How do residencies rank applicants in a COVID era?

[soccerscholar]

A few questions about the giant rank meeting that happens after interviews. Would be helpful if any current residents have a perspective on this:
1. Do most applicants already have a pre-interview "rank" that gets adjusted, or is the interview basically the sole determinant of your spot on the list?
2. How much do resident pre-interview "zoom" dinners play into rank list especially in a virtual season? Do residents submit an evaluation of each candidate from the dinner, or is it basically just calling out the weirdos or people they really liked with most people being just "average"? What makes an applicant even stand out over Zoom??
3. Can you explain what a residency interviewer's rubric looks like and what exactly they are evaluating you on? I see a lot of my interviewers writing stuff down during the session.
4. Will it still be the case that everyone just sits in a giant room and says how much they liked each applicant to determine rank? What if they forget me if I interviewed early?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[j4pac]

A few questions about the giant rank meeting that happens after interviews. Would be helpful if any current residents have a perspective on this:
1. Do most applicants already have a pre-interview "rank" that gets adjusted, or is the interview basically the sole determinant of your spot on the list?
2. How much do resident pre-interview "zoom" dinners play into rank list especially in a virtual season? Do residents submit an evaluation of each candidate from the dinner, or is it basically just calling out the weirdos or people they really liked with most people being just "average"? What makes an applicant even stand out over Zoom??
3. Can you explain what a residency interviewer's rubric looks like and what exactly they are evaluating you on? I see a lot of my interviewers writing stuff down during the session.
4. Will it still be the case that everyone just sits in a giant room and says how much they liked each applicant to determine rank? What if they forget me if I interviewed early?

All four of those questions are difficult to generalize, because dofferent programs do different things and each maybe value the importance of interview day interactions differently.

On the whole, interview day has been the most important factor in deciding rank order, based on NRMP. But it is difficult to know how virtual encounters change things. It I had to guess...programs may value it less. But if an applicant stands out in either a positive or negative way...I’m sure that programs still value learning about those applicants from residents.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

As mentioned, 1-3 are impossible to say. Some less competitive fields may interview a wide range of candidates, some who are stronger "on paper" than others. Thus, everyone might start with an initial rank score, and then move based upon interview input -- although movement could be quite extreme. In other fields / programs, they may just set some minimum performance to get an interview, then base ranking solely on the interview itself. Some programs will consider resident input, some less so. There is no standard rubric.

No one will forget you if you interviewed early. For big programs that might be ranking 200+ people, some sort of ranking decision is made right after the interview.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Moving to ERAS.

As above, it's really impossible to generalize answers to your questions. I would venture to say that most programs place little to no weight on pre-interview dinners and that they are mostly there to allow you to get a feel for the types of residents who are in their program and whether you think you would fit in well with them; at least in the programs I've been involved with, we always start the dinner with a disclaimer like "we aren't even part of the ranking committee, so feel free to ask whatever questions you want." But different programs and different specialties will place differing weights on your "on paper" application vs your interview, and different programs will evaluate different things in an interview setting.

Ultimately, you'll drive yourself nuts trying to figure these kinds of things out. Just be the best version of yourself.

 

[mvenus929]

I'd just like to point out that my program(s) never did #4. They considered everyone's input (residents, administrative staff, interviewers), but had us fill out evaluations (things like academic achievements, personality, being a good 'fit' for the program, etc) and came up with a composite score that they used to make a prelim rank, then the leadership only (the PD, APD, Coordinator, plus 2-3 other people) would sit down and decide if someone should be moved up or down the rank list from that initial score. I imagine that meeting will now be virtual, but it's still only a handful of people, not a giant room with the whole residency program there. That is likely to happen more at smaller programs that are only deciding on a handful of slots (because each person makes a bigger impact on everyone else's experience).

Each program is going to have different things that they're looking for, and your interviewers are taking notes so that when they do whatever evaluation they are supposed to fill out, they remember you as a distinct person from the other people they interviewed.

 

[Braveheart1985]

At my program, faculty do meet with each other to decide the ranking process.
Also, they have emailed us "the residents" asking us to provide them with the names of the applicants that we have liked the most from our interaction with the applicants on zoom. It is not like that our opinion matters much, but they do take it in consideration given that we are the one that will be working closely with the incoming residents.
I do feel for the applicants for this year because they did not get to see the programs in person, and that they are going to make decision based on virtual interview. I think if you contact the program for second look, they might be able to accommodate an in person visit to the program.