As if medical school isn’t challenging enough.
Students study hard for years working toward a degree. They log long hours in clinics, labs, and classrooms. Then, just before graduation, they surrender their future to an algorithm.
This is the tradition of Match Day, when medical students across the country are matched to the residency program by a computer program, determining not only where they will work, but also the type of doctor they will become.
UCSF School of Medicine 2012 graduates were matched to residencies in 19 states. Residencies positions will begin later this spring.
“Every doctor remembers their Match Day,” said Maxine Papadakis, MD, assistant dean of students at UCSF School of Medicine. “It’s a moment when students know what their future will bring after medical school.”
On Friday, 158 UCSF medical students crowded into Millberry Union and were handed their match results in a sealed envelope. At precisely 9 a.m. — after a suspenseful countdown — they and more than 38,000 other U.S. medical school students opened the letters and learned their fates.
“A residency sets the stage for your career,” said Tyrone Chan, fourth-year medical student at UCSF. “You spend years there and it’s where you build your first professional network.”
The experience has been compared to opening SAT scores or a college acceptance letter in front of a large audience. Read more
