Atypical Match yields top result for student

Fourth-year medical student Lindsay Haselden quickly realized there would be challenges ahead of her as she and other medical students prepared for an important milestone in medical school - Match Day. Last March, when the coronavirus pandemic was just unfolding in the Lowcountry, MUSC temporarily suspended all clinical rotations for its students, and the remainder of spring semester 2020 transitioned to virtual learning. Haselden was nearing the end of an Internal Medicine Infectious Disease elective before being released.

For the Greenville native, that meant hunkering down in her Charleston residence for what would be a few months before returning to the hospital in May to complete her clinical rotations and training.

Long before the start of Match season, Haselden was already focused, planning her final two years of medical school. She committed to accomplishing tasks from completing lab practicals to planning her third-year clerkships and fourth-year externship, coordinating letters of recommendations and updating her CV.

“Many of these activities were work projects that only I could do and required a lot of introspection, but I was also lucky to talk through the process with trusted advisers in order to feel comfortable with the timeline and overall process,” said Haselden.

So when it was announced by the American Association of Medical Colleges and the National Residency Match Program (NRMP) that this year’s national Match process would be virtual, following public health recommendations attributed to the COVID pandemic, medical students like her, as well as teaching hospitals, institutions and programs across the country, were quickly shifting gears to create and adjust to a new process.

In her own mind, Haselden had always had an idea of the type of city she’d like to complete her residency training in, the patient population she wanted to serve and overall type of hospital and clinical setting she’d prefer to spend her time in. “Being adventurous, I’m excited even for the cities that I have never been to, and I ranked those places without hesitation.”

Among some of her highlights in the Match experience were completing and submitting her electronic application to NRMP last September and receiving email invites from various programs to schedule interviews.

“Receiving my first interview was an incredible feeling and really hammered home the idea that ‘this was really happening,’” she said, recalling the joy of seeing other co-applicants from other schools during planned virtual social events and again on interview days. “I was just so happy for all of us as a collective class that we had all made it to this point,” Haselden said.

Haselden focused on how residency programs advertised themselves on their websites using videos, social media feeds and other sources of information; the senses of humor of program directors and administrators; the poise and presence of leaders as they managed what she called awkward group sessions via Zoom.

“My favorite places were those programs that made a special effort to put us at ease during the very odd experience of interviewing from home: those who recognized that babies cry, pets jump on tables and the internet can be finicky,” said Haselden.

She completed her final residency interview in January and submitted her residency Match rankings to the NRMP.

She credits the mentors and advisers in the College of Medicine Dean's Office for staying communicative with all changes that affected students as well as providing support with Match applications, assisting with Match rank list issues, organizing help sessions and providing physical space for students to conduct their residency interviews.

Looking back at her years in medical school, Haselden could not have predicted the changes of the past 12-plus months. “In my head, fourth-year has always been a time to travel or a time away from Charleston for away rotations. I’m surprised how I and others were very adaptable within our class. I feel less robbed of not going on the traditional ‘Residency Trail’ than I thought I would be. Going through COVID, I feel like we’ve built a sense of camaraderie. Especially in the future, when I meet someone from the Class of 2021, I’ll think about how we’ve shared this somehow bizarre experience,” she said.

At Friday’s March 19 Match Day event, only students and some members of the College of Medicine faculty and staff gathered for a socially-distanced Hollywood-themed event at the Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park. The casual gathering celebrated the official Match results - revealing where students will be spending their residency medical training.

“I’ve spent so many years fantasizing about this specific event, but at this point, I’m just concerned about the results. I’m just hopeful for everyone - I want everyone to be happy with the outcome.”

And happy she was. Haselden matched to her top choice - the University of Washington Internal Medicine residency program in Seattle, Washington - where she will report July 1.