On one of the most significant days in the lives of medical students, the Class of 2016, surrounded by the people who mean the most to them, opened their Match Day envelopes together at the Townsend Hotel on March 18.

“This is a day you have worked so hard for. Your accomplishments never cease to amaze us,” said Angela Nuzzarello, M.D., associate dean for Student Affairs before she led the countdown to the reveal.

Seconds after ripping open their own envelopes the students shared their news with each other and learned that they were heading off in many directions to fulfill residencies in specialties ranging from urology and anesthesiology to obstetrics and gynecology, as well as emergency medicine, orthopaedic surgery and pediatrics. Some of them will remain in Michigan at Beaumont Health, Henry Ford and University of Michigan, while others will be packing their bags for Yale, Stanford, New York Eye & Ear Infirmary, University of Minnesota-Minneapolis and University of California Davis Medical Center. 

There will be students going to Maine (Verity Ramirez), Pennsylvania (Rachel Hanke) and Canada (Xiang Sean Li). Ashley Woodfin and John Silva will settle in Chicago, the stress of ensuring a “couples match” finally behind them.

“We had to schedule our interviews in the same places and after considering Boston and Philadelphia, focused on Chicago because it was a city where we both felt comfortable,” explained Woodfin who will pursue general surgery at Rush University Medical Center while Silva is at Northwestern McGaw.   

For a full list of results, visit Match Day.

Part 3: Honors Convocation to run next week.