More than 200 medical students and their families did more than kick up their heels at John T. Floore Country Store in Helotes on Match Day, March 15. They jumped for joy, cried with relief and shouted with glee as each student opened an envelope and caught a glimpse of the future.
Match Day is a rite of passage when graduating medical students throughout the U.S. find out where their residency training will take them – and perhaps where their medical careers will be launched. The new doctors will be heading to New York or Hawaii, Florida or California ― or staying in San Antonio or South Texas.
“I’m so excited that my family is here to see this,” said Rosemary Liu, who matched the medicine-pediatrics program at the University of Minnesota. “That was my first choice,” she said breathlessly. “When I visited there I fell in love with the program and the people.”
Christopher Adcock is headed for UT Southwestern in Dallas in anesthesiology and is excited to be going home. “We’re pumped,” said his wife, Marissa, “and baby number two is on the way!”
Before the loud and celebratory event began, Robert R. Hromas, M.D., dean of the Long School of Medicine, recounted his own Match Day at the UT Medical School at Houston.
“We all opened our envelopes together as a class,” he said. “And I matched with the University of Iowa. And I was so deflated, so depressed. That was my second choice. And so I want to say, all of you who don’t get your first choice, you are future deans.”
During their fourth year of medical school, medical students typically interview with several graduate medical education programs and health care institutions to compete for residency slots in various specialties and have ranked their top choices. The health care institutions and programs also have ranked their top choices of residents. Match Day reveals where the students have been accepted.
This year, 97 percent of seniors in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine were matched in a residency program of choice. By comparison, 84 percent of students nationwide matched to the top four programs on their rank list. Forty-two percent of the Long graduates this year will remain in Texas for their residency.
Match Day is held by UT Health’s Long School of Medicine in conjunction with the National Resident Matching Program, an initiative sponsored by the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Council of Medical Specialty Societies. The National Resident Matching Program is a private, not-for-profit corporation that ensures both a standardized systematic process and uniform period of appointment to positions in graduate medical education.