It's the final countdown......

Tomorrow (Monday) at noon, Garrett will receive an email telling him whether he "matched" or not. If he matched, we will be ECSTATIC and then we will only have to wait until Thursday to find out where we will be spending the next 5 years of our lives!

If he didn't match, then things will get busy! Last year, 382 radiology applicants did NOT match... or, about 1 in 6. And with 9 radiology hopefuls in his class... it's a bit nerve wracking!

So what will happen if Garrett doesn't match? We "scramble"! As I said a few weeks ago, programs make their own rank lists, and applicants make their lists. However, not all programs fill all their positions through the algorithm, for a variety of reasons. So, on Tuesday at noon, a list of all these positions will be made public for everyone who did not match. All unmatched applicants will see see the list of all the unmatched programs, all specialties. Last year, there were 6 spots open in radiology (for the 382 people to fight for!). Garrett would have to contact the programs available and try to convince them to hire him for residency. He will have advisors and other people from his medical school helping him in this process as well. Usually all un-filled (radiology) positions get filled within the first half hour that the list is made available, from what I hear.

So, either Garrett can re-apply for radiology next year, or choose an entirely different specialty - basically a whole other career in medicine! I asked him today what his second choice would be, and he had no idea.

Needless to say, nobody wants to experience the scramble, so tomorrow is a very big day for us. We're very nervous for ourselves, and for our friends who are going into radiology as well. Even though Garrett and his friend are great applicants, you just never know what will happen. You know, you always hear that story of "the great candidate who didn't match and nobody knows why".

So.... I'll post tomorrow afternoon with the results, if they are good! If there's no post tomorrow, you can assume that we are freaking out. :)