Bring family at applicant social?

[victorias2014]

Hi,

I was wondering about bringing a family (kids including a baby and husband) at an applicant social event (after interviews are done, right before ranking).

I'm applying to family medicine and all the programs say to bring our family to meet theirs, but I just wanted to know if people actually brought their family or not.

And this is for my top choice programs.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

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[VenturaResident]

My vote is absolutely yes. We strongly encourage families/significant others to come to applicant social events. Particularly if you are moving a long distance, much of their social life, at least initially, will likely be through the residency, and those events can help you figure out how good the fit is. Also, your sweetie can help pick up on information about the program and community from current sweeties that can deepen your understanding of the program and how you might want to rank it. The only time I've seen this be a downside is when an applicant isn't being entirely honest about their interest in a program and the sweetie accidentally reveals the truth (for us: saying they want full spectrum program, but really just wanting to be in SoCal - applicant doesn't tell resident, but applicant sweetie tells current resident sweetie and the info gets out.)

 

[organdonor]

I wholeheartedly agree with the above. Bringing your significant other shows a high level of interest and hopefully he or she is going to be a big part of your ranking decision anyway so they should be looking at the program's too. Plus/minus on the baby depending on bedtime, fussiness, and babysitter availability. You should probably have a short "coaching" session just to be sure you and your spouse are on the same page about stuff like

-how much interest you are telling this program you have for them. This can be entirely different than your ACTUAL interest in the program.

-whether or not you are telling the program other residencies or even specialties to which you are applying and the right answer when he or she is asked

-the right amount of alcohol at such an event (1 drink, after current residents have already ordered alcohol)

-some people naturally tend to pull the conversation towards themselves and if your spouse tends to do this make sure they know the attention needs to be focused on you. It might be worth setting up a subtle signal to bring the conversation back to the subject at hand (your application). You don't have to yell "tippy toe!" But a subtle foot nudge can bring everybody back.

-the right attire . For males at these events usually anything with a collar will be fine. Of course dependent on direction (but if they say "casual" that doesn't mean t shirt; at least not for you. BUsINESS casual).

 

[victorias2014]

Thank you VenturaResident and organdonor for you replies, really appreciate it!