It’s a match!

At the stroke of 11 a.m., 122 UNMC medical students opened the envelopes that told them where they were going to spend the next several years doing their residencies.

The simultaneous openings were a new wrinkle for the ceremony — traditionally, the students are called onstage one at a time to open their envelope, and they read their match to the room at large.

The new innovation is a welcome one, said class president Jeremy Hosein of Papillion, who matched in neurosurgery at the University of Colorado in Denver.

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“I think that the first people who find out (where you’ve matched) ought to be your family, friends and loved ones,” he said. “That’s who you should get to share the news with first.”

The idea worked well — when the OK was given to open the envelopes, the Truhlsen Events Center exploded into noise, primarily cries of joy and relief.

Brenda Weidner multitasks while marking the map

According to Gerald Moore, M.D., senior associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Medicine, UNMC students were selected for residency spots in 28 different states, although 46 percent of the class did stay in Nebraska, 59 percent of them in primary care.

Spencer Harrison of Leawood Kan., and his fiancee, Jacqueline Blunck of Osmond, Neb., are among those leaving. The engaged pair both matched at one of their top choices, the University of Michigan Hospitals-Ann Arbor. Harrison matched in psychiatry and Blunck in family medicine.

“The strategy for us was to look for big cities where they have a whole bunch of programs,” Harrison said.

“It becomes really chaotic when you’re trying to figure out interviews,” Blunck said.

Students are matched by the National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP) through a computer program to align their preferences for residency programs in order to fill the thousands of training positions available at U.S. teaching hospitals.

Blunck said Match Day was an exciting moment.

“You’re moving on to that next big step. This is that final transition into actually becoming a physician.”

Meg Punt of Bellevue, who matched in internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, planned to relax and celebrate the day.

“I know I have many years of hard work ahead of me,” she said, “and I’m just trying to put that out of my head and leave this as an exciting day.”