Friday marks another iteration of the National Resident Matching Program—“the Match”—perhaps the best-known bottleneck for aspiring U.S. physicians. Every year, this complex computerized algorithm assigns senior medical students to the next phase of their clinical training. Upon selecting a medical specialty, applicants make a list, ordered by preference, of whichever residency programs grant them an interview. After a few months of waiting, an inscrutable bit of software tells them where to go.
Binding contracts must be signed well in advance to honor these results, whatever they may be. At most American medical schools, Match Day involves the ceremonial distribution of envelopes to be opened at a designated time, sometimes onstage, in front of one's assembled family and friends. Within minutes, a full range of emotions is usually on display—elation or ambivalence, surprise or heartbreak. As a rite of passage, the whole thing requires a certain resignation to fate, the strain ofwhich is often more visible after that fate
