MEDICAL WRITERS/ASSIGNMENT EDITORS NOTE: Media are invited to attend the Match Day ceremony, which is open to graduates and their families and friends only, not the general public. This fun-filled event will have plenty of photo and video opportunities – this year’s theme is “Oh, The Places You Will Go”(with apologies to Dr. Seuss). Students and UA College of Medicine administrators will be available for interviews; to make arrangements, contact AHSC Office of Public Affairs, (520) 626-7301. The event also will be broadcast live on the Internet at http://streaming.biocom.arizona.edu/.
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 19, at 10 a.m., members of the Class of 2009 will receive traditional Match Day sealed envelopes, which contain letters showing where students will spend the next several years as resident-physicians.
The theme of this year’s Match Day at the UA College of Medicine is “Oh, The Places You Will Go” (with apologies to Dr. Seuss).
The festivities will include the reading of a poem composed by “Dr. Seuss and the Class of 2009” for the event (an excerpt follows).
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 (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.
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an excerpt from:
Oh, The Places You Will Go!
by “Dr. Seuss and the Class of 2009”
Congratulations! Today is your day.
You’re off to great places! You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
You’ve made up your list, now we’ll see where you go!
You’ve looked up and down specialties, looked them over with care.
About some you have said “I don’t choose to go there!”
With your head full of brains, and your heart in your chest
You’ll pick out the specialty that fits YOU the best.
Oh the places you’ll go!