Contacting program directors

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indymed

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Has anyone ever contacted a program they were interested by email? Did you use the contact info listed on the ERAS site? What did you say? I wanna express my interest and desire to interview at a particular program. Or is calling them an even better way of doing this?

Contacting them doesn't come off too strong does it?
 
I guess it depends on whether 1) you've gotten an interview, 2) you've been rejected, or 3) You're in limbo.

If it's #1, that's fine but you'll get a chance to meet me in person, so why not wait until then?

If it's #2, you've got nothing to lose but perhaps something to gain. After a rejection, if someone emails me (and they are polite about it) I re-review their application. In the past 5 years, this has led to exactly one change of heart, and that was because the applicant's med school had screwed up and sent the wrong transcript (from someone who had failed out, rather than had straight A's). So, you can try but don't expect much.

If it's #3, I think it depends on the timeline and your circumstances. If you already have other offers in the same geographical area and this involves significant travel, I think it's totally reasonable to ask. If it's before Nov 8th and you're just eager, I would wait until MSPE's are released.
 
I was still in limbo at a few programs I wanted to interview at towards mid to late November last year. So I called the program coordinators (not the PD's). Most asked me to send an e-mail stating my interest. I ended up receiving invitations from two of the four.
 
I am an international graduate with probably excellent scores, good med school record, some research and all the blah........ , applying for IM in a very limited geographical area in order to stay close to my SO. So that effectively whittles my list down to 4 programs, of which i have been invited to interview by 2 , and rejected by 1. This one program is a community program, however, as good as they come, and i would have probably ranked it no. 2 on my list. I can think of no obvious reasons for the reject, and a pretty generic one at that.🙁

Called up the program coordinator, who noted down my AAMC id but said they had pretty much sent out their round of invites for this year, so little chance.

Been 4 days since,.......debating between......
1. ......wait, wait & hope
2. call coordinator again
3. email coordinator
4. email coordinator and PD

tips?😕
 
lapooh said:
I am an international graduate with probably excellent scores, good med school record, some research and all the blah........ , applying for IM in a very limited geographical area in order to stay close to my SO. So that effectively whittles my list down to 4 programs, of which i have been invited to interview by 2 , and rejected by 1. This one program is a community program, however, as good as they come, and i would have probably ranked it no. 2 on my list. I can think of no obvious reasons for the reject, and a pretty generic one at that.🙁

Called up the program coordinator, who noted down my AAMC id but said they had pretty much sent out their round of invites for this year, so little chance.

Been 4 days since,.......debating between......
1. ......wait, wait & hope
2. call coordinator again
3. email coordinator
4. email coordinator and PD

tips?😕
Click to expand...

4 days isn't very much time, especially with a weekend intervening and today being a holiday in some places.

I'd suggest you give them at least 2 weeks to rereview your application and if you haven't heard them recontact them, although talking to the program coordinator does you *no good*. He/she has no control over whom is invited and you typically get generic responses frm them. I would go directly to the PD for an explanation.
 
Thanks !🙂
Was concerned as I had heard that it would be improper ettiquette to contact the PD.
 
Last year I wrote to every program I was interested in. I only applied to those that responded to me. As a result I had more invitations than I could actually attend (I had the energy to attended 10 interviews), and had 2 prematch offers. One of the prematch offers came from a guy I probably corresponded with 20 or more times. Rarely about the program - often about college football. I started sending letters to programs around May of the year before. Two of the programs that offered me an interview did so because of residents input - on their residents bio page they included their residents emails. I wrote to some of their residents, andin two cases know the residents spoke with the PDs on my behalf. One of these residents I contacted in such a manner was not planning on being a part of the residency match process but showed up at the dinner just because we had already become friends - he and I corresponded several times, often about the TV show THE SOPRANO's.

This year I wrote every program after I applied. Five times now I know a PD this year looked at my applications specifically because of the email.One of the programs rejected me, have not heard anything definitive from the other four. I had a phone interview yesterday from one of these programs - they did not offer me an interview at the time, but said they would review my applications some more. Their main question was "Why did you quit your previous program?"
 
Is it more appropriate and effective to e-mail the program director or the program coordinator?

Thanks!
 
I'm specifically asking about expressing my interest to interview at some programs (that are geographically far away from me) that have not offered me an interview (but have been giving out interviews to others). My application has been in since the first day and is complete.

Would it be better to email the program director or program coordinator? Thanks!!!
 
aProgDirector said:
If it's #3, I think it depends on the timeline and your circumstances. If you already have other offers in the same geographical area and this involves significant travel, I think it's totally reasonable to ask. If it's before Nov 8th and you're just eager, I would wait until MSPE's are released.
Click to expand...

How would you go about wording this. I am normally pretty good at expressing myself, but I can't figure out a polite and obfuscating way of saying "Umm, so, I'm interviewing at your major competitor X down the block and it's an expensive flight, so could you, like, you know help a guy out and tell me whether you're like going to consider me and stuff?"
 
aProgDirector said:
If it's #3, I think it depends on the timeline and your circumstances. If you already have other offers in the same geographical area and this involves significant travel, I think it's totally reasonable to ask. If it's before Nov 8th and you're just eager, I would wait until MSPE's are released.
Click to expand...

How would you go about wording this. I am normally pretty good at expressing myself, but I can't figure out a polite and obfuscating way of saying "Umm, so, I'm interviewing at your major competitor X down the block and it's an expensive flight, so could you, like, you know help a guy out and tell me whether you're like going to consider me and stuff?"

The only thing I could think of was sending the program coordinator an email saying something along the lines of 'I am just writing to confirm that you have received my application and that it's complete.'
 
How about: "Due to my travel plans, I am already scheduled to be in your area during (insert date range). Should I be granted an interview, I would greatly appreciate interviewing during this time in order to be most cost effective and to do my part in decreasing global warming."

Kidding about the global warming part.

you're right. It's awkward. It's much easier if you're couples matching, since you're scheduling for two.
 
How about actually arranging meetings with program directors at the programs you're most interested in? I have a classmate doing this, and I kind of think she's being overly aggressive. She is, however, quite good at networking and prides herself on this particular character trait, so I suppose she's just working her strengths....but yea, I kind of think this should be a no-no. She's a good applicant already (AOA, likely 240ish or better on step one) for a not so competitive field....are these meetings likely to make a difference?
 
indymed said:
Has anyone ever contacted a program they were interested by email? Did you use the contact info listed on the ERAS site? What did you say? I wanna express my interest and desire to interview at a particular program. Or is calling them an even better way of doing this?

Contacting them doesn't come off too strong does it?
Click to expand...


I did this for a couple of programs that I really wanted to go a week or two before the rank list meetings and it seemed to work out pretty well. It is pretty obvious that this can be overdone though...
 
KatieJune said:
I'm specifically asking about expressing my interest to interview at some programs (that are geographically far away from me) that have not offered me an interview (but have been giving out interviews to others). My application has been in since the first day and is complete.

Would it be better to email the program director or program coordinator? Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

Interested in this myself.
 
indymed said:
Has anyone ever contacted a program they were interested by email? Did you use the contact info listed on the ERAS site? What did you say? I wanna express my interest and desire to interview at a particular program. Or is calling them an even better way of doing this?

Contacting them doesn't come off too strong does it?
Click to expand...

I contacted 3 PDs directly via e-mail last year (this was early/middle December): two of the programs I hadn't heard from yet and one I had been rejected from previously. I ended up getting interview invites from all three of these as a result:

This the thing that I think will make the contact particularly helpful: if really helps to have a substantial update to your application. I contacted them after I received my Step II score and said that I felt like this strengthened my application and would appreciate consideration/reconsideration for an interview. PDs are VERY interested in hearing from you if you are interested in being there.
 
masterofmonkeys said:
Interested in this myself.
Click to expand...

I was in a very similar situation. Applying to the Northwest from Texas because my significant other is interested in specific jobs. I called a couple of program coordinators yesterday.

The first one said that while my application was very impressive, all of their interview slots were full, but when I said my specific reasons for wanting to be there, she said that she would pass it on to the program director so that they would consider me after people have canceled. This was at a competitive program, that tends to take students from their own geographical area. I got interviews at far more competitive places.

The second one told me my application was being reviewed, and I again gave my reasons for wanting to be there. She told me to email her, and she would pass it on to the program director. They like to have reasons that people outside of their area are applying. Especially in competitive programs.

I sent the email to both programs. And learned the lesson that I should have contacted the first program earlier. I think it might have helped.

I also talked to a coordinator at another program today because I need to book a flight to a program to the same city, and I'm waiting to do that until I hear from them. She was very nice, understanding, and told me she would try to track down my application as it was still being reviewed.

Most program coordinators are very helpful and used to dealing with these kinds of situations. I didn't feel awkward at all asking about trying to schedule interviews together. They understand that we apply to a lot of places. I think it's helpful to go to the program coordinator first, as they know the proper channels within their own program. As long as you're not rude, you have nothing to lose.
 
I have mixed feelings about applicant emails. Sometimes it has helped, more often not (indifferent or negative). Don't ask for information that is obviously on the programs website. Don't blind copy a bunch of programs, leaving the one recipient visible so I know you've blind copied a bunch of programs. Don't email a dozen programs - if I see you are broadcasting, its the same as junkmail and gets treated as such. And don't beg - its demeaning.

For Lapooh and others, it may be nothing wrong with your application, per se. My program has 100 applications for each position. Even after wading through the list, eliminating people who obviously hadn't ever looked at our program requirements, who can't seem to pass each step of USMLE until they've tried 2 or 3 times, and setting an obscenely high threshold for USMLE step 2, I still had 30 applications for each position. I cannot realistically interview more than half that many in a season. This leaves a lot of people I might have interviewed if there was an unlimited amount of time and faculty to do so.

Purely anecdotal, but in speaking with another Med-Peds PD the other day, we both some to have very large and talented applicant pools this year.
 
lapooh said:
I am an international graduate with probably excellent scores, good med school record, some research and all the blah........ , applying for IM in a very limited geographical area in order to stay close to my SO. So that effectively whittles my list down to 4 programs, of which i have been invited to interview by 2 , and rejected by 1. This one program is a community program, however, as good as they come, and i would have probably ranked it no. 2 on my list. I can think of no obvious reasons for the reject, and a pretty generic one at that.🙁

Called up the program coordinator, who noted down my AAMC id but said they had pretty much sent out their round of invites for this year, so little chance.

Been 4 days since,.......debating between......
1. ......wait, wait & hope
2. call coordinator again
3. email coordinator
4. email coordinator and PD

tips?😕
Click to expand...

I would email the PD more directly to ask for an invitation and to find out why no interview. Remember that this isn't your number one choice, but obviously you are limited geographically. Some community programs don't give out interviews to people who are overqualified for their program, meaning that they could invite someone with good board scores, but what good does that do if nobody ranks them highly enough? The coordinator won't give your application a second look and won't schedule you for an interview because an MD somewhere says they don't want to interview you.
 
I am an IMG with USMLE scores of 99 and 97 and awaiting the CS results. I have applied to 2009 match and did not get any calls as yet. so i wrote to the PD of the program thats my topmost choice. i did get a reply stating that they requires US clinical experience but i do not have any🙁..

Should I write back stating again my strong interest in the program??

please help
 
I'm in a similar situation. My #1 choice is a highly competitive program with a large and talented appicant pool (7 positions, 140 interviews, 400 applications). I got rejected even though I had already sent an email to the faculty member who chooses who to interview asking him to please consider my nontraditional app (US citizen, IMG) since it's my #1 choice due to common philosophy and close to family. I figure I have nothing to lose. I am thinking maybe I should do this with all the places I haven't heard from yet. I applied to 21 programs, have gotten 4 rejections, 3 interviews and silence from everyone else.

Stressing!
 
indymed said:
Contacting them doesn't come off too strong does it?
Click to expand...

How do most successful people attain what the want in life? They seek out what they want.... Just do it...
 
OK, so a few hours after sending this email (see above) I get a call from a source who says that the reason they rejected me was because I didn't have my California Letter. I am pending and just needed to say so!!! Now I'm going to call all the programs and give them this update!

Feeling slightly less stressed and more hopeful!
 
sheetu said:
I am an IMG with USMLE scores of 99 and 97 and awaiting the CS results. I have applied to 2009 match and did not get any calls as yet. so i wrote to the PD of the program thats my topmost choice. i did get a reply stating that they requires US clinical experience but i do not have any🙁..

Should I write back stating again my strong interest in the program??

please help
Click to expand...

Although it "can't hurt" as others have mentioned, it seems unlikely to help. They require US clinical experience. You don't have any. Sounds like they won't interview you no matter how much you're interested -- it takes two to tango, and they're not interested.

yumita's situation was different. He/she was rejected without knowing why. Turns out they might get another shot with a Cali letter.
 
KatieJune said:
I'm specifically asking about expressing my interest to interview at some programs (that are geographically far away from me) that have not offered me an interview (but have been giving out interviews to others). My application has been in since the first day and is complete.

Would it be better to email the program director or program coordinator? Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

I was in a similar situation with a couple of programs- according to SDN, people had gotten interviews, but I'd heard nothing, and these were programs I'm especially interested in. I sent an email to the program coordinator (the email listed on ERAS) saying that I was going to be in their area at a certain time (beginning of december/end of december/etc) and that if I were offered an interview I'd like to interview then. I also mentioned that the program was one I was very interested in. One sent me an interview within 2 days; the other within a few hours. These were both programs that based on my application I was likely competitive for to begin with, and places that I know for sure I will go to the interview. So I guess in some cases an email to the coordinator can work in your favor 🙂
 
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