A day of anticipation and celebration: Match Day 2018

Friday, March 16, was Match Day where over 200 fourth-year medical students from UT Health San Antonio’s Long School of Medicine anxiously awaited for their names to be called to the stage. As visitors walked into John T. Floore Country Store in Helotes, where the event was held, they were met with an unequivocal buzz of excitement. Students brought along their families, friends and support systems to join them in this monumental event of their medical career.

Match Day is an annual ceremony held every third Friday of March across the 155 medical schools in the U.S., which culminates with the opening of an envelope that will dictate where the students will become residents and begin their careers as doctors. This could lead them to anywhere from Washington D.C. to Seattle or perhaps even staying here in San Antonio.

These students have thought about this event for weeks or even months leading up to it. The revelation of what that envelope reveals is life-altering and the relevance was palpable this past Friday. As students made their way up to the stage, cheers from where their family and friends sat followed. One by one, each student got up to the microphone and shouted with enthusiasm where they will be headed. Some with children, spouses, siblings and even friends by their side. There were also couples who had gone through medical school together and were now both awaiting their fate of where they will begin their residency. When synonymous locations were announced, hugs and tears of joy exuberantly followed.

As Match Day came to an end, after each student shared where they were headed, the environment was no longer anticipation of the unknown but rather celebration of what was to come.

View and download photos of this event. The password is “events”



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