Do residency programs ever provide feedback as to why they rejected you?

[ThreadMaker]

Let's say you go to a residency interview and get rejected. Would it be possible to contact the program and ask for feedback? Or is this just a foolish waste of time? Does anyone know anybody who has done this?

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[gutonc]

Let's say you go to a residency interview and get rejected. Would it be possible to contact the program and ask for feedback? Or is this just a foolish waste of time? Does anyone know anybody who has done this?

The answer to all of your questions is the same. Yes.

You certainly can ask, I know people who have done it, and it's a waste of time because, at most, you'll get a canned, irrelevant response. More than likely you'll get ignored. Forget it and move one.

Also, the way you phrase your question suggests to me that you don't actually understand how the Match works. You don't get "rejected" once you interview. You either get ranked lower than they had to go on their list (in the vast majority of cases) or you don't get ranked at all (much less common and usually because of information that came up after the invitation was offered or some sort of behavior on your interview day that made people not want to work with you).

 

[twright]

Waste of time. 99% of the time the answer is easy:the other applicants seemed more interesting. No one will say your board scores were 6 points too low. For the remainder it will be something dumb like "you were rude to the coordinator" (and if you were, why would they give you the courtesy of feedback?)

 

[Der Artz]

I think it depends on your situation. I did not match this past March and contacted the programs I interviewed at for feedback. Of course, when doing this, the program can tell you anything they want since they are temporarily done with you. If they truly have your best interest at heart they will be honest so that you can improve yourself from there.

For my situation, each of the residencies indicated they were very interested and I was a great candidate except for my examination scores. I am a terrible test taker and so they were able to dispel the idea that I flubbed up my interview or gave off the wrong vibe to someone. It allowed me to really focus in on what my weaknesses were rather than waste time worrying unnecessarily about other possible issues.

Granted it does take extra time to seek out this information. But I found that, not only, was it worth that time, but if anything those residencies had a chance to see that I really was motivated to get better and was actively seeking out ways to do so.

And aside from the feedback about why I wasn't chosen for their program, some of them gave me just really good general advice for how to approach the Match this year. I think getting feedback is well worth the time and effort, but everyone's situation is different.

 

[ThreadMaker]

I think it depends on your situation. I did not match this past March and contacted the programs I interviewed at for feedback. Of course, when doing this, the program can tell you anything they want since they are temporarily done with you. If they truly have your best interest at heart they will be honest so that you can improve yourself from there.

For my situation, each of the residencies indicated they were very interested and I was a great candidate except for my examination scores. I am a terrible test taker and so they were able to dispel the idea that I flubbed up my interview or gave off the wrong vibe to someone. It allowed me to really focus in on what my weaknesses were rather than waste time worrying unnecessarily about other possible issues.

Granted it does take extra time to seek out this information. But I found that, not only, was it worth that time, but if anything those residencies had a chance to see that I really was motivated to get better and was actively seeking out ways to do so.

And aside from the feedback about why I wasn't chosen for their program, some of them gave me just really good general advice for how to approach the Match this year. I think getting feedback is well worth the time and effort, but everyone's situation is different.

Maybe this is irrelevant but which specialty did you apply to?

 

[Der Artz]

Actually, not irrelevant at all. I applied mostly to Med/Peds combined programs and then some Pediatrics, but not near as many of those. Med/Peds is competitive enough because there are so few programs compared to other specialties, plus they have smaller class sizes generally. And on top of all of that, I underestimated exactly how much weight would be placed on my poor test scores, because all of my clinical grades were the exact opposite.

So, you never said, but by your question, I'm guessing you went unmatched?

 

[GreenEydGem]

Let's say you go to a residency interview and get rejected. Would it be possible to contact the program and ask for feedback? Or is this just a foolish waste of time? Does anyone know anybody who has done this?

You don't get rejected from matching, you simply don't match. You can get "regret" letters for not being offered an interview. Most programs have standard letters for such things and it's nothing personal, sometimes programs simply receive so many applications that they have to look for what might be a better fit for their program on paper and invite those applicants.

As for "being rude to the coordinator" being dumb, it's not dumb at all. It shows programs a lack of professionalism right from the beginning. I've seen applicants not be ranked in programs for that alone. Respect and professionalism will carry you far in residency.

Good luck!

 

[Law2Doc]

Let's say you go to a residency interview and get rejected. Would it be possible to contact the program and ask for feedback? Or is this just a foolish waste of time? Does anyone know anybody who has done this?

As others have said, you don't really get rejected, unless the program chooses not to rank you and doesn't fill. You just get ranked below other people. These people may in some important way be better applicants than you no matter how impressive you are. So the programs answer will always be some variation on the "we liked you but ... just thought other people were a better fit/ we found other people more impressive" etc. So yeah,except in rare cases It would probably be a waste of time to contact them. You aren't going likely to get great insight that wasn't already obvious to you.

 

[thesauce]

Actually, not irrelevant at all. I applied mostly to Med/Peds combined programs and then some Pediatrics, but not near as many of those. Med/Peds is competitive enough because there are so few programs compared to other specialties, plus they have smaller class sizes generally. And on top of all of that, I underestimated exactly how much weight would be placed on my poor test scores, because all of my clinical grades were the exact opposite.

So, you never said, but by your question, I'm guessing you went unmatched?

The problem is that there probably isn't a way to screen based on clinical grades since every school is different. Step scores are easy to screen by.

 

[ThreadMaker]

. For the remainder it will be something dumb like "you were rude to the coordinator" (and if you were, why would they give you the courtesy of feedback?)

lol does this actually happen? You can imagine after 4 yrs undergrad, 4yrs med school, and all the steps, that a person would be smart enough not blow his interview by doing something so silly. And you'd imagine that an IMG would be desperate enough not to blow it by doing something so dumb.

 

[rokshana]

lol does this actually happen? You can imagine after 4 yrs undergrad, 4yrs med school, and all the steps, that a person would be smart enough not blow his interview by doing something so silly. And you'd imagine that an IMG would be desperate enough not to blow it by doing something so dumb.

did i miss it somewhere? but where did the IMG thing come from?

and more often than not its some AMG interviewing at a "back up" program that usually acts like the idiot...because you're right, the IMG knows exactly how important each interview is...

 

[deuist]

lol does this actually happen? You can imagine after 4 yrs undergrad, 4yrs med school, and all the steps, that a person would be smart enough not blow his interview by doing something so silly. And you'd imagine that an IMG would be desperate enough not to blow it by doing something so dumb.

Still happens, even when attendings interview for jobs.

 

[gutonc]

Still happens, even when attendings interview for jobs.

For this reason, everybody that my group interviews includes a formal interview with one of the office staff and one of the non-physician clinical staff (usually from a different site than they're being considered to work at). If you can't be a decent human being to the people who make it possible to do your work, we're not interested in working with you. It happens more than you might imagine.

 

[DoctorMedic]

had a friend who did this to both places he rotated and subsequently interviewed at. Both said what he knew from match day "sorry you were high on the list but we matched higher choices"