Posts tagged ‘Match Day’
Finding a match in Hershey
On a day when more than 140 fourth-year medical students learned where they will be going for their residencies, Jennifer Kissane was thrilled to find out that she’ll be staying put.
As she tore open her Match Day envelope, Kissane discovered she will spend her radiology residency at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
“Radiology is very exciting to me and it’s great that I’ll have the opportunity to learn it in Hershey where I know I’ll get a great education,” Kissane says.
Kissane is far from alone. Sixteen percent of this year’s 153 Penn State College of Medicine graduates will remain in Hershey for residencies. In all, 38 percent of the class was matched with residency programs in Pennsylvania, and more than three-quarters are headed for university programs.
Her education is not the only demand on Kissane’s time. She and her husband Brendan moved to Hershey from New Jersey in 2004 and are raising two daughters, including one who was born while Kissane was in medical school. The kicker: they’re expecting their third child – a son – this summer.
Family life played a key role in Kissane’s preference to stay in Hershey. “This region fits the lifestyle that my husband and I want for our family,” she says. “We’ve grown to appreciate Hershey and the surrounding area.”
Kissane says she has been able to juggle it all by setting – and sticking to – priorities. Her advice for other students who find themselves with a similar balancing act: “Make sure your family is at the top because when all is said and done, they’re the ones who get you through it.” (more…)
Closing one set of doors—and opening a new set
Four years of hard work and dedication all lead to one of the most anticipated, nerve-wracking, and potentially joyous days in the life of a medical student—Match Day. And for some students, the anticipation of Match Day is more intense as they are also wondering about their significant other’s fate. Would they be matched to the same hospital, the same city, or even in the same state?
For most programs, students can be linked in the National Resident Matching Program system as a couple, which helps increase their chances of matching in the same program. For Bill Randazzo and Megan Caruso, a recently engaged couple of the class of 2010 and Penn State alumni, being linked in the system wasn’t an option. Ophthalmology residency programs, which Caruso applied for, require an early match. So while it was a partial relief to know that she would be calling the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta home for her residency, the stress of not knowing where her fiancé would end up still plagued her. The couple also applied for a general surgery internship at the University of Hawaii that they had to wait to find out about until Match Day. Ultimately they successfully matched with both schools. (more…)
