HELP! I applied for a position at a linked hospital system

[futuredo32]

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A little background info: I didn't match into a psychiatry residency last year and I'm "sitting out" this year and reapplying. I am limited to Michigan for family reasons and I am applying to both allopathic and osteopathic psychiatry residency programs and a few osteopathic internship programs this year. Obviously, I would strongly prefer to match into a psychiatry residency program, but I really feel like matching into a traditional internship program is better than going unmatched again. I'm a very uncompetitive applicant, to say the least.
So, I applied to a traditional internship program and the hospital is linked to two other hospitals they aren't listed separately on ERAS. You apply to the hospital system and then interview at the specific hospital to which you are applying for the internship.
I received an email this morning that they would like to interview me, but it's not for the hospital that I was applying for and I actually named the hospital where I wanted to do my traditional internship in my personal statement to try to prevent any confusion.
This is the gist of the email:

Thank you for applying to our traditional rotating internship program. As you know there are three sites A, B, and C. Please let me know which site you are interested in.
Dr.Xyz, DME at hospital A would like you to interview for a position in our new resident class. Please contact me if you would like to interview at hospital A and we can provide hotel accomodations near hospital A for you.

The email is kinda confusing because the first part says to let her know which hospital I am interested in, but the last part says that I am being offered an interview at hospital A.
The issue is that if I'm going to end up doing a traditional osteopathic internship year, I would like to do it at hospital C. The first part of the email said to let her know which hospital I was interested in, but the second part of the hospital said that hospital A wanted to interview me. I don't want to be too particular this year, I need to match. Would it be alright to email her and say that I would really like to interview for a position at hospital C and if that's not an option, then hospital A would be ok?
To further complicate the issue, I interviewed for a position at hospital C last year (and got a few positive phone calls from one of the interviewers saying that they really wanted me to come there), but I opted not to rank the program because I was hoping to match in a psychiatry residency program in the allopathic match. After failing to match last year, I did contact the doctor who had called and emailed me prior to the match and he really tried to get me a spot, but there was nothing left. Would it be completely unprofessional for me to email the doctor who had called me last year to say that I was interested in a position at hospital C just to say that I was reapplying this year and would rank the program if given a chance again? The attending who contacted me last year was not the program director. I was thinking that contacting this doctor might get me an interview and I also thought that I could let him know that I'd actually rank this program this year.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

They have offered you an interview at Hospital A. If you'd be willing to consider working there, then take it.

Either way, if you're interested in B or C, let them know. You could interview at none or all of them, I assume.

If you want to go to C, you'll need to make it clear to the PD what happened. If you were high enough on their rank list to match there, and went unmatched, then that means (accurately) that you didn't rank them at all. As a PD, I'd see that as "you'd rather be nowhere than in my program" and I wouldn't offer you another interview spot. You'll need to explain to them what happened, and be ready to answer the question "...so why didn't you rank us right at the bottom of your list?". You've got a good answer (trying for psych in the allo match).

 

[peppy]

Going by the paraphrase of the email, it sounds to me like maybe the interview at Hospital A is meant to count for all three sites and the selection of which site you go to is decided after you match with them. I don't think there would be anything wrong with asking the program coordinator if that is the case (and if she says that's not how it works, you could mention that while you are definitely interested in Hospital A, you would love to be considered for Hospital C too).

The issue of trying to reapply to a program you did not rank before is definitely awkward. I suppose the likelihood that they will overlook it depends on the program director's personality. If they liked you enough, hopefully they will be understanding about the fact that having to choose between the osteo match and allo match sometimes forces us to withdraw from good programs that we would have liked to have ranked.
I hope things go well for you 🙂

 

[futuredo32]

They have offered you an interview at Hospital A. If you'd be willing to consider working there, then take it.

Either way, if you're interested in B or C, let them know. You could interview at none or all of them, I assume.

If you want to go to C, you'll need to make it clear to the PD what happened. If you were high enough on their rank list to match there, and went unmatched, then that means (accurately) that you didn't rank them at all. As a PD, I'd see that as "you'd rather be nowhere than in my program" and I wouldn't offer you another interview spot. You'll need to explain to them what happened, and be ready to answer the question "...so why didn't you rank us right at the bottom of your list?". You've got a good answer (trying for psych in the allo match).

Thanks, APD🙂

 

[futuredo32]

Going by the paraphrase of the email, it sounds to me like maybe the interview at Hospital A is meant to count for all three sites and the selection of which site you go to is decided after you match with them. I don't think there would be anything wrong with asking the program coordinator if that is the case (and if she says that's not how it works, you could mention that while you are definitely interested in Hospital A, you would love to be considered for Hospital C too).

The issue of trying to reapply to a program you did not rank before is definitely awkward. I suppose the likelihood that they will overlook it depends on the program director's personality. If they liked you enough, hopefully they will be understanding about the fact that having to choose between the osteo match and allo match sometimes forces us to withdraw from good programs that we would have liked to have ranked.
I hope things go well for you 🙂

Thanks, Peppy🙂. I didn't paraphrase it too well. An interview for hospital A would be for an internship at hospital A and hospital A isn't too great. 🙁 Hospital C is pretty awesome though🙂. Life would be much easier if there were a combined match and I may end up losing out on an allo residency to do an osteo internship, but something is better than nothing and at least an internship would be a start.
I hope you're enjoying your internship and hope that things go well for you too in this year's match🙂.