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On March 20 at noon, thousands of medical students will hold their breath before ripping open envelopes or refreshing their emails. Match Day marks the moment when medical students learn where they’ll begin their residency, and for some, what kind of doctor they will become.

This year, hopeful medical students and their friends and families will gather at State University of New York Upstate Medical University and rip open their envelopes together. It’s exciting, but it can also be terrifying and disappointing.

Match Day is a longstanding celebration, but the tension begins days earlier. At 10 a.m. on March 16, students learn whether they matched at all. In 2025, 9,541 applicants went unmatched, including 2,409 soon-to-be graduates of United States schools awarding Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degrees.

Many people don’t realize that graduating from medical school doesn’t guarantee a job or an avenue to continue training. The U.S. is facing a critical physician shortage. Every unmatched, fully trained medical........

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