What was Match Day like for you?

[PrincessFiona]

For those of you who have already gone through the match.....what was "Match Day" like for you guys?


Kris

Huh. Honestly, I am having to try hard to remember. Maybe I'm distracted by working on our ROL list for the second match we will be in.
The first match was really kind of uneventful for us. Not really the full match experience, I guess you could say. We were in Colorado for med school and had decided to rank the CU IM program #1 and Oregon IM #2. Because we were fairly certain that he would match at CU, there were no big surprises.
The surprise for us was that at the last minute we were really contemplating and debating ranking Oregon first, knowing there was a very good chance we would go there. In the end we decided to keep CU #1. Funny that now we have a chance to move to Portland again and it is probably our #1 choice.
The match lunch was fun. It was really exciting to see our friends find out that they got their first or second choices. And great to see our friends families there to celebrate as well. I think that everyone was really happy with how it turned out.

I can't believe I don't remember more of this.....sorry my story isn't very exciting.

[SueC]

Gosh--that was 4 and a half years ago! It is amazing that that much time has passed already. We were engaged at the time so it was pretty exciting to find out where we would start our lives together. My husband had ranked KU #1 (which is where he went to med school) and we were pretty sure he was going to get in there, so we weren't really surprised. But there was that bit of uncertainty that made it pretty exciting. I took the day off and they held the match in an auditorium and announced where everyone was going. It was really neat to find out where everyone else was off to. Our best friends (engaged also) had ranked Stanford #1, and since it is such a prestigious program, we were so excited that he got in, although sad they would be leaving. We haven't seen them since their wedding almost 5 years ago!

[Amiens]

For us... it was fairly eventful. Because Matt was doing Anesthesia, and had decided to do his internship in IM- we had to do an ROL for Anesthesia, and then an ROL for the internships for each anesthesia residency. His ROL went like this #1 Dartmouth (sub- #1 Dartmouth, #2 St. Joseph's #3 Colorado, #4 Vermont), #2 Utah (#1 Utah, #2 Colorado), #3 Univ WA (#1 St. Joe's , #2 Colorado, #3 Oregon), #4 Colorado (he had gone to med school at Colorado, and wanted to spread his wings and venture out- he would have been a shoe-in if he ranked them #1. We ended up with his third choice- Matt was pretty shocked that it turned out that way. I remember I opened the letter to look at it first, and my jaw dropped, and Matt grabbed and looked at it and said "Colorado for Internship- surprise, surprise (Matt went to med school at CO)! Washington for Anesthesia??!!" He wasn't too happy that he got into Washington, because he really wanted to go to Dartmouth, as that is where his uncle had done his anesthesia residency, and surely thought he was going to get in, and it would have been a really laid back residency. Matt looked at me and said "Let's go, I don't want to stay and have fun, because I am unhappy. Let's just leave for my parents now." I told him "Look mister, you paid $XX for me to be here, I am pregnant, and I am hungry- we are staying so I can eat." (I ended up m/c a couple of weeks later after at 11 wks, but got pregnant with Emma the very next month! ). He said "Ok" and kind of pouted for a minute, and then left to refill our drinks. Another med student (nmh- your hubby would remember Dave Strock) came up and asked me if Matt was happy about his match. I told him how Matt matched at WA, and he was a bit bummed. Dave then asked if he could do an imitation of Matt, and I said "sure!" Dave proceeds to do this (with a whiny voice) "My name is Matt___ and I matched Univ WA, only one of THE top 5 programs for anesthesia in the country, and possibly #1 on the west coast, and I am bummed (putting his hands on his waist)!" Matt walked over at the end of Dave's speel, so Dave did again for Matt, and then told him not to be disappointed that he got into a high-ranking anesthesia program. After that, Matt started getting excited.

Now that we are here, Matt has said in retrospect he would have done his ROL differently- #1- Utah, #2- Washington. Only because now that he is here he sees that Washington is a great and challenging program for him- he has gotten to do a lot and see a lot, something he knows he would not have gotten at Dartmouth. As far as ranking UT #1, his reason was to be closer to family, something that would not have happened if we had moved to NH. At least in with us in Seattle, we have family friends that live an hour away south of us, and it is only a 2 hr plane ride that costs $150-$200 for Matt's parents or mine compared to a 6-7 hr plane that would have been $500-$700.

Crystal

[ErDrRon]

I just love all the Colorado stories! I also graduated from UCHSC ('91) and did my ER residency at DG. Fond memories (I think I'm far enough out to have forgotten most of the non-fond ones )

Cheers!
Ron

The match was pretty uneventful the first time around. DW did DO schooling and the match for them is at a different time than the national MD match. Naturally the political thing was to try and go where you would get the best teaching and experience for a DO, but with the timing it usually meant some anxious moments. After her intern year, she decided that she wanted to pursue more patient census for peds and entered the match for the next year. (she was seeing a census of about 5-6 ped/week) So, we interviewed at Scott-White in Temple, TX, Texas Children's in Houston, and Children's Mercy here in Kansas City. She has several great letters of rec to go anywhere she wanted, and all programs wanted her. She wanted to get into Baylor/TCH in Houston, because she was thinking maybe Neo fellowship and that is where some of her good friends had gone for training and made a huge impression on the staff. So, she ranked them #1. When the info came down the line, we matched at Kansas City...a little shocked but it has turned out to be the best thing that has happened to her so far in her career. I think that the fact she had already gotten a year under her belt made her more appealling to the directors. (my opinion of course, I know only what I have learned from her about medicine, or better yet, politics of medicine!)
Little side note, the match is pretty confusing process. The program at Temple TX, we think, chose her and she had them last and when you can go online and check what programs are filled they still had a spot open. Oh well!!

[DCJenn]

The match through the military is a little different as most of you know. And since the peds dept. secretary said to my husband in NOVEMBER -"we're really looking forward to having you with us next year"- We're not sure how much the lists and the match matters. (They find out in December so that those who went to civilian med schools who don't get military residencies can go through the civilian match)

Needless to say, it was a wee bit anticlimatic. Unlike the fellowship- for which my DH allowed me to stew for hours until I finally paged him. He just laughed and said he wondered how long I would be able to go before bursting!!

Jenn

[Amiens]

The only thing we thought was lame at the lunch CU did for the med students- was they handed everyone an envelope that they had to pay for- it cost $1. The students couldn't open their envelope until the time was announced. When the time came to open the "envelopes," the envelopes didn't contain their Matches but a QUESTION!!! in which you had to answer and then find the faculty member with the corresponding letter on their head to get your match letter- you had to make sure you answered the question right or you didn't get your letter. I remember Matt's question- "What is the capital of Greece?" (Answer Athens.)

Matt was thinking his match was in his hand the entire time, only to be let down that he had to jump through hoops to get it. His comment was "I should have known! I had to jump through hoops for 4 years, what made me think this moment would be any different?!"

Crystal

[PrincessFiona]

match story

Hi Crystal. Would it be ok if I use your match story in the newsletter? I've edited it a little to put it in more of a story form. If it's ok, I'll use it. Feel free to add, edit anything else, btw.:

For us, the match was fairly eventful. Matt was doing Anesthesia, and had decided to do his internship in Internal Medicine. We had to compose a Rank Order List (ROL) for Anesthesia, and then a ROL for the internships for each anesthesia residency. His ROL went like this #1 Dartmouth , #2 Utah , #3 Univ WA, #4 Colorado (he had gone to med school at Colorado, and wanted to spread his wings and venture out- he would have been a shoe-in if he ranked them #1.

At CU, a Match Day lunch was arranged for the med students. Each student had to pay for an envelope containing their match information- it cost $1. The students couldn't open their envelope until the time was announced.

When the time came to open the "envelopes," the envelopes didn't contain their Matches but a QUESTION!!! in which you had to answer and then find the faculty member with the corresponding letter on their head to get your match letter- you had to make sure you answered the question right or you didn't get your letter. I remember Matt's question- "What is the capital of Greece?" (Answer Athens.)

Matt though his match letter was in his hand the entire time, only to be let down that he had to jump through hoops to get it. His comment was "I should have known! I had to jump through hoops for 4 years, what made me think this moment would be any different?!"

We ended up with his third choice. Matt was pretty shocked that it turned out that way. I remember I opened the letter to look at it first, and my jaw dropped. Matt grabbed and looked at it and said "Colorado for Internship-(surprise, surprise). ~Washington for Anesthesia??!!"

He wasn't too happy that he got into Washington, because he really wanted to go to Dartmouth. That is where his uncle had done his anesthesia residency, and where he felt certain that he too would get in. It would have been a really laid back residency. Matt looked at me and said "Let's go, I don't want to stay and have fun, because I am unhappy. Let's just leave for my parents’ house now."

I told him "Look mister, you paid $XX for me to be here. I am pregnant, and I am hungry- we are staying so I can eat. He said "Ok" and pouted for a minute. Then he left to refill our drinks. Dave, another medical student came by and asked me if Matt was happy about his match. I told him that Matt had matched at WA, and that he was a bit bummed. Dave then asked if he could do an imitation of Matt, and I said "sure!" Dave proceeded to do this (with a whiny voice): "My name is Matt and I matched U of WA, only one of THE top 5 programs for anesthesia in the country, and possibly #1 on the west coast, and I am bummed (putting his hands on his waist)!" Matt walked over at the end of Dave's spiel, so Dave did it again for him, and then told him not to be disappointed that he got into a high-ranking anesthesia program. After that, Matt started getting excited.

Now that we are here, Matt sees that Washington is a great and challenging program for him. He has gotten to do a lot and see a lot, something he knows he would not have gotten at Dartmouth. At least in with us in Seattle, we have family friends that live an hour south of us. It is only a 2 hr plane ride that costs $150-$200 for Matt's parents or mine compared to a 6-7 hr plane that would have been $500.

[JaneDoe]

For us, match day seemed just like another day of the week, yet getting that little piece of paper was a real shocker. Since my husband chose ophthalmology as his specialty, match day entailed of simply getting a piece of paper and calling me at work to let me know where we will be living for the next four year.

Although he knew it was competitive, he still believed that he was a shoe in at his number one choice (the program in our home state). But, when he got the news that not only did he not match at his number one choice, but he matched at his FOURTH choice (his medical school's program) he said that he almost cried in front of the lady handing him the piece of paper. (He would kill me if he knew I was disclosing that little tidbit). On top of that, ophthalmology is an early match so there was no party or anything to help cheer him up. However, we were in no mood for a party.

In retrospect, I think matching at his medical school's program was the best thing for us. We didn't have to move, we're familiar with this area, I didn't have to quit my job, and we were able to buy a home that we just love. However, we were hoping to move out of the area and be closer to our families. But, we will eventually accomplish that.

Crystal, it is refreshing to here your story. Not only about your experience with the match, but also about living in Seattle. You see, my husband and I are from Oregon, so reading about living in Seattle reminds me of home. It is also funny to read about your disappointment with ending up in Seattle because we would've loved to have lived there.

I've simply concluded that the match is so random, be prepared for anything!

[migirl]

Since urology is early match, we didn't necessarily have the whole formal "match experience," but it was still nerve-racking nonetheless…

DH was on call the night before the match (of course), so he was still at the hospital when we found out. I suppose they knew how anxious we would all be to find out our match results, because the dean was in her office calling people in the wee hours of the morning! I got the phone call at home at 6:00AM and was sleeping, so I told her to page him since he was still at the hospital. I wanted to ask her if she'd tell ME what his results were, but I didn't think she would so I didn't bother to ask (she can be a rather, uh, intimidating woman). Anyway, by then I was definitely awake and nervous and waiting for DH to call me from the hospital to tell me the news. So I waited … and waited … and waited. Finally, almost TWO HOURS LATER he called to tell me that he'd matched at his (our) first choice, the University of Michigan (in our home state). I found out later that the reason it took him so long to call me is because he took so long to call the dean after she'd paged him because he was still writing patient notes and wanted to finish them up before morning rounds! I was like, "Um, this is LIFE-CHANGING information and you couldn't stop writing your notes for 2 minutes to find out your MATCH RESULTS??!!?!" 8O

We also ended up going to the regular match day, although we already knew our results. It was still fun, everyone got their sealed envelopes and tried holding them up to the light to read through them. Finally, when everyone had their envelopes they counted down and everyone opened them all at once. It was so fun because people started screaming and then it just became chaos, and everyone was running around talking to everyone else to find out where they were going. They also had a big map of the country and everyone had a pushpin in their envelope that they stuck in the location where they were going. Then we went with a big group of friends to eat lunch and celebrate!

[mommax3]

We went through the military match, and DH had to call a certain number on December 18 (I will never forget the date) and find out if he had gotten a deferral (which he had ranked first) or had been chosen for a military residency. From statistics we had seen, we thought that since so many more people wanted a military residency than there were military spots available, we would for sure get the deferral, since we didn't even want a military spot.

DH was all psyched to go on interviews at civilian programs during the month of January and had even gotten a new suit. At the time, he was doing an OB/GYN rotation at his top choice, a private hospital in Indianapolis. The first day of the rotation, the program director recognized him from the picture in his file, walked up to him, and said "Nice to meet you, Travis. You have excellent board scores." So we thought that is where we would end up. HOWEVER, the night before, as we were driving home from eating dinner with some friends, I said "so do you really think you'll get the deferral?" (thinking he would say yes) and he said "Well, at officer training (which he did before he started med school) they did tell us that they weren't stupid and would pick the best people." Right then, I just knew we would be going to Wilford Hall in San Antonio, which he had ranked second. He only did an OB rotation there because he thought it would be a nice place for us to have a little vacation. 8O All of the residents there told him not to come there (it was and is a very malignant program) and he spent a month there without once interacting with the program director or any staff any more than he had to because he didn't want them to have much of an impression of him.

And yet, when he made the fateful call on that morning in December, a female voice told him that he would be spending the next four years in San Antonio, Texas. He was silent for so long that the lady actually said "Are you all right, hon?" to him on the phone. He called me right after and I spent the next week (leading up to Christmas) in a daze and crying without warning. Instead of interviewing in January, we went to San Antonio and looked at houses. He has worn his new suit maybe twice, since he has been in uniform for the past six years. He still feels kind of sad that he didn't get a chance to go through the interview process -- he didn't interview for his residency position, and he certainly didn't interview for his current position. Even for med school, he applied early decision, so he only did one interview. Actually getting a job on his merits, and getting to express what he thinks those are, will be a new experience when he gets out of the Air Force!

Both of us would say, after the fact, that we wouldn't trade our time in San Antonio for anything -- although there are certain moments in his residency that we could have lived without. It was good for us to move away from our families and be "on our own", so to speak. It really strengthened us as a couple. And I suppose if we hang on to that suit long enough, it will eventually come back into style.

Sally

We were a bundle of nerves on Match Day! Russ' school didn't hold a meeting like many of your schools did to find out where you matched. We simply had to get on the Internet at a certain time and see what place popped up!!!

Russ had to work (OF COURSE) but he went in REALLy early in the morning to write all his notes and get as much work done as possible to try and leave early for lunch. My mother had already called that morning because she couldn't remember what time we were supposed to know and she told me she had a dream that we were going to San Antonio. San Antonio was our second choice after the University of Iowa.

Russ got home five minutes before the time we thought it would be posted. He was racing to get logged on and it was absolutely blank. We waited 15 minutes .... still blank. UGH ... That is when we read the fine print and realized that we were in the wrong time zone!!! We had to wait another hour to find out. I swear that was the longest hour of our lives. BUT ... we really felt good about how it would turn out.

When we logged on the next time and there was "The University of Texas, San Antonio" in bold print .... we both felt absolute peace. We knew that was where we were supposed to go. We then spent a lot of time on the Internet reading all about San Antonio and, of course, called EVERYONE!!!!!!! The rest of the day we really just felt EXHILARATED by the whole thing. It was the waiting that was so hard. It is a day I think we will always remember and I am actually glad we were able to find out by ourselves together and surprise the kids later with our own little party.

Robin

[Amiens]

JaneDoe-

It's funny- now we like being in Seattle. It's funny- things always work out to how they should. Matt loves the program, and we like the area for the most part, it is a bit more expensive than Denver, CO.

Crystal