MED students exhale as Match Day finally comes

After anxiously waiting, graduating fourth-year medical students from the Boston University School of Medicine finally received their residency assignments Thursday.

Match Day is an annual tradition and opportunity for students, friends and proud family members to transition from medical school into three to seven years of residency training before they enter the medical field full-blown.

It was “a day of jubilation,” according to first-year MED student John Dye. “[Participants were] ecstatic to find out finally where they are going and if they got their top picks.”

Only about 18 of 148 applicants were denied one of their top-10 selections.

“Participants have to apply to a bunch of schools, then you rank them into your top then choices as they [simultaneously] rank you,” according to MED student Mark Roberts.

In addition to the application process, the applicants must also undergo a series of five to 13 interviews in order to secure a spot in one of their top choices. Then, a national computer system attempts to provide the best match for both the students and the hospitals.

Third-year MED student Nicole Witlach expressed her hope of matching next year “with a school in the Boston area … perhaps BU or Harvard [University] or Tufts [University].”

For Witlach and this year’s graduates, Match Day is the culmination of the hard work done by these medical students.

“My uncle is a surgeon,” said Witlach, who became interested in medicine as a child. “I used to go to the hospital with him and go on rounds with him, and in college I began doing research,” which increased her interest and solidified her career path.

For matching students, the years of hard work came to a head in Thursday afternoon’s ceremony. The lounge, usually a place for students to study and relax, was roped off to accommodate the spectators and news crews in attendance. They watched with anticipation surpassed only by the students as the recipients opened letters containing their “match.”