As each student from the MD Class of 2024 unsealed the envelope in front of them on Friday, they learned in an instant where their next steps after medical school would lead them.
The moment was one marked with nervous energy and excitement as the clock struck noon at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Kalamazoo Conference Center where the more than 80 students who make up the seventh MD class at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed) gathered with family and friends to take part in the time-honored tradition known as Match Day.
“To the students in the Class of 2024, today is all about you,” said Kevin Kavanaugh, MD, associate professor in the Department of Medicine who also served as assistant dean for Career Development during the Class of 2024’s time at WMed. “There’s a cliché that says ‘Well, it’s not all about you.’ Not today. Match Day 2024 – it is all about you so enjoy this day and soak it in.”
With Match Day, the Class of 2024 joined students from other medical schools across the country on Friday, March 15, to learn where they will spend the next three or more years in residency training. The festivities were a culmination for fourth-year medical students as they each learned their future plans.
As the students waited to open their envelopes, they greeted one another with smiles and nervous chatter filled the conference center.
Students and their guests were able to enjoy light snacks and they heard remarks from Dr. Kavanaugh, as well as M4s Deep Patel and Devin Velasco. There were also plenty of opportunities to capture photos at the event with WMed backdrops and the Match Day pin map. Students also got the chance to take the stage to share their Match results with guests at the event, which was livestreamed on the medical school’s YouTube channel and website at wmed.edu/matchday.
“As we stand here on this grand peak of our journey of becoming physicians, eagerly looking forward to what the next few years will bring to each of us, let us take a moment to look back on our time in medical school and appreciate how far we’ve come,” Velasco said. “These past four years have really flown by and we should all be truly proud of the hard work, determination, and perseverance that brought us to this point.”
Key Highlights from this year’s Match
- 98% of the students in the Class of 2024 matched to a residency slot as part of a nationwide process that is increasingly competitive.
- Six students from the Class of 2024 matched to residency slots at WMed and will complete their training in Kalamazoo in the specialties of Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Psychiatry. They will join the 200-plus physicians-in-training in the medical school’s 15 residency and fellowship programs.
- 34 students will remain in Michigan for residency, working in hospitals in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Marquette, Pontiac, Royal Oak, and St. Joseph.
- 25 students will complete their training in a specialty that could lead to a career in primary care.
- One student is the recipient of a scholarship from the F. Edward Hébert Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) and will complete their residency training at a military medical center.
- WMed students will train in residency programs in 22 different states across the US.
The students will complete their training in the following specialties and programs:
Anesthesiology
- Baylor College Medical Center, Texas
- McLaren Health Care, Michigan
- The MetroHealth System at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
- University of Colorado School of Medicine-Denver, Colorado
- University of Michigan Hospitals-Ann Arbor, Michigan
- University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine-Knoxville, Tennessee
- West Virginia University School of Medicine, West Virginia (2)
Child/Adolescent Psychiatry
- Kern Medical Center, California
Diagnostic Radiology
- Baylor Scott & White Medical Center, Texas
- Henry Ford Hospital, Michigan
- UMass Chan Medical School, Massachusetts
Emergency Medicine
- Boston University Medical Center, Massachusetts
- Carolinas Medical Center, North Carolina
- Corewell Health East Beaumont, Michigan (2)
- Corewell Health-Grand Rapids at Michigan State University, Michigan
- Corewell Health Lakeland, Michigan
- Detroit Medical Center at Wayne State University, Michigan
- University of California Irvine Medical Center, California
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Tennessee
- WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Michigan
Family Medicine
- University of Illinois College of Medicine-Chicago, Illinois
- University of Michigan Hospitals-Ann Arbor, Michigan
- University of Utah Health, Utah
- UP Health System-Marquette, Michigan
General Surgery
- Ascension St. John Hospital, Michigan
- Corewell Health East Beaumont, Michigan (2)
- Detroit Medical Center at Wayne State University, Michigan
- Henry Ford Jackson Hospital, Michigan
- Huntington Memorial Hospital, California
- Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Minnesota
- Trinity Health Oakland, Michigan
- UC Davis Medical Center, California
- University of Southern California, California
Internal Medicine
- Baylor Scott & White Medical Center, Texas
- Baylor University Medical Center-Dallas, Texas
- Carolinas Medical Center, North Carolina
- Corewell Health-Grand Rapids at Michigan State University, Michigan
- Corewell Health Lakeland, Michigan
- Emory University School of Medicine, Georgia
- Insight Hospital and Medical Center Chicago, Illinois
- UC Davis Medical Center, California
- University of Michigan Hospitals-Ann Arbor, Michigan
- University of Southern California, California (3)
- WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Michigan (3)
Internal Medicine/Psychiatry
- Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Maryland
Medicine-Pediatrics
- Corewell Health-Grand Rapids at Michigan State University, Michigan
- The MetroHealth System at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
Neurodevelopmental Disabilities
- John Hopkins Hospital, Maryland
Neurology
- Medical College of Georgia, Georgia
- The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Ohio
- University of North Dakota School of Medicine, North Dakota
Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Ascension St. John Hospital, Michigan (2)
- Detroit Medical Center at Wayne State University, Michigan
- Hurley Medical Center, Michigan
- Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals and Clinics, Wisconsin
- Summa Health at Northeast Ohio Medical University, Ohio
Orthopaedic Surgery
- Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital, Pennsylvania
- Summa Health at Northeast Ohio Medical University, Ohio
- University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Arizona
- Westchester Medical Center, New York
Pathology
- Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, California
Pediatrics
- Corewell Health-Grand Rapids at Michigan State University, Michigan (2)
- Loyola University Medical Center, Illinois
- Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Ohio
- University of California San Francisco, California
- University of Maryland Medical Center, Maryland
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
- Indiana University School of Medicine, Indiana
- University of New Mexico School of Medicine, New Mexico
Psychiatry
- Kaiser Permanente-San Jose, California
- Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services, Michigan
- WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Michigan (2)
Psychiatry/Child Psychiatry
- Detroit Medical Center at Wayne State University, Michigan
Transitional Year
- Abrazo Health Network, Arizona
- AdventHealth Redmond, Georgia
Urology
- UC Davis, California
The 2024 Main Residency Match process began in the summer of 2023 for fourth-year students at WMed and other medical students across the country as they prepared applications 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. During the month of February, applicants submitted 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 2024 will complete the final months of the fourth-year curriculum at WMed, which culminates in May with a commencement ceremony at WMU’s Miller Auditorium in Kalamazoo. The event, which is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, 2024, is open to the public and tickets are not required.