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Medical Education October 21, 2025

peterson toddwebIn March 2025, Heersink School of Medicine held its annual Match Day ceremony, recognizing 183 medical students discovering where they would complete their medical residency training. These students have begun their residency journey around the state of Alabama and throughout the United States, taking the next step in their journeys of becoming the next generation of physicians. For Todd Peterson, M.D., assistant dean for students, Match Day is a culmination of four years of dedicated training and mentorship, preparing Heersink students for the transition to residency.

Residency preparation has faced unique challenges in recent years due to changes in exam scoring and the evolving demands of medical school. The shift of STEP 1 exam scores to pass/fail in 2022 impacted the way residency programs evaluated applicants. STEP 1 was once a primary piece of data used to triage applicants, but the move to pass/fail means applicants all look the same with regard to that specific metric, creating a challenge for residency directors reviewing applications.

As a result, the STEP 2 score, which is still a 3-digit score, has become increasingly important to residency directors as it is one of the few ways to differentiate potential residency candidates. Some residencies will not even consider a student with a low STEP 2 score. For medical students, the timing of when they take STEP 2 can create a high pressure situation: they often do not receive STEP 2 scores until 2 months prior to the residency application deadline. This short turnaround makes it difficult, if not impossible, for students to pivot to other specialties if they have a change of heart or receive a STEP 2 score that is below what is expected in their planned specialty.

In addition to increasing the pressure of STEP 2, changing STEP 1 to pass/fail has also meant that the commitment to residency preparation at UAB starts as early as a student’s first year. Peterson’s career advising mission within the Office of Medical Student Services emphasizes reaching students as early as possible with messaging about planting the seeds that will help them in the MS3 and MS4 year and beyond. His office provides critical advising to MS1s and MS2s, relaying the importance of research and extra curriculars in the current medical school landscape. These additional interests and activities help differentiate students from one another and help make them stand out in an ocean of residency applications several years later. Early action creates a rippling impact later for students. Interest groups exist to expose students to the variety of potential future paths, and Peterson’s group encourages students to explore more than one specialty early to make their decision a little clearer by the time they reach their third year. Shadowing and professional development opportunities have also been incorporated into the first and second year to reinforce the mission of preparation.

For students in the MS3 year, MSS continues to increase the resources and support offerings. A STEP 2 performance predictive model was created by James Baños, Ph.D., and Brook Hubner, Ph.D., to help provide students with an idea of which specialties their scores are competitive in and which situations might require extra attention or a pivot altogether. Last spring, Peterson’s team began an initiative to schedule individual meetings with every third-year student to help students consider how STEP 2 fits into their application and how its results might impact their application.

In the third year, Learning Community mentors assist student preparation through the Careers in Medicine program. The program allows for students to hear from panels of students excelling in research or other extra curriculars, sharing about paths to medical specialties. The program also offers interactive scavenger hunts to get to know staff and vital databases that will be important in the lead up to residency application. Additionally, recent efforts have been made to standardize the Dean’s Conferences across all four campuses, an initiative that has been successful on the regional campus for years. The conferences provide opportunities for third-year students to receive regular updates on career-related scheduling and planning activities.

Supporting the transition between third and fourth years, Peterson’s group offers workshops that detail how students can most effectively market their strengths and how they can best align their extra curriculars with the brand and professional values they are putting forth to residency programs. Through this mentorship, students are guided through the signaling process as well, where they can strategically “signal” to programs at which they’ve applied. The MSS team is able to help students use all the tools available to put together the most effective and strategic application possible for each student’s unique situation.

“We're fortunate to have a phenomenal team in Medical Student Services and a network of dedicated career advisors across each of our campuses,” said Todd Peterson, M.D., assistant dean for Students. “In an ever-changing application process, their guidance helps our students to develop the professional skills and strategies needed to be coveted applicants as they transition to residency.”

A critical aspect to preparing students is effectively training them for interviews. In the fourth year, students attend a Learning Community session about interview protocol and best practices. MSS also ensures students have access to a subscription to an interview preparation website, which presents them with practice sessions, specific questions similar to what they can expect, and detailed breakdowns of answer strategies. For the last ten years, Peterson’s team has coordinated the Mock Interview program for MS4s. Students who participate are provided two 30-minute live interview sessions with Heersink School of Medicine faculty members. Every clinical department is represented in the faculty volunteers who act as interviewers. Peterson is intentional not to pair students with faculty of their desired specialties to avoid the possibility they would encounter them in the interview process for residency at UAB Hospital. In recent years, the mock interviews have shifted to Zoom to better prepare students for a virtual environment, which presents its own set of unique challenges and requirements.

Medical Student Services also assists students in collecting letters of recommendation from faculty and starting the process of receiving their dean’s letter. These are valuable aspects of a student’s application, another way to distinguish them from other applicants.

“I am incredibly proud of the work Dr. Peterson and the MSS team do to guide our students through every stage of the residency process” said Nicholas Van Wagoner, M.D., Ph.D., associated dean for students, “from exploring specialties and preparing applications to practicing for interviews and ultimately matching. Their dedication helps our students present their best selves and truly shine in the residency selection process.”

After all of the training, resources, and application and interview preparation, the week of Match Day arrives, a time of excitement and relief for many students who discover their matches. For some students, however, the week presents challenges due to not matching in their desired specialties. Those students then participate in the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP). Peterson describes SOAP week (Monday-Thursday prior to Match Day) as an “all hands on deck” mission. He emphasizes the robust faculty participation in this program: there are often thirty faculty members who volunteer to spend the morning in Volker Hall on the first day of SOAP to help students, and even more who make themselves available to help students remotely. Medical Education department staff also give up their day to help students with anything they might need, be it navigating application software, processing emotions, or just serving lunch and snacks to all the SOAP participants. Students are paired with individual faculty and staff members, who assist them in collecting brand new letters of recommendation and reworking their applications to pivot to a different specialty. There is a day dedicated to crafting a new application and a day for completing new interviews. It’s a week of coaching and dedicated help in order to find a residency specialty for all Heersink students.

By the time Match Day arrives, Peterson and his team have invested four years of meticulous planning and mentoring with Heersink students. His goal is always to help forge their paths in the career of medicine. While the journey to residency kicks into gear in the third and fourth years of medical school, it truly begins as early as the first year. At Heersink School of Medicine, it is a four-year commitment to our students.


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