Mailbag: Letters of Intent and Post-Interview Communication
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Will it improve my chances of matching to tell a program that I’m ranking them #1? What about if I just say I’m ranking their program very highly? Should I tell multiple programs that they’re my #1? What should I do if a program tells me I’m “ranked to match”?
These are some of the questions we’ll answer in this edition of the Mailbag, as we explore strategy, game theory, and NRMP regulations.
NOTES:
0:35 SHOULD I SEND A LETTER OF INTENT?
-NRMP Report, 2023
See Table 17 for the average number of ranked applicants to fill each position by specialty
www.nrmp.org/w...
-Solis RN, et al. Applicant-to-residency program communication: does it matter? Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol 2020; 129: 1056-1062.
pubmed.ncbi.nl...
-Han AY, et al. Love letters to residency programs: the value of letters of intent in the general surgery residency application process. J Am Coll Surg 2023; 236: S97-98.
12:27 SHOULD I SEND A LETTER OF INTEREST?
13:48 SHOULD I SEND MULTIPLE LETTERS OF INTENT?
-NRMP Match Code of Conduct for Applicants
www.nrmp.org/w...
23:40 A PROGRAM SAID I’M RANKED TO MATCH - SHOULD I CHANGE MY ROL?
-NRMP video on the matching algorithm
• How the NRMP Matching ...
-Sheriff of Sodium videos on the history of the matching algorithm
The Match, Part 2: The battle for the algorithm
• The Match, Part 2: The...
The Match, Part 3: On marriages and matching
• The Match, Part 3: On ...
-NRMP Match Code of Conduct for Programs
www.nrmp.org/w...
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MUSIC:
‘Clutch,’ by Nicolas Major.
I’m in my first year of medical school but your videos are too fascinating to not listen to 😂 guess I’ll bookmark them for down the road
Thank you for the kind words - and yes, I’ve made a point of trying to answer these questions in a general way so that the content is ‘evergreen’ and will be useful to those in the future!
23:00 "times when I got passed over for something, an opportunity that I *thought* I wanted"
I love the wording here. What we think we want is not always what we want. There is always a discrepancy between what we wish and what we want. Thanks.
Thank you for the kind words - and for watching.
I'm applying this year and this is super helpful! I had actually just been trying to dig through the web for advice on this and I appreciate your thorough consideration of the topic
You’re welcome. Thank you for taking the time to watch.
Love this stuff
Thank you for taking the time to watch.
NYE drop. Our god is good
This comment made me smile - thank you for watching.
Dr Carmody.. there are IM programs that do not fill spots. Do these programs purposefully go unfilled so they fetch unmatched applicants from competitive specialties like Radio or Surgery?
One other question i have is.. does the timeline matter when u give interview, like giving it early in the season like October give any advantage versus if one were to schedule it later in season like dec?
Good questions! For the first - I doubt there are very many. There’s a reputational hit to a program that doesn’t fill - it usually deters good applicants in future cycles. Plus, there are real risks for a program that chooses to train a resident in a specialty that wasn’t what they wanted to match in. If, in your heart, you wanted to be a radiologist or general surgeon, the grind of an IM (or EM, or pediatric) residency may burn you out quickly.
For your second question… I don’t think there is any systematic advantage. Most faculty that interview/evaluate applicants have been doing it for a while - so they have a pretty good sense of what a good applicant looks like (and are less likely to be biased at the beginning of the season, for instance). Anecdotally, I have looked a little bit at when in the season matched applicants interviewed. Interestingly, there was a bimodal distribution - with more matches at the beginning and the end of the season than in the middle. To me, this made sense, as it reflected the applicants who most wanted to match at the program (and thus interviewed early) and a group of applicants who got interviews late because of interview cancellations/movement on the wait list.
@sheriffofsodium1005 The no of rank orders graph you showed. Does it mean let's suppose a Internal med program has 10 slots and interviews 100 candidates, the program most prob goes to rank 69 to fill all their positions?
Or they only rank 69 applicants out of 100 on ROL?
@@Uzaman1Yes, that’s one way of looking at it. The average IM program requires 6.9 positions to fill, so a 10 position program would, on average, fill at around the 69th position. Obviously, there’s a lot of variation in the average, though. Many ‘top’ internal medicine programs probably fill with 3-4 ranks per position, while programs that are less desirable to applicants may need 10 or more ranks per position to fill.
@@sheriffofsodium the programs of HCA were spurious thats why I asked about on purpose not filling spots. Every HCA program goes to SOAP. For e.g the ones in.blacksburg nd salem lewisgale. Inc ones in Florida.
Theres a prevailing notion that its by design.
@@Uzaman1 I guess it could be. Residency recruitment is expensive, even in a virtual world (because the main expense is lost faculty productivity). It’s certainly more efficient/cost effective to fill your program rapidly in the SOAP… though there are obvious drawbacks.
make it a podcast, i cant listen in car
What about letters of interest during post-ERAS, pre-interview season?
If done well - they can’t hurt, and they may help. Program directors are busy. So I’d urge most any applicant to not make excessive or unnecessary requests (e.g., by asking questions that are answered on the website just to create a conversation).
In a world of preference signaling, I certainly don’t think it’s necessary for a regular applicant to do this - if you have real interest in a program, just drop a signal, and they’ll look at your application. But it’s potentially a very important thing for previously-unmatched applicants. Many of these folks have something about their application (year of graduation, USMLE, etc.) that will result in them been screened out by automated filters. They need to find ways to get programs to pull their application out of the pile. And if it communicates something interesting and genuine, a pre-ERAS note *could* be one of those things.
If I was not interviewed by PD and only by PC and faculty,
And I dont have PD email
Is it okay to email PC
And should I address my email as,” Dear Dr (PD), (PC) and core faculty member,
Thank you so much for answer
i wonder how its viewed in couples matching.
I could be honest about my #1, have it ranked #1, and still not match there if my partner doesnt match the same city.
This could benefit those whod want to lie and send multiple LOIs as it would be harder to trace their lie, and on the other hand itd be much easier for a couples matching individual to have a "wasted" LOI since its possible only their #2 or lower is in the running.
Either way i agree with the moral standpoint, and you shouldnt be disengenous about your ROL but from an analytical standpoint definitely muddies the water eh
Same ski resort in Vail? There is only one ski resort, nerd.
Brother, I’ve never even been to Colorado - much less Vail. I couldn’t tell you how many of anything is there. I went skiing once 15 years ago and have had the good sense to avoid it ever since.
My point - which I hope transcends my lack of knowledge about Vail - is that unstructured interviews are fertile grounds for bias, and an increasing number of programs are trying to do something about that. “Oh, you’re from such-and-such - do you know so-and-so?” “I saw you’re into travel… what’s your favorite place you’ve visited? Oh, mine, too!”
(And for the record, I think this is a good thing. If you ask for a show of hands, almost everyone is against classism in competitive selection processes… but fewer people take the time to think about how, exactly, it factors in. It’s human nature to want to find common ground with someone new, and it’s similarly natural to think more favorably of someone who shares your interests, experiences, or personal connections. But these things are probably not the best measure of an applicant’s suitability for graduate medical education.)