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Hey pre-allos!
I just wanted to let y'all know that tomorrow is Match Day. For those of you who don't know what that is (it's ok! I didn't know until like a year ago either), this is the day when all the 4th year medical student in the US get to open up a letter telling them where they'll be for residency. This happens at the same time everywhere in the country, adjusted for time zones. Here in central time I think it's starting at 11 am so calculate for that.
The reason why I'm telling you this is 1) if you see a 4th year med student in the morning, don't spook him/her. It's a nerve-wracking time (I'm a 1st year and we've received various emails telling us to not bug the 4th years too much), and 2) I find it to be a really fascinating, exciting ceremony and figured there is at least one person out there who is curious about it. If so, a number of medical schools will be webcasting the proceedings for family, friends, and nerdy pre-meds who want to peek. You might think it's weird since you don't know any of the students, but it really is pretty cool and exciting (especially if it's the school you'll be attending in the fall!)
As a general intro, here's how it works (4th years correct me if I'm wrong!):
1) students figure out where they want to apply and the specialty.
2) student apply (imagine applying to med school but much, much worse).
3) after interviews, students rank the programs in order of what they liked best (there is more to this, but that's the general gist). You can rank all the programs where you interviewed or just a few. At the same time, at the end of the interview season, the programs rank the students they saw in order as well.
4) a magical computer algorithm (biased toward the student's choice) matches each student up with the highest program that ranked them.
5) match day! Everyone everywhere opens the letter. The contract is legally binding, so you go wherever you've been matched, whether you like it or not.
Med schools handle the ceremony in different ways. Some schools prefer for the letter-opening to be a private affair. Others give the letters out and then allow everyone to open it at the same time in a common area but without having to tell the whole world. At my school, the dean picks a letter out of a box, calls on the student, and makes him read the letter in front of everyone. Much cheering ensues. Each student drops a dollar into a bowl and the last person to be called gets all the money (cause the poor sucker had to wait so long). I think other schools do it this way as well.
So yeah! That's the intro to the match. Again, if any of you are interested, I suggest you find a school that has it webcasted and watch a little bit! This is how it's going to be for the foreseeable future, so I think it's exciting to see this little piece of our education.
Yay match! Good luck 4th years!
I just wanted to let y'all know that tomorrow is Match Day. For those of you who don't know what that is (it's ok! I didn't know until like a year ago either), this is the day when all the 4th year medical student in the US get to open up a letter telling them where they'll be for residency. This happens at the same time everywhere in the country, adjusted for time zones. Here in central time I think it's starting at 11 am so calculate for that.
The reason why I'm telling you this is 1) if you see a 4th year med student in the morning, don't spook him/her. It's a nerve-wracking time (I'm a 1st year and we've received various emails telling us to not bug the 4th years too much), and 2) I find it to be a really fascinating, exciting ceremony and figured there is at least one person out there who is curious about it. If so, a number of medical schools will be webcasting the proceedings for family, friends, and nerdy pre-meds who want to peek. You might think it's weird since you don't know any of the students, but it really is pretty cool and exciting (especially if it's the school you'll be attending in the fall!)
As a general intro, here's how it works (4th years correct me if I'm wrong!):
1) students figure out where they want to apply and the specialty.
2) student apply (imagine applying to med school but much, much worse).
3) after interviews, students rank the programs in order of what they liked best (there is more to this, but that's the general gist). You can rank all the programs where you interviewed or just a few. At the same time, at the end of the interview season, the programs rank the students they saw in order as well.
4) a magical computer algorithm (biased toward the student's choice) matches each student up with the highest program that ranked them.
5) match day! Everyone everywhere opens the letter. The contract is legally binding, so you go wherever you've been matched, whether you like it or not.
Med schools handle the ceremony in different ways. Some schools prefer for the letter-opening to be a private affair. Others give the letters out and then allow everyone to open it at the same time in a common area but without having to tell the whole world. At my school, the dean picks a letter out of a box, calls on the student, and makes him read the letter in front of everyone. Much cheering ensues. Each student drops a dollar into a bowl and the last person to be called gets all the money (cause the poor sucker had to wait so long). I think other schools do it this way as well.
So yeah! That's the intro to the match. Again, if any of you are interested, I suggest you find a school that has it webcasted and watch a little bit! This is how it's going to be for the foreseeable future, so I think it's exciting to see this little piece of our education.
Yay match! Good luck 4th years!
