On March 20, medical students across the country will celebrate Match Day, an exciting, suspense-filled revelation of where their careers will take them next. Match Day is an annual rite of passage for fourth-year medical students, as each one finds out where he or she “matched” for residency training in their chosen specialty after an application process that includes interviews and assessments with their desired programs.
The six students who match to the U-M General Surgery Residency Program will begin their residencies on July 1. The program, which consistently fills those six slots every year, provides supervised experience in all areas of general surgery, and training occurs primarily at the U-M Hospitals and Veterans Administration Hospitals. According to a survey of physicians about the best residency programs in their specialty by Doximity.com, a social media platform for physicians and medical students in partnership with U.S. News & World Report, U-M’s surgery residency program ranks third in the nation and first in the Midwest.
“Our residency program is very much geared toward identifying, creating and supporting the future leaders of academic surgery,” says Paul Gauger, M.D., the William J. Fry Professor of Surgery and program director for general surgery. “We’re looking for residents with big ideas, who want to learn how to be scientists and leaders, and make big contributions to the field of surgery.”
After residency, doctors tend to practice near where they trained. About 40 percent of U-M residents stay in Michigan.
