Students spend their last year of medical school applying to residencies and then hopefully interviewing at residency programs across the country so they can "match" at the end of med school into a training program. Many students don't match, which is terrifying because at that point you probably have a couple hundred-thousand dollars in student loan debt (yup) and no way of paying it off. Leading up to match day, you rank the programs you have interviewed at in order of your preference. Then each program ranks each of the hundred or so students they have interviewed in order of their preference. Then everyone's preferences go into a computer program that uses a complex algorithm to pair students with schools in order to give the most people possible their top preference.
On Match Week, everyone who has entered the match will receive an email on Monday telling them whether or not they matched. If you don't match, then you have to "scramble" to hopefully grab a residency from a program that for whatever reason didn't fill all their residency spots in the match. I think this process mostly involves reaching out to random programs and hopefully getting a couple phone interviews. But if you did match, then a huge burden is lifted and you wait until Friday to find out where you matched.
When Jared got the Monday email telling him he matched, we felt a huge sense of relief. But there was still a lot of anxiety about not knowing where we'd be headed next. This is how we had ranked the programs Jared interviewed at:
1. Richland, WA (family medicine)
2. Las Vegas, NV (family medicine)
3. Bremerton, WA (family medicine)
4. Billings, MT (family med)
5. Casper, WY (family med)
6. Atlanta, GA (family med)
7. Stamford, CT (family med) (holla at The Office fans)
8. Coney Island, NY (internal medicine) (booooo)
We were ultimately grateful just to know we had matched and would have some job security, but we really wanted that Richland residency, and we really really really reallllllly didn't want the Connecticut or New York residencies. After living so far away for 4 years, we wanted to get back a little closer to family, and somewhere where Jared's coworkers would be kind (New England doctors can be pretty unfeeling) and the cost of living would be cheap so we could get into a home.
On Match Day we met up with all our Atlanta med student friends at a bar and grill in Tucker, GA to open our Match letters. By some miracle, everyone matched! Considering we all went to a Caribbean medical school (SGU), we weren't sure we'd all be so lucky. Everyone sat nervously around a big table, ordering food and drinks. I remember that Jared and I were down to our last pennies by this point in the year, so we just split an appetizer. The 4th year of medical school involves so many additional expenses not covered by your loans (residency applications, flights, thousand-dollar tests, thousand-dollar test prep programs, etc.), we were coasting through that last month of medical school on fumes. The others had been allotted a lot more loan money than us because you get 15k extra per year per kid. We didn't have Jack until the month before Jared finished his schooling. On the plus side, we won't have to pay back as much loan money as most of our friends!
^^My med-school wives tribe!
When the emails came in telling everyone where they matched, we went around the table one at a time to open our emails and read them to the group. It was actually a really cool experience and I'm glad we did it this way instead of at home by ourselves. It felt like everyone was opening their mission calls together or something. As we went around the table, everyone was so happy because they all matched into their first or second program of choice. I have never seen such a relieved, giddy, joyful group of people. When it got to Jared, I was certain he would read, "Congratulations, you matched into the family medicine residency at Kadlec University in Richland, WA!" Instead he read, "You matched into the University of Wyoming family medicine residency in Casper, WY!" As everyone cheered, both of our hearts sank a little and we both had these semi-fake smiles plastered to our faces.
As the next person opened their email, I whispered to Jared, "Is this ok? Are we ok?" And Jared whispered back, half-panicked, "Yes--I think so?" Looking back, I think we were in a little bit of shock because we were so sure we'd match into one of our top 3 choices. We went home after everyone else opened their Match emails. We left in a rush partly because we had a colicky newborn who we needed to get home, but also because we needed to go process our feelings away from our friends who were all giddy to have matched into their top choices. It was a weird day. We couldn't really feel ecstatic about matching into our 5th choice. All we'd experienced of Casper was a freezing, windy few weeks there in January while I was 8 months pregnant and Jared was sick with the stomach flu. But then, we also couldn't really feel disappointed either, because if Jared hadn't matched into Casper then he would have matched into one of the programs back east, or perhaps no program at all. For that, we felt so relieved and grateful that Casper saved us and was our ticket to moving back West. As we stayed busy with our colicky baby and house hunting, our worries faded and we began to feel truly excited about our upcoming Wyoming adventure.
Jared also really loves everyone he works with and the way the residency program here is run. He is learning a lot, and everyone looks out for one another. It's an extremely family-friendly environment. Also, we are in love with our little home on the edge of the prairie.
