Endless Envelopes, One Unified Experience

Downstairs at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine in Philadelphia, it's bustling as patients shuffle to and from appointments. On the 5th floor, in the Jordan Medical Education Center (JMEC) where medical students take many of their classes, it's startlingly quiet. And there's an almost-tangible tension in the air.

It's Match Day, and in two hours, students will learn where they will complete their residency training, the next step on the road to becoming a licensed doctor in their chosen specialty. It's a fleeting moment that will have an unparalleled impact on the rest of students' lives.

Every student's journey at the Perelman School of Medicine is unique and highly personalized. Many complete dual-degree programs and a broad array of extracurricular and volunteer activities. But on Match Day, the experience is a singular, shared moment.

Around the country, medical schools and their students all prepare for the same anxiety-inducing ballet orchestrated by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). The NRMP describes themselves as an independent, non-profit organization that puts medical school graduates at clinical training programs across the country and guarantees that young clinicians are developing the skills needed to care for all patients. Simply put, students pick which medical centers they'd like to work at in ranked order, the teaching hospitals pick which students they would accept, and the NRMP matches them up.

Like applying to college, students may earn a spot at their dream program, or they may spend the next few years training at a hospital they had ranked lower on their list.

All those coming to JMEC for Match Day festivities today found out the previous Monday that they did in fact match with a residency program. They indeed have a secured path forward; their path just might lead to Miami instead of Boston or Houston instead of Baltimore.

One of these students is Matthew Robinson, who sits on a bench near the open atrium, scrolling on his phone. He's dressed in a suit and tie. He arrived early to talk to the Penn video team about the Match Day process, but he seems like the kind of person who would have arrived early anyway.

Robinson's a violinist who almost pursued a double major in music and pre-med but doubled down on medicine, choosing to minor in music at the University of Richmond instead. Becoming a doctor was always the main goal. His dad is also a doctor.

"Finding out I matched somewhere did not relieve a ton of the anxiety," said Robinson. He tried to distract himself during the week leading up to Match Day with sci-fi novels. "Today is the big day. I'm excited but nervous."