March Madness has a different meaning for Thomas Hocker and Meena Singh, a married couple in their final year at the Harvard Medical School, who are waiting to learn Thursday if they have been accepted into their residency programs of choice.
Already saddled with about $330,000 in education loans, they borrowed $20,000 more so they could fly around the country this winter for about two dozen residency interviews each. All told, each applied to 90 such training programs.
Ms. Singh, pregnant during interview season, gave birth to their second daughter in early January. Three days later, she flew to Miami for an interview.
The search has been difficult not because they are mediocre students; indeed, each has a brand-name education, academic honors and published research on disease. No, it has been hard because they aspire to be dermatologists.
