• UC Irvine School of Medicine graduate Flora Park, right, celebrates...

    UC Irvine School of Medicine graduate Flora Park, right, celebrates with friends after she announced she will be doing her residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in general surgery during the annual Match Day the UC Irvine School of Medicine in Irvine on Friday, March 21, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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UC Irvine School of Medicine graduate Flora Park, right, celebrates with friends after she announced she will be doing her residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in general surgery during the annual Match Day the UC Irvine School of Medicine in Irvine on Friday, March 21, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Pennsylvania, Chicago, Oregon, Los Angeles and even close to where they started their journey, UCI Medical Center, soon-to-be graduates learned Friday, March 21, where they will be spending the next years of their journey to becoming doctors.

The UC Irvine School of Medicine hosted its annual Match Day on Friday, with graduates stepping forward one by one to open their envelopes, discovering before the gathered crowd of friends and family which residency programs they had been matched with. Many took the opportunity to thank those in their lives who had helped them reach this point.

And, some were accompanied by partners or even children, because they, too, are part of this journey. The future doctors not only learned where they would spend their next years, but also what discipline they would do their clinical work in.

This year, 111 UCI medical school graduates participated in Match Day; there were 43, 237 positions nationwide and 52,498 applicants, according to the National Resident Matching Program. This was the largest group in its 73-year history, the national program reported.