A Crazy Little Thing Called Match

The Medical Match is a crazy process. Each student works crazy hard for three and a half years in hopes that their grades and activities will be fit for their resume. They apply to a ton of programs, wait anxiously to be invited to interview, and spend a bunch of money traveling around the country interviewing at different programs. After interviews each student ranks the schools they interview at in order of where they most would like to be. The schools rank all their applicants in order of who they want most. All the information is jumbled into a computer and the students are matched to a program. The scary thing is that not every student is guaranteed a match. In some competitive fields, like Orthopedics, there are just not enough spots for all the applicants. This year Match Day was Friday March 16. The Monday before match each student receives an email saying either Congratulations you have Matched, or Sorry you did not match and will need to apply to another field that you are not at all interested in, but that is the type of doctor you have to be, or you can take a year off and figure out your stuff and reapply to this terrible process next year. Those are not the exact words but that is what happens.

For the past four years Kevin has worked so hard to get good grades and test scores. He has spent countless hours shadowing different doctors in both the CT department and the Ortho department, not only to get a good feel for what he wanted to do, but to network for when it came time to apply for a residency program. When we decided to go into Orthopedics we knew it would be a tough route, but we also felt like in the end we would be happiest with the lifestyle and I knew that Kevin would be happy with his work. It is very competitive field, his school recommended applying to at least 60 programs, with hopes of getting 10-12 interviews so that one might feel confident in matching. He applied to over 70 programs. This past year we spent a month in Rochester Minnesota and a month in Utah in hopes that he would have the opportunity to interview with them for a spot in their residency programs. When interview time came we waited anxiously through September and October hearing about all the interviews our friends went on, but having received no offers ourselves. Kevin assured me it was okay because the Ortho departments typically interviewed in December and January. The wait was painfully stressful. Thankfully he was able to interview at the Mayo Clinic at the end of his rotation. Mid November he received an interview offer from his school here in San Antonio. On Thanksgiving the University of Utah called him to offer him an interview. There was much to be grateful for that day! We were feeling a little better, but then the rejections came, one after another, and often stating "that this year was overwhelming with the number of applicants" and "unfortunately with over 800 applicants for the 5 spots in our program..." I was beginning to get scared by how competitive the program was this year. Kevin ended up just interviewing at 4 programs, Mayo, San Antonio, Brown and Utah. The nice thing was that instead of spending thousands of dollars on interviews, we only had to spend about $600. But with only 4 interviews we were worried that we would not match and would need to scramble into a program. It was interesting because through prayer and temple attendance we felt comfortable that things would work out and we would be just fine, but we often talked about back up plans in case we didn't match. By February all that could be done was done and all we could do was wait. About a month before match day Kevin received a phone call from the program in San Antonio informing him that if he wanted to come here he had been ranked to match and they hoped to see him at their program. What an ENORMOUS relief!! I was so grateful for that phone call! The following weeks were not spent stressing about whether or not Kevin would have a job after all this, but instead we enjoyed a lot of time hanging out together and doing little touch ups on the house in case we found that we would be needing to sell the house.
Knowing that you will be living in one of three places was a little fun. We were super excited about all three places and programs. I would change my mind a dozen times a day about where I thought it would be best to end up and I often felt very glad that the choice was not ours to make.
Match Monday arrived and we got the email saying we had matched! The days between Monday and Friday felt like weeks, but finally Match Day arrived. Kevin's school holds a big party, starting at 8:00 with an Eggs and Kegs get together, by 10:30 everyone was gathering around the stage, and at 11:00 the first few people were called up to open their letters. Names were randomly called and it was so exciting but also seemed like hours before Kevin's name was called! He got up there and read his letter. San Antonio. I was happy but its very strange, and bittersweet. We both felt like we would probably stay but a few things had happened to where we thought maybe there was a good chance he had gotten into another program and the thought of those changes were super exciting. Now on this life changing match day, Kevin read where we would be living for the next five years, and suddenly nothing was changing. I'd be lying if I said we were super stoked and excited throughout the next few days. Tears were shed, and moods were all over the place. It is not that we are unhappy here, but for months there had been so many exciting what if thoughts all over the place,there was some hope that we'd end up near family, or that we wouldn't have to endure another Texas summer, and then in a moment that was gone. It was easy to think about all the great things about the other places, and the not so great things about here. HOWEVER, we are happy to be here. Financially its the best situation. Kevin will have a better schedule here and we will have a better family life. We have fun friends, a nice home and there are a ton of fun things to do here, I know I would be very sad if we were leaving! Most of all, we know that this is where God wants us to be. We really are blessed and everyday I get more and more excited to be staying here!!

Kevin on stage reading the results.

Not a good family picture at all, but its the only one we got!