Future Physicians Find Their Match

TTUHSC School of Medicine Students Open Envelopes that Reveal Residencies

• By Kay Williams
• March 20, 2026
• Education

March represents springtime, new beginnings and time for Match Day for fourth-year medical students nationwide. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Medicine students participated in Match Day today (March 20).

John C. DeToledo, M.D., TTUHSC executive vice president for clinical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, said behind every Match result is a story of persistence, growth and commitment to the medical profession.

“For each of our students, the Match represents a carefully choreographed process,” DeToledo said. “It reflects many years of effort — earning strong letters of recommendation, spending long hours in clinics and the wards, engaging in research and scholarly writing, completing away rotations and preparing for the countless Zoom interviews with program directors from programs across the nation. All of this culminates in the creation of a rank-order list — an exercise that ultimately determines where you will train and, in many ways, what your life will look like for the next three to seven years.”

For this class of students set to graduate in May, new beginnings unfolded with anticipation and excitement as they opened their sealed envelopes in unison with students across the country. Once opened, the envelopes’ contents revealed where they will spend the next three to seven years as residents and what specialty they will pursue for their professional careers.

A combined total of 180 fourth-year TTUHSC School of Medicine students from campuses in Lubbock, Amarillo and Odessa participated in the Match. Of that total, an estimated 23% matched at one of the TTUHSC-affiliated residency programs; 63% are remaining in Texas; 36% matched outside of Texas and 47% of the overall students matched to a primary care-affiliated residency program.

“An estimated 25 students matched into specialty areas that are considered to be highly competitive, including areas such as ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery and urology, demonstrating the quality of our educational program and the strength of the career advising program within the school,” Simon Williams, Ph.D., senior associate dean for Academic Affairs, said. “We had the highest number of matched students for many years, probably the highest in school history.”

Match Day is a nerve-wracking event that has played out on medical school campuses across the country since 1952. Months before Match Day, students begin applying to residency programs in their preferred specialties. Students visit sites to evaluate and ultimately rank their preferred residency programs. At the same time, administrators at each site interview and rank applicants. The process is blinded, so neither applicants nor programs can see each other's rank-order lists.  

Many students apply for more than one medical specialty and do not know which they matched with until Match Day. Although the majority of U.S. medical school seniors match to one of their top three program choices, applicants may match to programs lower on their rank order list, especially when their preferred specialty for training is among the most competitive.

The National Resident Matching Program coordinates this process and makes the final match algorithm, which is designed to produce results for students to fill the thousands of training positions available at U.S. teaching hospitals.