The envelopes, please

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At 11 a.m. on Thursday only one sound was heard in a packed-to-the-walls U of C Hospitals auditorium: the rustle of 101 white envelopes being torn open. Seconds before, the 101 members of the Pritzker School of Medicine Class of 2004, many accompanied by friends and family, cheered loudly as Nathan Teismann received the last Match Day envelope—containing his hospital residency placement.

Along with learning where he’d be doing his emergency-medicine training (California’s Alameda Medical Center), Teismann received the traditional last-name-called prize: a kitty jumpstarted with $100 in school funds, to which classmates added their own contributions.

Teismann wasn’t the only fourth-year who got good news. Everyone got a match, with the largest number—24—staying put for all or part of their training at the U of C. As a whole, the class’s top specialties were internal medicine (17) and pediatrics (15).

Last month fourth-year students across the nation submitted a list of their residency preferences to the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). The hospitals also ranked the applicants, and the NRMP matched students with the highest-ranking hospital accepting them. For med students, Match Day is a rite of spring that outranks even graduation. Assured of a full turnout the Pritzker staff used the occasion to hand out June convocation to-do lists.

M.R.Y.

March 19, 2004