UA News

On Thursday, UA medical students will receive letters showing where they will be doing their residency training.

For four years, students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine have worked toward "Match Day" – the day they learn where they will spend the next several years as resident-physicians.

Match results are released at Match Day ceremonies coordinated to occur on the same date at the same time throughout the nation. On Thursday, March 18, at 10 a.m., members of the Class of 2010 will receive traditional Match Day sealed envelopes, which contain letters showing where they will be doing their residency training.

The event will be held in DuVal Auditorium, University Medical Center, 1501 N. Campbell Ave.

The theme of this year's Match Day at the UA College of Medicine is "Super Match 2010: Not All Heroes Wear Capes," with a variety of superheroes appearing in skits about the college's departments.

As always, the medical student who waits the longest to find out where he or she will go benefits from a Match Day tradition: each student places a $1 bill in a container as he or she accepts a match envelope; the last person called onstage to receive an envelope collects the money.

Match Day is the culmination of a year's work in the complex process that matches the nation's graduating medical students with residency programs.

During the first half of their senior year, medical students apply for positions at residency programs, which they then visit for interviews with program directors, faculty and residents.

In February, the students submit their list of choices in order of preference – at the same time residency program directors submit their rank-ordered lists of preferred candidates – to the National Residency Matching Program, known as NRMP, or "Match," headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

A computer matches each student to the residency program highest on the student's list that has offered a position to the applicant.

Residency programs vary in length according to specialty, from three years for general medicine/family practice specialties to eight years for the most specialized of surgeons. A residency is a major step in building a medical career.