2009 Match Day is Approaching

March 19 is the magical day for graduating medical students.They get to open a sealed envelope in front of their classmates and announce where they will be going for their post-graduate residency. It's quite an exciting day, generally filled with tears (of joys for some and sadness for others). It's ultimately the day when career paths are determined (unless you decide to switch specialties or transition into a non-clinical career path). For most of the students, the match is determined by an automated computer system that takes your rankings and then compares that to the way various residency programs ranked you. Couples have the option of doing a couples match, and this alters the algorithm a bit to try and match both of you in a similar geographic location. Some specialties work outside of the match. And, for those students who don't end up matching, the week before match day ends up being quite the scramble as they try to get into unfilled positions. Want to learn more? Check out the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).