Meeting Their Match

Fourth-year students at the School of Medicine found out where they will spend their residencies in the annual rite of Match Day.

Boston [03.19.10] On Mar. 18, 165 fourth-year School of Medicine students learned where they will spend the next three-to-seven years of their lives.

Match Day is the culmination of an annual process in which thousands of medical students apply and interview for residency positions and are then matched by a computer algorithm to hospitals around the world.

Medical students, many with family and friends in tow, gathered in the Sackler Center for a champagne toast to each other's future success and to rip open the envelopes that sealed their fates.

Fifty percent of the Tufts graduates are headed into primary care specialties, including internal medicine, pediatrics and family practice, with 10 percent pursuing residencies in emergency medicine. Thirty-eight percent of students were matched to hospitals in Massachusetts, with 9 percent headed to California and 11 percent going to New York.

• More photos from The Boston Globe / Boston.com
• Video from WCVB-TV (Ch. 5)