Former Creighton basketball player Pierce Hibma remembers the feeling of sitting on stage, waiting patiently with his team as their NCAA Tournament fate was determined as part of college basketball’s “Selection Sunday” process. Four years later, he found himself part of a different selection show to decide his future.
Hibma, along with 115 other fourth-year medical students at the university, participated in a national medical Match Day, a process that determines where students will pursue their post-doctoral training. Students filed into the ballroom of the Mike and Josie Harper Center for Student Life and Learning on March 16th to hear their names called, and their futures as medical advisors for the next few years was revealed. Names were drawn randomly, and the students opened envelopes to learn where they will receive their residency training and in what specialties.
This is a nervous time for the medical students, who saw their next few years determined in an instant on small paper card.
“The collective anticipation of the whole event is immense,” Hibma said. “It’s comparable to Selection Sunday, but the stakes feel a lot higher. That one envelope reveals where you will spend the next few years and can be life altering for a medical student and their family.”
The road leading to the ceremony began last fall, when medical students began traveling the country to be interviewed for graduate training programs. Between Jan. 15 and Feb. 22, students submitted ranked lists of where they preferred to be placed as resident doctors. In addition, program administrators submitted ranked lists of their choices of resident candidates. In the weeks leading up to Match Day, a complicated computer algorithm sorts through thousands of choices and finally pairs each student with a single residency program.
“I went on 11 interviews, and some medical students take as many as 20,” said Hibma. “To figure it all out and see your future for the next couple years determined, it’s a great step.”
Hibma was fortunate enough to be matched with his number one choice: as an emergency medicine resident at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC. Most medical students (around 80%) get one of their top three choices. Unfortunately, some medical students are extremely disappointed with their match.
Danny Thames, another 4th year medical student, saw the fortune go his way as well, landing his first choice as a pediatrician at the Boston Combined Residency Program.
“To get your first choice is both exciting and also a relief,” said Thames. “While I am excited, I’m also nervous at the same time because I haven’t lived anywhere besides Omaha. But I’ll have my fiancée going with me. To move out to the east coast together will make things a lot easier.”
While the transition for some will not be as easy, based on location and overall fit, it’s the next step for these medical trainees on their quest to become professionals.
“Med school is a lot of hard work, no doubt about it,” said Thames. “It is nice to finally know our next step and be able to enjoy these final few months with friends and family.”