When they arrived at WMed a little less than four years ago, students from the Class of 2020 were eager and ready for whatever awaited them as young and aspiring physicians.
On Friday, they learned – finally – where their journey through the joys and rigors of medical school had led them for the next step in residency training.
It was a moment filled with nervous apprehension and excitement as the clock struck noon and the 70 students from the medical school’s third MD class participated in the time-honored tradition known as Match Day. And it was a milestone for the students that took place in the midst of the unprecedented, and still evolving, COVID-19 pandemic, a development that led to the cancelation of a large celebration that was to have taken place at the Air Zoo.
Instead, Match Day looked very different for the students, as well as the thousands of other fourth-year medical students from across the country. At WMed, many members of the Class of 2020 gathered in small groups that included their loved ones as they learned their Match results from an e-mail instead of the traditional Match Day envelope.
All the while, the students made sure to keep in touch with one another, celebrating the day via text, through social media, and virtually with Facetime and other tools. The technology allowed the students to gather together, to feel a sense of community despite having to be apart during a life-changing moment for each of them.
"We are proud of all our graduates,” said Peter Ziemkowski, MD, associate dean for Student Affairs. “We have 31 students who matched into primary care specialties and that is a great testament to the training they’ve received at WMed, as are our first students to match into dermatology and neurological surgery."
For medical students, Match Day represents a pinnacle of their time spent in undergraduate medical education. WMed students joined other students from across the country in learning where they will spend the next three or more years as resident physicians.
“Part of me is sad because it means that these friends that I’ve made and grown to love over the past three and a half years are going to be scattered across the country,” M4 Elaine Vos said Friday in a video message and champagne toast to her classmates. “But another part of me is so happy because I know that this day means each and every one of you is achieving a dream that you have worked so hard for. And you deserve it.”
Key Highlights from the Match
- Every student in the Class of 2020 matched to a residency slot as part of a nationwide process that is increasingly competitive.
- Three students from the Class of 2020 matched to residency slots at WMed and will complete their training in Kalamazoo in the specialties of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry. They will join the 200-plus physicians-in-training in the medical school’s 15 residency and fellowship programs.
- 19 students will remain in Michigan for residency, working in hospitals in Ann Arbor, Detroit, East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Pontiac, and Royal Oak.
- 31 students will complete their training in a specialty that could lead to a career in primary care.
- Four students are recipients of scholarships from the F. Edward Hébert Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) and will complete their residency training at military medical centers.
- WMed students will train in residency programs in 20 different states and the District of Columbia, across the US.
The students will complete their training in the following specialties and programs:
Anesthesiology
- Henry Ford Hospital, Michigan
- University of Colorado School of Medicine, Colorado
Dermatology
- Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and Affiliated Hospitals, Illinois
Diagnostic Radiology
- University of California Irvine Medical Center, California
- University of Florida College of Medicine-Shands Hospital, Florida
- University of Louisville School of Medicine, Kentucky
Emergency Medicine
- Ascension St. John Hospital, Michigan
- Beaumont Health, Michigan
- Stony Brook Teaching Hospitals, New York
- University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Arizona
- University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri
- University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Wisconsin
Family Medicine
- Henry Ford Hospital, Michigan (2)
- University of Chicago (NorthShore) Medical Center, Illinois
- University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas
- University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Wisconsin
General Surgery
- Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia
- St. Joseph Mercy Health System, Michigan
Internal Medicine
- Case Western Reserve University/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Ohio
- Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Georgia
- Gundersen Health System, Wisconsin
- Kaiser Permanente, California
- Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Arizona
- Mercy Medical Center, Iowa
- St. Joseph Mercy Health System, Michigan
- Sparrow Hospital, Michigan
- Spectrum Health/Michigan State University, Michigan
- University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Ohio
- University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa
- Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, Ohio
Internal Medicine/Emergency Medicine
- SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn, New York
Interventional Radiology
- University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Wisconsin
Medicine-Pediatrics
- Beaumont Health, Michigan
- Loma Linda University, California
- UCLA Medical Center, California
Neurological Surgery
- University of Michigan Hospitals, Michigan
Neurology
- MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Maryland
- University of California Irvine Medical Center, California
- University of Minnesota Medical School, Minnesota
- University of Virginia, Virginia
Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Anne Arundel Medical Center, Maryland
- Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals, Wisconsin
- Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia
- UCLA Medical Center, California
- University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri
- University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Wisconsin
- Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine
Orthopaedic Surgery
- Beaumont Health-Royal Oak & Taylor, Michigan (2)
- University of Minnesota Medical School, Minnesota
- University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Wisconsin
Pathology
- University of Vermont Medical Center, Vermont
Pediatrics
- Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Ohio
- Spectrum Health/Michigan State University, Michigan
- UCLA Medical Center, California
- University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Connecticut
- University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa
- Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
- Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital, Washington, D.C.
Psychiatry
- Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, California
- University of California Irvine Medical Center, California
- Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Michigan
Radiation Oncology
- Yale New Haven Hospital, Connecticut
The 2020 Main Residency Match process began in the fall for fourth-year students at WMed and other medical students across the country when they applied to residency programs at which they wanted to train. As part of the process, program directors review applications and conduct candidate interviews in the fall and early winter. From mid-January to late February, applicants submit to the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) their rank order lists of preferred programs, and program directors rank applicants in order of preference for training. The NRMP uses a computerized mathematical algorithm to match applicants with programs using the preferences expressed on their rank lists.
As they look ahead, students in the Class of 2020 will complete the final months of the fourth-year curriculum at WMed, which culminates in May with graduation and they will head to their residency training by July 1.