Most of us look forward to March  for its promise of lighter days and warmer temperatures. But fourth-year medical students anticipate spring’s arrival for another reason: it’s when they begin to wind up their classroom studies and learn where they will undertake the next stage of their medical training.

Temple’s medical students are no different. On March 18, the class waited in the commons area of the new Medical Education and Research Building, clutching envelopes that would soon reveal their next destination. At exactly noon, the anxious group ripped them open to learn their fates.

And for most students, the news was exactly as they had hoped. While many learned that they will train at some of the most prestigious institutions around the country — Yale, Wake Forest and Johns Hopkins, to name a few — about 45 percent will stay here in Pennsylvania, including 11 percent who will remain at Temple.

Internal medicine was the most popular specialty, chosen by about 21 percent of Temple students, followed by emergency medicine and pediatrics.

The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) reported that this Match Day was the largest in its history, encompassing more than 37,000 applicants, 4,100 graduate medical education programs and 25,500 residency training positions nationwide.