Doubling up at a program???

[alwayslight]

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So September 1st is tomorrow 😱 ... and a few people have suggested that I also apply to Neuro, just to be on the safer side of matching. I love PM&R, and could see myself happy in Neuro as well -- (not as happy, but life's not perfect).

Anyway, I just realized that I applied to Seton Hall for Neuro, and JFK Medical Center for PM&R --> but they have the same address in NJ listed! Any thoughts on applying to programs in the same building? I know everyone says don't do it -- but what if I only accepted an interview at one of the locations (assuming I get both, haha)

Another example: Albert Einstein has both a Neurology & a PM&R program ... can I go ahead and apply to both? I just can't see both program directors talking to each other about the specific names of the hundreds of applications they receive. But what do I know!

For now, I just have PM&R ... awaiting responses

Thanks everyone!

 

[Ludicolo]

Applying to multiple programs probably won’t affect your landing interviews. PDs generally don’t discuss applicants until it comes time to formulate rank lists. If you land interviews in two programs within the same institution, go ahead and cancel the less desirable program...

and it had better be Neuro... 😉

 

[alwayslight]

Thank you so much!!! Very much appreciated!

Boy, I can't wait till it's next year already so I can start handing out the advice haha

 

[bkpa2med]

I hear ya!

 

[VApmrdoc]

Probably too late for this but in all honesty I don't think program directors from different departments would even talk to each other about candidates or have the time when it comes to making lists, unless it is some joint program like Med-PMRS etc.

You have every right to apply to different specialties and technically they couldn't ask you where else you applied if I remember correctly.

Don't feel bad being on the fence, I knew a Physiatrist who picked an OB/GYN residency as his number 2 choice... luckily he got his top pick since he was important in helping me decide. 😀

Best of luck

 

[Ludicolo]

Probably too late for this but in all honesty I don't think program directors from different departments would even talk to each other about candidates or have the time when it comes to making lists, unless it is some joint program like Med-PMRS etc.

You have every right to apply to different specialties and technically they couldn't ask you where else you applied if I remember correctly.

For the most part, you are probably right that PDs don’t talk. But you don’t necessarily want to give them reason to talk either.

And of course there are always exceptions. I have known PM&R PDs to discuss individual applicants with IM PDs with regards to prelim med rankings when a couples match is involved. Another example: I've heard of an orthopedics PD contacting a PM&R PD about a mutual candidate who was a stellar ortho researcher, but had failed his boards and was thus applying to both ortho and PM&R (as a backup). He interviewed at both programs and was open about applying to both. The ortho PD flat out told the PM&R PD that he wasn’t going rank him but was hopeful that he would be given a chance in PM&R. (Didn’t happen – he apparently had other red flags in addition to his boards history.)

The danger isn’t in applying to different programs in the same institution. It’s in accepting and attending interviews at both programs. PDs don’t necessarily talk, but residents do. PM&R residents that remember you from the pre-interview dinner happen to catch you a week later in your suit during a tour of the hospital with a bunch of other neuro applicants (or anesthesia or rads or derm or whatever). They tell their PD and their friends, who go and tell their PD. Then PDs talk.

Speaking for most PM&R programs: we want someone committed to the field. Someone who won’t bolt the moment a spot in their true dream specialty becomes available. No one likes to be thought of as a backup.


And regarding whether or not it’s kosher to ask where else someone is applying:

http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/faq/io_pd_faq.html#26

Is it permissible to ask applicants where else they are applying?

Section 6.0 of the Match Participation Agreement states that applicants are free at all times to keep confidential the names or identities of programs to which they have or may apply. A program director may request the names of other programs, but it is a violation of the Agreement to require applicants to disclose that information.

 

[Gastrocnemius]

I know med students who applied to two different specialties and got interviews at the same hospital and it was never a problem. I don't think PDs talk. They wouldn't even know which PD to call to see if you applied to their program because there are a lot of possibilities, unless you told them.