About 20 fourth-year medical students from the College of Human Medicine’s Lansing campus — and hundreds more across the country — found out which hospital or clinic’s residency program they had been accepted to during “Match Day.”

Since last July, the fourth-year students have applied and interviewed for residency programs they are interested in across the country, said Renuka Gera, community assistant dean for the College of Human Medicine’s East Lansing campus.

By late February, the students completed a rank order list — listing the programs in the order they would like to be accepted to, she said. Each residency program ranked the students they would like to accept as well and then a system of computers determined which students would go where, Gera said.

“This is the first time they will find out whether they matched not only in their specialty, but where they’re going to,” Gera said. “It’s a very, very important day for them.”

Some students only ranked two programs, while others ranked as many as 30, said Karlene Torres, director of clinical student programs. The residency programs typically last between three to five years depending on the speciality, and some students stay even longer — completing fellowships and specializing even further, she said.
“Once you get through medical school, you can’t go out and practice medicine,” Torres said. “You have to have training.”

There is always the chance that a student might not match with any programs, but this year everyone on the East Lansing campus earned a match — whether it was their No. 1 choice or their No. 20, Torres said.

Specialities including surgery and orthopedics tend to be more competitive than others, but all residency programs are becoming more difficult to get into as more medical schools are opening across the country, she said.

“The number of residency slots has not increased, but the number of medical students graduating has,” Torres said.

Ayana Wilson, a fourth-year medical student, said she spent all of December interviewing at obstetrician gynecology residency programs across the country. She went back for a second interview at her top pick — University of South Carolina — where she liked the academic basis and felt “really comfortable” with the residents.

When she opened her envelope Thursday afternoon, she found out that’s where she’ll be headed.

“That was my No. 1,” Wilson said. “I’m speechless.”

Dexter Fossitt and Meg Park also found out they’ll be headed to their No. 1 programs for internal medicine — Park at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Fossitt at a program in La Crosse, Wisc., that is community-based, his biggest criteria for the programs that he looked into, he said.

“I’m nervous and excited — it’s a big change,” Fossitt said. “Me and my wife are looking forward to the move.”

And for Lobeck, the new home she’ll be headed to at Wayne State University will be near the one she grew up at before going to medical school.

“I’m from the Detroit area, my husband has a job there — all my family’s from that area,” she said. “I’m excited to have a home.”