"Congratulations! You have matched."

Email at 11:55am today from NRMP (National Residency Match Program)
"Congratulations! You have matched.

Check the Match Site at https://services.nrmp.org/r3/ on Thursday, March 18, 2010, at 1:00 PM eastern time to find out where you matched. Because you are matched, you will not have access to any information about unfilled programs."

Short but deliciously priceless.


For those non-med readers, some explanation is warranted. After selecting the field that you are most interested in, you submit an application. A few months later, you start getting interview offers from hospitals in this field. Interviews start as early as October and some go into mid-February. Of course, you foot the bill for all that traveling so choose wisely! After the interview process, you get to rank your programs in your order of preference. This seems easy enough but with so many great programs across the country, it can be tricky, especially if you are matching with someone else (i.e. "Couples matching"). After submitting your rank list, you have to wait an agonizing few weeks to find out where you match. The NRMP computer algorithm matches up the rank lists of the hospitals (who rank the applicants) and the candidates (who rank their choice of hospitals) so that both parties get the highest match.

Today, we found out that we matched. Horray! This seems a bit strange because this means we have legally signed a contract to a program because we have matched... and yet we have no idea where that program is. Now, we wait until Thursday to find out where we will be the next few years in our life!

I hope that this brief description helps you understand a bit more about the residency match and why it's such a stressful/exciting time in our lives! I can't wait to find out where I will be! In the meantime, I'm counting down the hours until Thursday at noon and trying to stay as busy as possible to stay sane. :)