Forensic psychiatry fellowship 2024-2025 Application Cycle

[randomforensic]

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So what are the rules with regard to what applicants can say to programs? If an applicant had an active offer but they were waiting to hear from their preferred program would the applicant be allowed to disclose that they have an active offer? If it were permissible would it be advised for an applicant to disclose that kind of information to their preferred program? I can’t find any official language regarding appropriate communication but it feels like this would be frowned upon.

from the guidelines, i assumed there were no rules for applicants but common courtesy still applies (prior to Monday, not reaching out to multiple programs to say you would accept a position from them if offered). i agree after Monday, you should definitely tell programs you have an offer elsewhere but would rather accept a position with them.

Fwiw, my year someone accepted an offer from Yale (before official offers were even supposed to go out) and then reneged and accepted an offer at their real first choice program. Only reason we found out is that Yale sent a bunch of applicants an email saying as much and then asking which of us were still interested in Yale because they had a spot open now (which, again, happened before any spots were supposed to have filled). No idea who that person was but they have my respect for having the cajones to do a program dirty rather than the reverse. Until you sign, there's nothing actually binding.

wow. i hope it was an internal applicant otherwise that's a violation of the guidelines too.

 

[Mosaicity]

There are the explicit guidelines, there is common courtesy, and there is outright lying.

If Yale made offers to external candidates last year prior to the set date, that may have violated the guidelines, though the way the guidelines were phrased this year, it would have been appropriate to say "we plan to give you an offer."

If a candidate at any point tells a program that they are going to accept an offer but they have no intention to, that is lying, and against common courtesy.

This is a field concerned with semantics and reasonable behavior after all. The grey zone that I encountered this cycle was that I had told a program they were my first choice prior to Sep 16, and then they didn't give me an offer in the first 24 hours, and personally I no longer felt beholden to the statement I had made once I received other time-sensitive offers.

Again, my conclusion is that this headache could all be avoided with a match, especially as the field becomes more popular and competitive.

 

[Atreides]

To be fair, I only have the program's side. He/she could well have said something like, "I plan to accept the offer" or something similarly vague. This was about three cycles ago, so before the current guidelines. Regardless, I'll always give the benefit of the doubt to an applicant over a program.

Agree about a match though.

 

[cehurst]

On multiple occasions this cycle I was told that programs had more applicants than in previous years. Any truth to this?

 

[Atreides]

On multiple occasions this cycle I was told that programs had more applicants than in previous years. Any truth to this?

Probably. Seems forensics is becoming more popular. Or, perhaps, more people are doing non-child fellowships in general.