The first day of spring, March 20, also happened to be the day medical students across the country found out where they will head for their residency programs, the next stage in their medical careers.
School of Medicine students gathered at the Eric. P. Newman Education Center for the much-awaited delivery of envelopes containing news of where the soon-to-be graduates had matched.
As students approached the microphone one-by-one to announce their specialties and where they had matched, they each placed $1 in a bin. Tradition has it that the cash goes to the student whose name is called last. The students are called randomly, so the loot goes to the person who had to wait the longest for such big news.
Katie Ihnen’s family came to the front with her, including her husband, Alex, and children Lucy, Oscar and Harriet. Ihnen happily relayed that she had matched in pediatrics at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
There was no doubt where student Allan Jiang hailed from as he made his way down the steps, dressed in full Canadian hockey paraphernalia. He had trouble opening his envelope because of the hockey stick he carried and mittens he wore. But after a struggle, he tore into the envelope to learn that he would be staying in St. Louis to train in psychiatry at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Overall, 123 medical students matched in 22 specialties in a total of 23 states. Top specialties included internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, orthopedic surgery, anesthesiology and psychiatry.
To see more photos from Match Day, visit this School of Medicine page.