Virtual Match Day: Medical Students Begin Health Careers During a Pandemic

For graduating medical students, Match Day is the event that determines where they will spend the next years of their lives. On this day each year, students across the country learn where they will complete their residencies before obtaining medical licenses. Typically, this process happens in-person, with the graduating students able to celebrate the occasion with their loved ones. However, due to the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Match Day took place virtually.

Match Day Goes Virtual (UW Medicine - Quotes August Longino)

The COVID-19 crisis has brought a whirlwind of changes that have impacted everyone in our community — including this year’s graduating class of medical students at UW School of Medicine. 

In the last few weeks, the students were pulled from their clinical rotations early.

Then, the difficult and unprecedented decision was made to hold the School’s Match Day ceremony online.