Stephanie Krom '18

[My partner Gabe Vachon, D.O. '18, and I] looked at a lot of different things. Matching as a couple took a lot of planning and research into our options. A few things that we felt were important aspects of programs that we kept in mind included where we felt most comfortable with current residents and which programs had recent graduates that went off to do things we think that we want to do. We also looked a lot at location; neither of us wanted to be in a huge city and we wanted to stay in the Northeast. We also wanted a place where we could have an easy and affordable life outside the hospital and enjoy the outdoors.

[I decided on Pediatrics for my specialty because] I really like working with kids, they are so fun and they are also very resilient. It’s really rewarding to see the critically ill kids eventually get discharged and watch the healthy ones grow. I also personally find the pathology in pediatric medicine more interesting than adult medicine. The dynamics with the parents are also fun.

On Match Day, I was mostly nervous, the part where we had to hold our envelopes but couldn’t open them was torture because I’m terrible with surprises. I didn’t want to end up in a huge city alone without Gabe or my family. Then when I saw where we matched and that we were together it was a huge relief with a lot of excitement.