PENN MEDICINE MATCH DAY 2017
Penn Medicine Match Day 2017
A note from Celia: At my Pilates class the other day some friends asked about my attending Penn Medicine Match Day. When I told them about the experience they asked, “Are you going to write a blog post about it?” I said, “No, I don’t think anyone would really be interested in it.” They all replied, “No, you’re wrong, it’s very interesting.” One girl chimed in, “Hey, I have seen every show ever aired of Gray’s Anatomy! I love that stuff!”
So, here you go…
Hello! Thanks for stopping in today. If you’ve been following along lately you might remember I mentioned going to Philadelphia recently to attend Penn Medicine Match Day 2017. This is a ceremony at which the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine graduating class finds out where they have “matched” for their medical residencies. We attended this exciting event because our future daughter-in-law was “matching” and the whole family was both excited and nervous to be with her when she found out where she’d be spending the next 3 years of her life. It was of particular interest to our son Taylor because he lives in Chicago where he attends The University of Chicago Law School, and he was hoping Ann would match at her 1st choice Residency Program at Northwestern Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
Med students spend 4 years in medical school during which time they rotate through most of the various medical specialties, ie: Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Orthopedics, Neurology, Dermatology, Cardiology, Surgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Emergency Medicine to name just a few. By the time they have reached their 4th year students should have decided on the area of medicine they’d like to practice.
In order to practice medicine in the United States medical students must pass the first 2 steps of the United States Medical-Licensing Exam (USMLE), participate in an accredited U.S. residency program, and finally, go back and pass step 3 of the USMLE.
The process for getting a medical residency is handled by The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), also called “The Match.” It’s a United States-based private, non-profit, non-governmental organization that was created to help match medical school students with residency programs. The purpose of the Residency Match is to provide a uniform time, and a confidential selection process by which both residency applicants and programs make their residency training selections.
Senior medical students like Ann begin the process of applying for their residencies at the beginning of their fourth and final year of medical school. They must also register for The Match. Students first apply directly to the residency programs they are interested in. The programs then review the applications and invite selected candidates for interviews which are held between the months of October and February. Medical students, at their own expense, travel around the country doing interviews. After the interview period is over, the applicants and programs each compile their own “rank-ordered lists”. Students make lists of their 1st, 2nd, 3rd and often up to 10 program choices. Likewise, the residency programs make rank-ordered lists of the student candidates they’d like to have in their programs.
These lists are then entered into a computer with a specific algorithm that is designed to “Match” students with the programs they’d like to be a part of, while at the same time insuring that the residency programs get their most desired candidates. It’s a coupling process which is not unlike a marriage “match”. It’s designed to hopefully bring students and hospitals together that wish to be together, thereby making good, happy and successful matches.
Naturally, waiting and wondering where one has matched is a stressful, exciting and hopeful time. After all, the place where students match is where they will spend the next 3 years of their lives. In Ann’s case she needed to match with a hospital in Chicago in order to be in the same town with my son, her boyfriend of 6 years.
To provide moral support and hopefully to also celebrate with Ann, our extended family, and Ann’s family and friends all descended on Philadelphia for Match Day.
In order to level the playing field for all students going through the process, The National Matching Residency Program determines the date of Match Day. This year medical school Match Day ceremonies would all take place across the country at precisely 12:00 p.m. ET on Friday, March 17th. With emotions running high, we gathered with great anticipation underneath the coffered dome and beautiful stone walls of this Penn Museum lecture hall.
Also in attendance was a wonderful woman known as Miss Marjorie. Marjorie is an incredible woman who has endowed a perpetual, full-ride medical scholarship to Penn Medical School.
Med School Deans Greeting VIP Miss Marjorie
Ann was one of the very lucky recipients of her generous scholarship. I snapped this photo of Ann with her amazing benefactor in front of the private study room Miss Marjorie also donated to the newly constructed medical school facility.
Before the Match Ceremony the names of each of the 169 graduating medical students were placed in the red basket you see on the podium below. One-by-one the names were drawn and then announced. Students then went up on the stage to receive their envelopes. Inside each envelope was a letter from The Match, indicating where the student would be spending the next three or more years of their medical careers.
Tears of joy, shouts of jubilation, hugs, kisses and high fives rang out as each student opened their envelope using the commemorative letter openers they received for the occasion. When her name was finally called, Ann walked up on stage to retrieve her envelope, then returned to her seat next to all of us to open it. As you can see, she was overjoyed to learn that she got her 1st choice; Northwestern McGaw/Lurie Pediatric Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
Here’s a map indicating where each Penn Med graduate matched in 2017.
It was a wonderful, happy occasion for these bright young students, and it was a pleasure and an honor to witness it all. The event was captured in a short video you see below. And somehow the camera caught Ann at the very moment she opened her envelope. Watch for it at minute 1:15.
So there you have it: PENN MEDICINE MATCH DAY 2017
Thanks so much for dropping in!
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All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Unless otherwise noted, all photos are the original property of Celia Becker @ www.AfterOrangeCounty.com and may not be reproduced without specific permission. #PSOMMatch