Having faculty call your top choice program on your behalf?

[pazu]

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I'm wondering if this is common in neurology.

I was not planning on talking to my faculty/PD/chair about my ROL, because I think emailing the residents at various programs has been helpful enough. I was planning on sending an email to my top choice program early in February, and leave it at that.

However, there are a bunch of threads popping up in the ERAS forum about how applicants are getting their PDs to make phone calls on their behalf, etc. To be fair, a lot of these cases involve PDs who took the initiative and offered to make phone calls for their students. However, this is making me nervous and wondering if I should set up a bunch of appts at my own school and have them call my favorite programs. It's really not my style--i.e. I like to do a lot of things and make decisions by myself. But if this ends up hurting me and I don't match at my top choice, I know I will regret it.

If anyone who has gone through match before could share advice, that'd be great.

 

[typhoonegator]

It certainly happens. A phone call from the department chair can help your chances, the degree to which depends on the stature of your chair and the level of the program. Personally, I would save this chip for the program you are most interested in. Having your PD call a bunch of schools and say you're smart and interested will carry less impact than your chair calling one school and saying you're a great applicant and very, very interested in their program.

Personally, I didn't do this. It did not hurt me.