Say it ain't so...who would want to live
there? Lollo.
I think SDN is pooping on this question in all-too-typical fashion. There are some practical things to discuss. The question isn't about the things programs can't control (which would be most aspects of applicants' preferences, as people were quick to point out). It's asking about things the program can control.
Sure, preferences vary wildly. People like different things. But is there anyone who doesn't like having their hotel room paid for? Give me a break. I mean if you're going to put me up in a smoking room in some roach house, I'll spend $100 of my own money. But every comped hotel room I had on the trail was nicer than what I would have booked for myself, and those programs stood out.
For me, in the end, deciding which program was number 1 and number 2 had nothing to do with my interview day experience. I was choosing between my home institution and a place I spent a month. My SO's job opportunities ended up being the deciding factor. But in ranking programs 3 through DFL, the interview day and program behavior was very important. Programs have control over a lot of petty things that can actually make a big difference, regardless of people's varied preferences. For me, negative things always had a greater effect size than positive things, meaning for me to rank you highly, you didn't have to throw in every perk, but you did have to avoid the things that were annoying. In general, I didn't like:
- Interview days that started before 8:00 am local time
- Interview days that lasted longer than 6 hours
- Hospital tours that lasted more than 30 minutes
- This one is the most important. Stone cold interviewers, people who grilled me on my undergraduate research, people that showed little interest in my life outside of medicine, people I couldn't talk to who probably turned around and represent me as abrasive or aloof. Programs have control over who interviews the applicants, and there was nothing that changed my opinion of a program more than my interactions with the people who interviewed me. People in program leadership aren't always the most likable ones you could put in front of applicants. It's an unnecessary homage to the hierarchy of medicine when you have interviews conducted by some awkward attending in a quasi-leadership role. You know you need to sell your program to applicants. Don't ignore the huge liability you create when you put an applicant in a room, alone, for 15-20 minutes with an attending who is socially inept in any way, including but not at all limited to: being argumentative, or arrogant, or out of touch with the younger generation you're attempting to recruit. One bad interviewer can and will sink your battleship, even if the rest of your interview day is money. Also don't exercise the hubris of pretending you have zero attendings on staff that are "cooler"/more likable/more dynamic/more engaging/better socially than some of your program leadership. EM attracts the best, most interesting, most fun people in all of medicine. Utilize the ones you have...put them in front of applicants and let people gel. If you're going to do 3 interviews, I think you'd get way more mileage out of having ONE be conducted by either PD, APD, *or* program director (or do a single panel interview with these three people), then have your other two interviews conducted by your most universally "loved by residents" attendings.
- Mediocre to bad food. Seriously just go somewhere nice for the pre-interview dinner, and cater something good for lunch (the exception to this rule being when one of your perks is unlimited free cafeteria food or something, and you want to do lunch at the place applicants would be eating for the next 3-4 years)
- Paying for my own drinks at dinner
- Not having water available to drink during interviews
Things I did like:
- Free hotel room, shuttles to/from airport, interview, and dinner
- Good food, where it felt like the program was treating you to a nice experience
- The opposite of everything on the list above...cordial interviewers with ample bottled water on their desks, short interview days, free booze at dinner, etc.
- I had one PD who had memorized each applicant's name, and when he came into the room he walked up to each person individually, said their name, shook their hand, introduced himself by his first name, and thanked each applicant for coming to the interview. Very nice touch. They also had a PowerPoint slide with each applicant's ERAS headahot, name, and school so everyone interviewing that day could get an idea where the other people were from, and I don't think we wore name tags.
- Post-interview communication. This was huge for me. I'm shallow. Email me, call me, tell me you love me in whatever way you feel comfortable won't give you an NRMP violation. For applicants who spent a month there that you really want to rank you highly, find the attending who liked working with them the most (or was the strongest advocate for them to be ranked highly), and ask them to call or email that person.
If you're a typical SDN rank list program (Denver, Cinci, Alameda, etc) this stuff doesn't matter because the masochists will claw their eyes out to get into your program, no matter how bad your interview experience is. But for middle of the road programs, when everything else starts to blend together in terms of clinical experience, curriculum, volume, these are the things that you can control, that will make a better or a worse impression on applicants.
