Some couldn’t eat breakfast. Others had been tense for weeks. The only way to ease their excitement was to open the sealed envelope with their name on it.
This was the scene of “Match Day” March 15, when 185 fourth-year medical students from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio found out where they would continue their education as medical residents.
The annual event is held on the same date throughout the United States and is the result of a double-selection process. Medical students interview with several medical schools that offer their specialty and select their top three choices. In turn, the medical schools evaluate the applicants and select their top choices. The National Residency Matching Program makes the final “match” of applicants to schools, thus the sealed envelopes and high anticipation.
A sampling of assignmentsAdam Bruggeman will be moving to the University of Florida at Gainesville for a residency in orthopedics. He is excited to know that next fall he will be on the sidelines to patch up injured Gator football players. “They had the national champion football team this year and the No. 1 seed in NCAA basketball. Now I’ll be one of their team physicians,” he said.
Franchell Richard, who will be studying general surgery at Eastern Virginia, carefully pinned her new location on a United States map. Meanwhile, Hugh White crowed “Radiology, San Antonio!” over the microphone in his best announcer voice. Illeana Silva, who will be studying pediatrics at the Health Science Center, was rewarded for being the last to learn her match. She got to take home the bowlful of $1 bills that medical students deposited when they picked up their envelope.
Class stats51 percent of residents will be leaving Texas.
27 percent will be staying at the Health Science Center.
22 percent will go other Texas institutions
The leading specialties include:
• Internal medicine — 21 percent
• Pediatrics — 20 percent
• Anesthesiology — 9 percent
• Family medicine — 7 percent
• Obstetrics/gynecology — 6 percent
• Surgery — 6 percent
