As if getting into medical school wasn't hard enough - 4 years of undergraduate classes, physics, bio and organic chemistry labs, the MCATs. And medical school wasn't completely taxing - no summers, incomprehensible amounts of information, incessant testing. Indians looking to satisfy their parents' deepest, most passionate desires for their children to become doctors must also contend with the nightmare of residency matching.
Beginning at the start of the 4th year of medical school, residency matching is the process during which medical school graduates apply to the residency programs of their choice, and those programs in turn select their top candidates. The "matching" occurs through a 3rd party intermediary such as the National Residency Matching Program, or NRMP. The day when candidates learn what programs they have been matched with is known as Match Day and occurs on the third Thursday of March. After graduation it is the moment most symbolic of the successful completion of medical school in the United States.
Because Matching is such a tense process endured by so many of our better looking, smarter, more successful and healthier South Asian peers, Match Day itself becomes an unofficial holiday for Indians that we are going to call St. Matchtick's Day, since after all it is in March and if you're celebrating you're probably heading to a Catholic institution of some sort like Sacred Heart, Mt. Sinai, St. Ann's, the hellish depths of Cooke County or the Holy Mayo Clinic.
And as we've learned, Indians need very little occasion to celebrate. So here's to you St. Matchstick's Day 2008. Let's celebrate the massive responsibility of holding in our hands the fate of the sick and dying at a club with one name and a laminated party promo touting the health benefits of cranberry based cocktails in a fusion themed lounge! Happy St. Matchtick's Day!
Because Matching is such a tense process endured by so many of our better looking, smarter, more successful and healthier South Asian peers, Match Day itself becomes an unofficial holiday for Indians that we are going to call St. Matchtick's Day, since after all it is in March and if you're celebrating you're probably heading to a Catholic institution of some sort like Sacred Heart, Mt. Sinai, St. Ann's, the hellish depths of Cooke County or the Holy Mayo Clinic.
And as we've learned, Indians need very little occasion to celebrate. So here's to you St. Matchstick's Day 2008. Let's celebrate the massive responsibility of holding in our hands the fate of the sick and dying at a club with one name and a laminated party promo touting the health benefits of cranberry based cocktails in a fusion themed lounge! Happy St. Matchtick's Day!
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