So because of travel and back-to-back interview dates, there will be a few dinners I may have to miss. Though all the coordinators tell me not to worry, it's just optional, I'm paranoid that missing will come back to bite me in the *****.

Any truth to that? What have people heard -- are the residents going to think you're less interested if you skip?

I have the same problem. There are a few that I just can't do anything about... I am trying to go to all that I possibly can, but there are some that just won't be feasible. My feeling is that it is more helpful to you in the sense of learning something about the program than about how interested you appear. I do think that there are some programs that take residents input into consideration, so a really bad or good dinner before could help or hurt you a little, but I think on the whole PDs understand that you are traveling all over the place and spending a lot of money to get to interviews, and that sometimes it's just not possible. And, from what I've heard, the only things at the dinner that might have an affect on your app would be if you A) were so unbelievably cool that all the residents were begging the PD to have you accepted or B) told some off-color joke or did something else that a resident passed on to the PD as a sign that you should be ranked low or, in some cases, not at all (this has definitely happened at my program, though really you have to do something pretty bad).
So, maybe I'm just telling myself this because I'm in the same boat, but I think it's ok to miss the dinner if you can't make it. Not like you really have a choice anyway, right??

Good luck!

... B) told some off-color joke ...
Hey yuppy...please explain...

If you really want to go to that particular place-- make time for the dinner...
Resident input is valued when it comes to selection..
If your just interviewing there cuz they called you and you really don't care about going there..skip the dinner..

Yes, I get the idea that it's important to try to make it if at all humanly possible... but, well, for me, in one situation the only available dates for each program that were in the same month (think, very long distance and expensive flight) were back to back... these are two programs I love, and I will try to make it to at least one of the dinners... but, as the dinners are the same night, I can't really go to both. Though it'd be funny to try!

As for the off-color joke. Apparently, at our program, someone told an incredibly racist joke (the details of which I don't know because it was bad enough that nobody would repeat it) which made everyone (applicants, residents) at the dinner incredibly uncomfortable. Despite the obvious looks from everyone at the table, the person kept going and going with the joke...
this displayed that the person was not only racist, but also someone with incredibly poor judgment. Not ranked.

Another person who's rank went down after the interview was talking about calling in "sick" all the time on rotations he/she didn't like and was just kinda rude. I think it made the residents really nervous because it seemed like this was someone who wasn't at all a team player, might be skipping out on work, and was very negative.

So I think those are both pretty reasonable. The residents are the people that are going to have to work with you, so their input is valuable. I think the dinner before is supposed to be more comfortable, but it is still a professional interaction. Short of doing something really dumb, the dinner probably will only impact you positively, because people will know you.

...was very negative...
Imagine that...humm...someone in the medical profession being negative and not being able to hide it when it comes time to kiss A**

I'd find it hard to believe that anyone would fault you for not making a pre-interview dinner. I'm a third-year resident, and nobody has ever said, "That applicant didn't make the pre-interview dinner," and proceed to hold it against him or her. I personally didn't make over half of mine when I was interviewing. I think the dinner is more to the benefit of the applicants in making a choice of the people they'll be spending three years at 80 hrs/week with. Are the people laid back? Hard working? Lazy as sh*t? Too intense to talk to you? Socially awkward?

Yes, you should try to be yourself. Yes, you should, however, avoid being an *ss, a pr*ck, or offensive in general. You should save the bragging about being lazy. Negative first impressions are probably more likely to hurt than positive impressions will help.

Pre-interview dinners are PURELY for the applicants, and most of the time the Program Directors don't even know if you were there or not (since it should just be residents at the pre-interview dinners, and mostly residents that aren't involved in the application selection process). You should never feel obligated to go to a pre-interview dinner; they are for your benefit, to get to know housestaff, ask real-world questions that maybe you feel uncomfortable talking about on the interview day itself (i.e. What are the bars like around here? Single-life? Nightlife?). Not going will never hurt you as far as the program is concerned, though, so do not worry at all about missing them.

I think the pre-interview dinner is truly optional. We have them for our program at a nice restaurant and it's definitely more for the applicants. Typically random interns/residents show up who are able to make it but the PD and/or other faculty don't go. It is a good chance to get to know the residents and get unbiased information about programs. I don't think it will affect an applicant whether they go or not, unless they go and absolutely blow everyone away or give an extremely negative impression.

What about ones where the PD and the chairs go?? There are one or two where they show up for a bit (I assume just a brief intro) and then the rest of the night is just w/ residents...