More than a hundred medical school students at UCSD are among the thousands who learned Thursday where they’ll do their residency on much anticipated “Match Day.”
"I definitely was nervous. I had to open my envelope outside, I couldn't do it with this crowd," said pediatrics specialist Lauren Hackett, "I can't believe honestly these past few years have flown by and getting that envelope, I think that was that moment."
Hackett will be doing her residency here in San Diego at Rady Children’s Hospital. Other UCSD students will be headed to Stanford, Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, UCLA and UCDavis.
The students opened the letters containing their residency match at a celebration on campus today. Match Day or "The Match" is a nation-wide event happening simultaneously at medical schools across the United States. Senior medical students begin the application process at the beginning of their final year in medical school. Following interviews, the National Residency Matching Program creates optimal matches of residents to programs.
"Now it's for real, now, now I'm going to be a doctor. People are going to put their trust in me, I'm no longer wearing my training wheel," said emergency medicine resident Nicholas Kanaan
"It's the culmination of like an entire life's work not only of my dreams, but my whole family's dreams. First generation Americans which is absolutely great, very excited," said internal medicine resident Albert Kashanian.
Approximately 16,000 U.S. medical school students participate in the residency match each year. UC San Diego School of Medicine has graduated more than 3,000 students since its first class in 1972.
