Exclamations and tears of joy filled the Great Hall of Stranahan Theater last Thursday when fourth-year medical students discovered where they will train for their residencies.
Lydia Sahlani got a big hug from Erin Roesch after learning she will be heading to Columbus for her residency in emergency medicine at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. Roesch also will be at OSU for a residency in internal medicine.
The students had anxiously awaited the strike of noon on Match Day to open envelopes that would reveal the important information about where they will spend the next three to seven years of their lives.
“This is an important milestone, an important turning point in your life,” UT President Lloyd Jacobs told the soon-to-be-physicians. “There is no other turning point in your life, in my opinion, that is quite as important as this one.”
It was the day when Jessica Kingsberg learned she was headed for Kalamazoo, Mich., as one of the few women in the country in an orthopedic surgery residency program. She will be a resident at Michigan State University’s Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies.
“Sports have always been important to me and what interested me with orthopedics was you get to give people their mobility back and give people their lives back,” Kingsberg said.
Stacey Hoffman is one of 14 students who will continue their training at The University of Toledo College of Medicine, where she will be a physical medicine and rehabilitation resident.
“I love this program and the physicians who teach in the program. This was my first choice,” Hoffman said. “It was hugely exciting and a big relief to open my letter and find out I was staying.”
Ohio remains the most popular place for UT students with 53, or 39 percent, staying in the Buckeye State, and 20 of those will remain in northwest Ohio.
UT medical students also matched with programs in 24 other states, with Michigan getting the second highest number with 19, followed by California, Kentucky and New York, each with six.
Competitive and prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic continue to train UT graduates in their programs.
“This is not only a good match, but this is one of the best, if not the best, The University of Toledo College of Medicine has ever had,” Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold, UT Health Science Campus provost, executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, said at the ceremony. “We are very proud of our students as they spread across the country to continue their education.”
Of the 137 graduating seniors who matched, 53, or 38.7 percent, were in primary care fields, and 84, or 61.3 percent, are entering other specialties.
The college had the highest number in history match with the specialties of anesthesiology, orthopedic surgery, pediatrics and psychiatry.
