up to the envelope reveal, students and guests heard a brief program of remarks, including remarks from Klotman, who issued his annual reminder to students that the day is called ‘Match Day’ for a reason.

“It’s not called ‘Selection Day,’ it’s called Match Day. That is a very important distinction, because what it means is that there is a place that wants you, perhaps more than you may even want to go there,” Klotman said. “It doesn’t make any difference where you ranked them. All that makes a difference is that they want you, and that is the right place for you to go.”

He added that it’s okay for Baylor graduates “to have a fair amount of swag. You will be the best trained people anywhere.”

Class of 2026 President Aaron Pathak, who matched in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, also addressed his classmates, reflecting on their four years of medical school together and on what lies ahead.

“As we spread across the country, I can’t wait until those chance sightings of my former classmates become me telling future trainees, ‘Yes, that’s my friend who wrote the guidelines, my friend who advocated for change, my friend who invented that device and my friend who treated every patient with the humanism I would trust for my own family,’” Pathak said.

“Remember that anywhere we go, there will be people who will see what it meant to train in the world’s largest and one of the most diverse medical centers with our amazing faculty,” he said. “People who will be impressed by all of your hard work, people who will look to you as their future mentors and, most of all, people who will be coming to you for help as their doctor. No matter where we go, our job remains the same – to serve our communities, to be stewards of health and to follow that oath we made together three years ago.”

The program also included remarks from Interim School of Medicine Senior Dean Dr. Gordon Schutze and Dr. Lee Poythress, associate dean of student affairs who served as Match Day emcee.

“I'd like to thank all the faculty from Baylor College of Medicine for helping in your education, and all of the people at the affiliate hospitals where you worked, who participated in your training,” Schutze said. “We’re excited to see the accomplishments of the class of 2026. The name on this envelope, for me, changed my life and my career in a positive way. And I hope it does that for you as well.”

View photos and video from the event.