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match day by Ed Finkel Madness Match T Center in Washington, D.C., since military matches find out in mid-December. Her parents are both retired military—her father was a first sergeant in the Marines, and her mother a chief petty officer in the Navy—and she's not sure whether they're more proud of her completing a medical degree or entering the service as an officer. "The military was their lives," Diaz said, adding, "I have a feeling I might stay." Matching Program at 11 a.m. Central time, the Chicago students ate brunch with their families amidst a loud din, strollers and climbing toddlers. M4 Jamie Diaz was among the few who weren't feel- ing butterflies in their stomachs. She already knew she had matched to Walter Reed Army Medical Tension gives way to excitement on fateful morning for M4s HE TIFFANY DOME AT THE TOP OF THE CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER barely held down the tension at the outset of the College of Medicine's Match Day ceremonies, held the third Thursday in March annually, this year on March 17. The 181 Chicago-based M4 students were among 40,000 residency applicants nationwide who simultaneously learned of their match destinations for the fall; there were also 43 M4s from Peoria, 28 from Urbana-Champaign and 45 in Rock- ford, who assembled at their respective campuses. Prior to the distribution of white envelopes from the National Resident I L L INOI S MEDICINE | 13 PHOTOS: DIANE SMUTNEY