The Match Process

A couple of my faithful reader friends asked about how this match thing works.

Michael will graduate in May. He will officially be a doctor and I'll have to change the title of the blog. However, he has just finished with the basics and now he will start his training to become an interventional radiologist. He will have an intern year in surgery, four years in radiology, and another year for a fellowship where he will specialize in the interventional part. That's six years, but he'll actually be working so that's good news for Theo's ever growing toy collection.

Last year he applied to radiology residency programs. He then heard back from some of them for interviews. He went on the interviews which were basically like sorority rush, as I like to explain it. There was usually a dinner the night before a day of interviewing. They know you're smart but they want to see if you fit in.

In February he had to rank the programs where he interviewed. In his case, radiology is a competitive field so he interviewed with and ranked 9 or 10 programs. The programs also make lists. They rank the applicants. Then some computer does the matching.