California Health Sciences University celebrated Match Day on Friday and all 109 fourth-year medical students paired up with residency programs.

Match Day is a nationwide event held at medical schools across the country. At 9 a.m., students learned where they will complete their residencies.

The process is part of Match Week, which begins on Monday when students find out whether they have been matched to a program.

Students submit a ranked list of preferred programs after completing interviews, and once matched, they are contractually bound to their assigned residency.

If a student does not match in a program, the hospitals that have residencies open “scramble” to find a non-matched student to fill that spot.

On the other hand, if a student matches with a program and chooses to decline that residency, they wouldn’t be able to join the match system again to find another residency.

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Celebrating Two Years of 100% Match Rate

“The excitement all during the week and the suspense is really tremendous for everybody involved, including their family and friends and all of the faculty who work here and who’ve helped train them,” said Dr. Graneto, dean of CHSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.

In 2024, CHSU’s inaugural class also had a 100% match. Dr. Graneto said that this is unheard of for a new medical school.

Dr. Graneto spoke on the importance of having a four-year, fully accredited medical school in Clovis to retain medical professionals in the Central Valley.

“CHSU is special for our community because there’s only 16 medical schools in the whole state of California,” he said. “Having a full four-year, fully accredited medical school right here in Clovis really helps attract our local students to stay here, be trained, and then the likelihood of them staying to practice is really is high.”

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CHSU Keeps 21% of Graduates in the Central Valley

At CHSU, among the 60% of students matched into primary care residencies, 21% will remain in the Central Valley, and 50% will complete their training in California. The hospitals with the most CHSU matches this year were Visalia’s Kaweah Health Medical Center, Riverside Community Hospital, and UC San Francisco-Fresno.

Dexter Tan, originally from Texas, will have his residency in Stockton. He was with his mom, wife, and newborn when he anxiously opened his envelope to find out his placing. Before he opened the envelope, he was nervous because his particular specialty wasn’t announced on stage.

“This morning they were reading off all the different specialties that our class matched into and they didn’t read off the one I matched into and I was like, oh man, I really hope I applied to the right thing,” Tan said.

Tan was relieved when he secured the specialty he desired in orthopedic surgery.

“Orthopedic surgery focuses on the musculoskeletal system and bones. I really like it because I feel like you can see immediate results; patients get better quickly,” he said.

Tan said that he chose his specialty because of a Jiu-Jitsu injury he suffered. He tore his ACL and meniscus, had orthopedic surgery, and got back to the sport he loved.

Match Day marked not only a milestone for the students but also a promising step forward for the future of healthcare in the Central Valley.

(Disclosure: GV Wire Publisher Darius Assemi is one of CHSU’s founders.)

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