The room full of fourth-year University of Toledo medical students crackled with tension as the physicians-to-be fixed their focus on four tables where carefully arranged envelopes contained their still-secret futures.
At noon Friday, 166 future doctors learned — finally, after months of interviewing for residency programs — where they would spend their next three to seven years.
After getting the signal, some ripped and others hesitantly peeled open the envelopes.
Squeals, cheers, tears, and so many hugs ensued.
This is the drama of Match Day, the thrilling, nationally coordinated culmination of medical school. Students and medical centers list their preferences, and the National Resident Matching Program uses a computer algorithm to match them up.
PHOTO GALLERY: Click here for more photos from the ceremony
The results are announced simultaneously across the country.
“That’s my No. 1,” said Jessica Chang, a medical student originally from Washington, as she displayed the notification that she will pursue plastic-surgery training at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. “I’ve never been out West before. I’ve been Midwest. I’ve been South. I’ve been Northeast. California, California, baby.”
Her sister flew in from New York to be by her side when she received the news.
“She’s imagining herself in a convertible right now. I can see it in her head,” Cheryl Chang said.
Eight of Jessica Chang’s classmates will remain at the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio. Seven will go to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo.
Nearly 40 percent, or 64 students, will serve at hospitals in Ohio, while 19 students will train in Michigan.
UT students will pursue 26 medical specialties; emergency medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and surgery are among the most popular.
Among those who learned their residency match results was Sonya Naganathan, the daughter of UT interim president Nagi Naganathan, who will train in emergency medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, among her top choices.
Mr. Naganathan addressed students at the Stranahan Theater just before they rushed from tables decorated with blue and gold balloons to pick up their envelopes.
“I wish you all the very best, but you will always be part of the Rocket Nation,” he said.
A few clutched their letters and dawdled back to their tables to slowly savor or steel themselves for the surprise. Others tore into their envelopes, then erupted.
Students posed for photographs, and one lifted a fellow classmate off the ground in a bear hug.
Sarah Nelin of Columbus was one of the few who knew before Friday where she would receive pediatric training. Military-hospital matches are announced earlier, and Ms. Nelin is headed to San Antonio Military Medical Center in Texas. But she couldn’t miss sharing the experience with her friends.
Nothing really compares.
“It seriously is crazy,” she said.
Contact Vanessa McCray at: vmccray@theblade.com or 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @vanmccray.
First Published March 21, 2015, 6:07 a.m.
