match day by Mark Vruno photos by Steve Becker
The Envelope, Please …
AT THE ANNUAL MATCH DAY CEREMONY, COM GRADUATES LEARNED WHERE THEIR MEDICAL CAREER WILL TAKE THEM NEXT
O
N MARCH 18, A SUNNY CHI- CAGO morning, University of Illinois College of Medicine students and their families gathered in the Signature Room on the 95th floor of Chi- cago's landmark
John Hancock Center to see where they would be spending the next two years of their lives. Over the course of an hour, 193 students were matched to residencies in 23 states in the COM's 2010 Match Day ceremony. Every year across the country
on the third Thursday of March, like a pre-spring ritual, graduating students from 155 medical schools learn the results of a computer algorithm that matches them with hospital residen- cies in nearly every field of medi- cine. It's a real-life drama that every practicing U.S. physician remembers: arguably the biggest moment of their burgeoning young careers, learning
I L L INOI S MEDICINE
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