The Match

Since the Match has been a large part of our lives the last few weeks, I thought I would write a little about it. The Match is a process whereby medical students (applicants) and residency programs rank their preferences and then match their preferences accordingly. It sounds complicated. Basically, instead of each applicant being offered several spots, each applicant ranks where they want to go, as does each program rank which students they want, and then each applicant is assigned to a program based on their coinciding rank lists.

Anyway, Match day is a big deal for medical students, and also one that causes a lot of stress. At many schools, there is a Match day ceremony, where each student finds out individually where they matched. At SLU, we each are called up randomly where we get an envelope with where we matched. At that point we can open the envelope in front of everyone or wait and go open it on our own. Match day this year is March 18th, at 11:00 AM. That's only 10 days away!

My top two choices are in St. Louis, followed by Baylor in Houston, and OHSU in Portland. We will see where I end up!