Today I was lucky enough to once again join the crowd at one of medical school's most emotional days of the year. Match Day, the traditional opening-of-the-envelope that holds a medical student's future inside, was celebrated at the Li Ka Shing Center on the medical school campus early this morning. And like usual, there was much hugging and tears involved. The process of determining where graduating medical students will spend their residencies begins months before this day - with endless interviews and applications. But the final decision comes down to the individual white envelopes that get handed out one-by-one to each medical student after the 9 a.m. deadline passes.
The crowd of nail-biting, foot-tapping students, for one day has to give up complete control over their lives. And, rest assured, it's not easy for this crowd of over-achievers. The result was that by 9:15 a.m., like usual, the Berg Hall lobby was filled with hugging, tearful, joyful future doctors, and their family and friends.
For more details on the high drama and the statistics involved, read through my Match Day story:
Charles Prober, MD, senior associate dean for medical education, teased the crowd with a few interesting tidbits about the day's matches. Students matched in 12 different states in 16 different specialties, he said. The largest group, 23 students, matched in internal medicine; nine matched in radiology; eight in pediatrics.
Previously: A match made in heaven? Medical students await their fate, Who got matched? A breakdown of Match Day 2011, It’s Match Day and Brian Eule discusses Match Day book
