Surrounded by relatives and friends, seniors at LSU 's and Tulane 's medical schools Friday will learn where they'll go for postgraduate training. On Friday, which is known asMatch Day in medical-school circles, LSU seniors and their entourages will gather at the Sugar Mill, 1021 Convention Center Blvd., and the Tulane contingent will be at the River City Ball Room at Mardi Gras World, 1380 Port of New Orleans Place.

Each ceremony will start at 11 a.m., the moment when medical-school seniors across the country will rip open white envelopes containing information that could chart the course for the rest of their lives.

The life-shaping aspect comes from this fact: Studies have shown that most doctors wind up putting down roots where they do their residencies.

Because of that factor, the numbers from LSU are regarded as indicators of the state's future supply of physicians becauseLSU's medical schools in New Orleans and Shreveportaccept only Louisiana residents. Of the 178seniorsin last year's match at LSU's New Orleans campus, 104 -- 58.4 percent -- landed Louisiana residencies, as did 60 of the 108 Shreveport seniors, or 55.6 percent.

Tulane does not have a residency requirement. Last year, nearly one-fouth of its medical graduates -- 44 out of 178 -- stayed in Louisiana.

This year, there will be 177 Tulane students in the match, 171 from LSU's medical school in New Orleans and 109 from LSU's medical campus in Shreveport.

Match Day got its name because it is the culmination of a computer-driven matchmaking process. After medical-school seniors interview at hospitals where they would like to go, they and the people with whom they speak rate each other. The information is fed into a computer, which produces the resultsthat go into the envelopes.

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LSU, Tulane medical school seniors learning residency destinations