On Friday, March 17, while most people were celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, soon-to-be graduating students in the Perelman School of Medicine were hoping that in addition to a little “luck o’ the Irish, ” their years of hard work would pay off as their residency placements were revealed during Penn’s annual Match Day ceremony.
Students and their loved ones shared tears of joy, shouts of jubilation, hugs, and high fives underneath the coffered dome and stone walls of the Penn Museum as they discovered where they would be spending the next three or more years of their medical careers. During the annual ceremony, students are called up one by one to receive a letter telling them where they have matched. Some choose to tear open the envelope immediately, while others find a quiet corner to learn their fate and the rush back into the auditorium to celebrate.
After opening his envelope and learning that he was matched with his first choice in Penn’s Integrated Thoracic Surgery residency program, Jason Han shared his excitement.
“It’s the program I dreamed of getting into,” Han said. “For this moment to finally arrive, it feels like I’ve been building the road blocks for years and years and years.”
According to the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), Match Day 2017 was largest ever, with 31,757 residency positions up for grabs.
Check out the video below to relive the emotion and learn where some of the students, including Han’s fellow classmates and Match Day bloggers Lauren Kelly and Joe Mintz, are headed. Check out even more stories from Friday using #PSOMMatch and view our photo album on Facebook.