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Jon Allred shares the good news with his son after matching to William Beaumont Hospital for a residency in ob/gyn. |
March 17, was a rewarding day for Year IV students at Wayne State’s School of Medicine who had anxiously - and patiently - been awaiting the 1998 National Residency Match Program results. In the tradition of Match Day, as it is called, envelopes were ripped open, shouts filled the air and students hugged, cried and exhaled sighs of relief upon learning where they are headed for residencies.
The class of 1998 brings much pride to the School and the University, with 96.5 percent of participating students successfully matching to a residency program. This is a three percent increase over the national residency match average of 93.5 percent. Wayne State saw 55 percent of students matching to their first residency site choice, in keeping with the national average of 54.9 percent, and 81 percent matching to one of their first three site choices. Of the 226 participating students, 62.5 percent are remaining in Michigan with 41 percent staying in the Detroit area and nearly a third of those remaining in Detroit Medical Center (DMC)-affiliated hospitals. The 35 percent of students leaving the area are going to such prestigious institutions as Harvard, Mayo and Johns Hopkins.
When deciding their specialties, WSU students selected internal medicine, family medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopaedic surgery, surgery and emergency medicine as the most popular residencies.
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Twin brothers Eric and Andrew Sokol are headed to Northwestern University in Chicago (pictured from left to right with their mother, Roberta). Mariam Awada (far right) is headed for plastic surgery residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. |
"The excellent matches that resulted for our students reflect the strength and variety of this class," said Loretta Robichaud, academic counselor to Wayne State’s Year IV medical students. "I will miss the challenge and diversity this class offered me throughout the last four years."
Conversely, a group of the country’s brightest students will be welcomed into the residency programs at WSU/DMC. According to Dr. Robert Sokol, dean of the School of Medicine, "Our programs did very well this year in drawing top talent to our system. This speaks well to our growing reputation as a nationally respected research and clinical site."