How personal do residency application questions get?

[Weil-Felix]

Another thread that is posted on this forum prompted me to think about a couple of questions. Forgive me if this has been asked recently, but the search function is disabled.

1) Can I expect to be asked very personal questions about plans for children during interviews? I realize that this is technically illegal, but I have heard that PDs ask questions like this quite often anyway. Was anyone asked this during residency interviews, and if so, how did you tactfully answer it (if at all)?

2) Do many residency programs ask very detailed personal questions about one's medical/psychiatric history? I have gotten the impression, based on some other threads posted here that sometimes programs will ask about these things. Is it really legal for them to ask about such personal things? Is it common? If a program asks for this information, do they view a previous medical condition, or treatment with antidepressants as a red flag?

3) Is it common for residencies to ask detailed questions about a person's spouse? (med/psych/legal history, how they feel about kids, etc...)

Hope these questions aren't too broad to get some useful feedback..

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[painres]

If they ask you those kind of questions, which as you said, they are technically not allowed to ask, then you dont want to go to that program anyway. I wasnt interviewing for surgery, and I was never asked those kinds of things. But Im a guy though, and from what I have seen those questions usually get asked by sexist PDs to women. No one I know was asked medical questions about their past either. Dont stress about this subject, its not worth it.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I was only asked at one place a rather personal question - and it was simply about how I would feel being older and finishing a surgical residency.

No one asked about my social life, plans for children, etc. And yes, while these questions are technically "illegal" they are only so if they use your responses in deciding whether or not to rank you (or course, who polices that?). At any rate, the best answer is something vague - ie, "I'd like to have a family in the future but am concentrating on completing my professional goals at this time." As for queries about mental health, I would also dodge those - if there is reason to believe that the interviewer is aware of any problem (ie, did one of your letter writers mention something?) then again, I would be vague but assuage them that the problem was minor and has been corrected. If they ask about such issues with a spouse, I would simply say that I was not comfortable talking about someone else's personal issues.