Match Day 2007: The envelope, please

Chicago -- Inside the white envelope was Anita Fofie's future. She had to wait a few minutes to open it, but that didn't stop her from holding it up to the light, hoping for a glimpse of where she would spend her residency.

At high noon in a pizza joint, Fofie was among 160 graduating medical students who ripped open their envelopes like anxious children tearing into presents on Christmas morning. She is headed to Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, one of her top choices for a surgical residency.

As fellow students from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine hooted and hollered over their Match Day results, Fofie hugged her boyfriend, who came from Minneapolis to share the moment.

"I don't think it's sunk in yet, but I feel like now I can visualize the next five years," Fofie said.

The excitement and revelry was mirrored across the country on March 15, as graduating students learned where they will complete their residency training. A record number of 15,206 U.S. allopathic medical school seniors participated in Match Day through the National Resident Matching Program. That's about 200 more than last year, a boost that reflects increases in medical school enrollment.

"There's lots of screaming and crying and hugging, and people immediately get on their cell phones," said Angela Nuzzarello, MD, MHPE, associate dean for student programs and professional development at the Feinberg School of Medicine. "It's the biggest day in the life of a medical student, because you find out where you're going to be spending at least the next couple years of your life."

The Match program had 27,944 applicants vying for a record 21,845 first-year residency positions. Besides U.S. allopathic seniors, applicants included previous U.S. medical school graduates, international medical graduates and osteopathic doctors. Of the 14,201 U.S. allopathic seniors who matched to a position, 84% matched to one of their top three choices.

The number of available family medicine residency slots dropped by 108 from 2006, and 88% of the 2,603 positions were filled. In internal medicine, 98% of the spots were filled, and all but two of the 1,057 general surgery positions were filled.

Northwestern's students seemed pleased with their matches.

Anne Hseu will be going to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio, where her boyfriend is doing his residency. "He came to town and surprised me," said a beaming Hseu. "We'll be across from each other in the OR."

For Fofie, getting enough sleep before the big day was difficult. "Every night I had a dream that I matched at a different place," she said. "None of them have been nightmares."

Fofie hoped to get a residency in the western part of the country so she could be close to her family in southwestern Canada. Seattle will do nicely. "She's really happy I'm coming closer to home," Fofie said after phoning her mother with the news. "For a lot of people, Match Day isn't just about you. It's about the people around you."

To celebrate, Fofie and boyfriend Mark Holmberg planned to uncork a bottle of white wine.