It's Match Week!

Bigredmed · 03-15-2009, 06:53 PM

Probably more appropriate for the career forum, but this gets part of the board gets more traffic...

The culmination of all the interviewing and fretting over rank lists begins tomorrow!

I'm probably more anxious about this uncertainty than anything I've ever experienced. Probably due to the fact that there's this one day to count down towards more than anything...

The rundown of the week:

Monday - At noon Eastern, e-mails from the NRMP as well as the updated R3 Website tells all Match participants if they matched or not. You literally get an email that says "Did you match" in the subject line.
Students who matched get to chill until Thursday morning (or freak out about where they're possibly headed).

Students that did not match will meet with their med school administration and begin prepping their application materials.

Tuesday - At Noon eastern, the lists of all unmatched applicants as well as the programs that have openings are released - this is the Scramble. Programs and applicants can begin contacting each other and making offers/filling spots.

Thursday - At noon Eastern, results and locations of matches are revealed. Medical schools across the country have ceremonies with a variety of ways to celebrate the reveal. My school's process has the Dean of Academic Affairs pull the first name out of a hat, that person comes up, gets their envelope, places a $1 on the table, reads their result, then draws the next person's name out and the process repeats. The unfortunate soul who is last and has to sit there and hear everyone else read their match gets the prize of all the money at the end...I really don't want to be that person.

For those that are wondering, I won't be putting my actual ranking of programs down, but these are the programs that ended up on my rank list (minus my home school):

(in alphabetical order by state)

Diamond Children's/University of Arizona - Tucson, Arizona
Arkansas Children's/University of Arkansas - Little Rock, Arkansas
Brenner Children's/Wake Forest University - Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Nationwide Children's/Ohio State University - Columbus, Ohio
Children's Medical Center Dallas/University of Texas-Southwestern - Dallas, Texas
Primary Children's Medical Center/University of Utah - Salt Lake City, Utah

This is a very exciting time, though very nerve wracking as well. It would be a shock to not match, being a pediatrics applicant, but it does happen and I've definitely had nightmares over the past couple weeks about that possibility. Monday will be crossing that first bridge, and overall Match Day should be a happy time for me - though if I ended up at the program that's 7th on my list I would be pretty upset...

Shraf · 03-15-2009, 07:10 PM

thanks for this post....its a very interesting preview of what is to come

....i had only recently heard about "the scramble" and though i haven't even started my first day of med school yet it terrifies me

best of luck and let us know how it turns out!

shades_children · 03-15-2009, 07:12 PM

Good reminder - come Monday at my school, we first- and second-years are basically locked out of the administration offices because they're focusing all their resources on the fourth-years who didn't match.

Let us know how it goes!

norcalguy · 03-15-2009, 10:52 PM

Good luck tomorrow!

We got an email last week basically warning us to stay out of the medical education office for the next week.

ZFanatic · 03-15-2009, 11:38 PM

UTSWMC is a great place, at least from what I've experienced in the laboratory research part of it. I'm only a high school student but everyone is extremely friendly, which is pretty nice IMO. Hopefully everything works out for ya.

curmudgeon · 03-15-2009, 11:55 PM

Good luck Brm. I know you'll do great.

eadad · 03-16-2009, 02:40 AM

Good Luck BRM...keep us posted. If you end up at UTSW, I'll buy you an adult beverage of your choice some day!

cutiepie911 · 03-16-2009, 12:52 PM

Good luck BRM...i'm sure you'll do great!

Bigredmed · 03-16-2009, 06:01 PM

One bridge crossed today...I successfully matched! I knew the statistics were highly in my favor (93% of US Seniors match across all specialties and I'm going into a "less" competitive field), but it's nice to have that cleared up and out of the way. It's nice to be able to say "I've got a job waiting for me"...especially in this economy.

Now it's just a matter of finding out where...

Icarus · 03-16-2009, 06:14 PM

Congrats BRM! What sort of festivities does your school have for match day?

Pharmagal · 03-16-2009, 08:12 PM

Congratulations, BRM! Way to go!

Shraf · 03-16-2009, 10:07 PM

Congrats!!!

Bigredmed · 03-16-2009, 10:08 PM

Most of my class is getting together on the morning of Match Day for "kegs 'n eggs" (when you tailgate for football games like my friends and I do...it just comes natural). Nothing too crazy. A lot of people are bringing breakfast stuff. The actual Match Day ceremony starts around 10:30am, and is as I outlined above. Revealing order is random, and everyone puts a dollar into the pool that the last person to reveal get's to take with them. After that, our social chairs have put together a function at one of the local brewpubs. Usually the festivities carry on well into the night...I think we've earned it!

MomofWildChild · 03-18-2009, 05:38 PM

Good luck. My son in law went through match last year and it was very exciting. He had a strong indication ahead of time, but until he opened the envelope he and my daughter were still nervous.
Let us know!

GA2012MOM · 03-18-2009, 10:22 PM

Best of luck to you BRM, and thank you for all your help on this forum.