Future doctors anxiously await results of ‘Match Day’ on the Medical Mile

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — It’s ‘Match Week’ on Grand Rapid’s medical mile. Medical students all over the country are finding out their future on Friday.

That’s when medical students will open envelopes to find out their specialty, and where they will do their residency.

Future ophthalmologist from Michigan State’s medical school Katie Jaje found out early where she was headed. Ophthalmology and Henry Ford in Detroit.

“It’s very anxiety-inducing. It’s exciting. But this is four years of medical school, all kind of culminating to this one moment,” medical student Katie Jaje said.

First year resident of pediatric plastic surgery, Darin Potman, found out his match last year with his son on his shoulders.

“During my third year of medical school, my wife was about eight months pregnant. We had a really bad pediatric trauma case that came in. And had really significant facial fractures. At that time. That case really hit home for me. When I found out pediatric plastic surgery was one of the main specialties involved in this patient’s care, that’s when I really kind of started diving in to what this specialty is,” Pediatric Plastic Surgery Resident Darin Potman said.

Medical students select their specialties, ranking their preferred hospital and program. The hospitals rank the medical students back. The information is entered into an algorithm, and a match is born.

“Our resident programs probably do 1500 interviews for the positions that we’re going to find out we receive this week,” Dr. Candace Smith-King, Vice President of Academic Affairs for Corewell Health Grand rapids said.

It’s a super competitive process, that culminates to one moment on Friday March 15. Future physicians will find out where they’ll be for the next few years with the opening of an envelope.

“There’s all this anticipation, all this excitement. And a lot of sadness around that day for some people, who find out they’re going to a program they may not have seen themselves going to,” Potman said.

The matches are top secret until then. Some specialties, like Katie Jajes, however, do find out early.

“They’ve kind of always done it that way. I ended up matching in early February, instead of March. Folks that are going into urology end up finding out a little earlier than everyone else,” Jaje said.

The anxiety on the Medical Mile is palpable.

“It’s just a really exciting time to see where everybody ends up,” Jaje said.

Most people will start their new jobs on July 1st.

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