I MATCHED, YOU GUYS!
(wtf does that mean, Alacrity?)
Okay, say you want to be a vet and you're going to vet school. After vet school, you can:
1. Go right into practice.
2. Do an internship for a year, then go into practice.
3. Do an internship for a year, then a residency for 2-3 years, then work as a boarded specialist (assuming you pass your specialty boards).
4, etc. Do something else entirely.
My eventual plan is complicated, but it will suffice for the moment to say that I want to become an oncologist. This means I need to do an internship followed by an oncology residency.
The way one gets a small animal internship (usually) is via this thing called "The Match". It is an organization that allows people to en masse apply to many different internships and residencies. It is similar to the VMCAS for vet school, or the common app for college.
However...this program actually "matches up" people and programs instead of allowing the institutions to directly extend their offers themselves. From what I hear, it is rather similar to what happens to medical students. Once you've applied to your programs, you create a rank order list of where you would prefer to go. Then the programs create rank order lists of applicants. The program then makes the matches and releases them to the world on Match Day. Not everyone matches, so during "The Scramble", unmatched programs and applicants hurriedly find each other. Hopefully, in the end everyone is satisfied. Hooray!
I matched at a large specialty private practice outside of a big city. I am very excited!