We moved to Houston in 1978. Apart from 4 years spent at the University of Texas at Austin, I’ve been to elementary, middle, high, medical, and graduate school here.
I started medical school in 1997. After two years, I started a PhD, joined the SDMB, and began working on flies. Defended last April, and I’m working to finish the MD. I’ve decided I want to do Internal Medicine. I traveled around the country and interviewed at 8 different programs from November to January. Luckily, my PhD has made me more competitive than I would ordinarily be.
On Feb 22nd, I made a final ranking of the programs I like. I submitted this to the big computer. The programs to which I applied presumably did the same with their final ranking of applicants. For 4 weeks, the computer has been chomping the data. This is known as the Match.
Tomorrow, it spits out results for almost all of the senior medical students in the country – a few programs are outside the main Match. So tomorrow, Match Day, at 11 AM Central, most of the senior medical students in the country including me will find out where we are moving in July. For me, possibilities include Boston, Baltimore, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Dallas, and several others.
Needless to say, everyone’s a little on edge here. Moving is going to be a huge, huge thing – packing up and selling most of the contents of a house, selling the house, finding day care for 2 kids, perhaps selling a car, finding a new place, etc. etc.
Each school handles Match a little differently. Some draw names out of a hat and people go and open the envelopes with the results. The last person drawn gets a prize. My school has a more sensible, chaotic process. We all (150 of us) bumrush a large bulletin board at 11 AM.
The festivities begin at 10 AM with group pictures and cookies. From 12 PM to 2 AM, we pretty much have planned drinking and parties. Should be a riot.
Anyway, I’m sitting here trying not to freak out too badly. Something tells me a little bit of benadryl qHS may be required tonight… 13 hours and 15 minutes left…
