Getting residency info from current residents?

[notdeadyet]

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Quick question for you in-the-know folks...

How appropriate is it to contact residents at programs you're interested in?

I'm trying to get a good feel for several residency programs and have found residents to be a great source of information. Residents and faculty at my home program have offered to introduce me via email to current residents (contacts and alum) at programs I'm interested in.

Is this acceptable? The only reason I hesitate is the possibility that the current residents would be folks potentially interviewing me, and I don't want to put them in an awkward situation since they might be asked to evaluate me.

Thoughts? As always, thanks for your help...

 

[billypilgrim37]

How appropriate is it to contact residents at programs you're interested in?...Residents and faculty at my home program have offered to introduce me via email to current residents (contacts and alum) at programs I'm interested in.

Is this acceptable? The only reason I hesitate is the possibility that the current residents would be folks potentially interviewing me, and I don't want to put them in an awkward situation since they might be asked to evaluate me.

Totally acceptable! It's very nice to have those connections and having residents and attendings introduce you via email to people who would have a clue about the programs would be highly valuable advice.

I think your reservation is understandable, but practically speaking not much of a problem. I do a lot of interviewing at my program, and I've excused myself a time or two for people from my medical school that I knew a little too well, but I also sent a note to my PD saying "I think this person is swell, I just don't want to interview them because I want them to get to meet more people than me." And those words are pretty helpful. I'm usually even asked "Who do you think would be a good fit to interview them instead of you?"

So all in all, I think the upside of taking up these nice offers far outweighs any potential problems.

 

[Daftrage]

I hope so because I have been doing a good deal of this lately.

 

[peppy]

Most of the time, if you interview with a resident it will be a senior resident (most often the chiefs) so if you're really worried it will seem awkward you may want to ask to talk to the lower level residents...but I really don't think that talking to residents who might end up interviewing you will hurt you. Showing a special interest in the program and letting your interviewers get to know you better helps in most cases (exception: you're very unstable and can only hold it together long enough for a 30 minute interview - but in that case even the intern who has nothing to do with the interviews might give the PD a heads up 🙂 ).

Just be aware that current residents often will try to sell a program just as much as the faculty will. I actually do like my program...but even if I *didn't* like my program, I'd probably try to make it sound good to applicants because I don't want to get in trouble with the administration if it got back to them that I was saying bad things about the program. Besides, I'd want my colleagues to be good people to work with in any case.

For this reason, I advise you to take everything you hear about the program from the people involved in it with a grain of salt. I personally think that forums like this are the best place to get the straight story about programs (and even here most people will hold back if they are worried that someone might be able to identify them from their posts here and get back at them for it).