Match Day Results

Well, gratefully my wife has kept the Dalley Alley afloat with a selection of choice images and wonderful commentary.

The fourth year of a medical student is somewhat of an emotional roller coaster. The clinical obligations are not as rigorous as the third year for days often end shortly after lunch and call is a scarcity. Nonetheless, there are events that tax the very emotional stability of a man.

Usually sometime in July of a medical student's fourth year, one begins to prepare his application to submit to various residencies of his choosing. This includes hunting down three to four faculty that are willing to make glowing comments about your future as a physician, writing a personal statement about how your first words as a baby were Mama, Dada, and (insert specialty here), and scrounging up any remotely philanthropic contributions to society.

After submitting applications (for me it was in the neighborhood of 35 applications) you wait for any invitation for an interview. I was fortunate enough to interview at 14 programs across the country from Washington to Maryland and everything in between.

Then after all your interviews you submit a rank order list online of where you would like to go for residency, while at the same time the programs rank all interviewees. Where the twain meet is called THE MATCH and that is the place where you will spend the next 3-5 years of your life.

So on Thursday March 17th at 11am every medical student across the country sat with sweaty palms holding an envelope with the results of their MATCH and on "GO!" they tore open the letter hoping they get their hearts desire.

As for the Dalley family we will be spending a year in Amarillo Texas doing a year of Preliminary Medicine and then spend the next three years at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Krista and I could not be more excited.

Despite the mutliple comments about how crime ridden Baltimore is, we take heart because we know all manner of wonderful people up in that area and we could not have matched a more fabulous program.

So, I can't wait for the soft shell crab and the Ravens aren't that bad a team.

The above image made the front cover of the Lubbock Avalanche Journal. My mother is on the left with the look of surprise. Ethan is on the right making sure he read the letter right. Krista is in the middle with the look of shock just before she started to cry tears of joy (I hope).