The wait is almost over for students who will soon graduate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: At noon on Friday, March 15, they will come together and open the envelopes that let them know where they will spend the next chapter of their lives as they train for careers in the medical field of their choosing.

The annual Match Day event is a rite of passage for graduating medical students- who will advance to a three- to seven-year residency program, getting hands-on experience in a specific discipline.

Johns Hopkins’ annual Match Day celebration will take place on the second floor of the Anne and Mike Armstrong Medical Education Building at 1600 McElderry St. in Baltimore, Maryland. The students, along with family members, friends and mentors, will gather at 11 a.m. for a brief program leading up to the big moment at noon, when students will learn which hospital and specialty program have accepted them for a residency. At that moment, students from medical schools across the United States will be doing the very same thing.

Before Match Day, students complete lengthy paperwork and on-site interviews with hospitals, then provide a ranked list of their top choices. Hospitals submit a similar list of openings, preferred students, and specialty or generalist preferences. Each applicant is matched via computer algorithm to the hospital residency program that is highest on the applicant’s list and has offered the applicant a position. Johns Hopkins students are often matched with their first- or second-choice sites.

Couples who want to go to the same city can have their applications linked. They are matched based on the location they ranked highest and where each was offered a residency at a local hospital.

The National Resident Matching Program was started in 1952 to match the top choices of both residency programs and medical students. The program calls its method the “algorithm of happiness.”

Members of the media interested in covering the event should contact Waun’Shae Blount ([email protected]) for information including where to park, or to contact with students.

Read more about our 2019 students.