Interview Cancellations

[residencycoord]

I am not starting a thread, I am merely giving advice. I want you to be aware that the residency coordinators do talk to each other, and the biggest complaint that I have been hearing is having no-shows. You should never, ever be a no-show. It is unprofessional. There are programs that will contact your medical school and let them know when a student has not shown. Also, there are programs where you may want to do a fellowship some day and there are coordinators with very long memories that are part of the fellowship interview process. Just take a moment to e-mail the program and let them know. It only takes a minute!

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[SippiGirl08]

any complaints about short notice? i always email or call when i know that i'm not going to an interview, but sometimes i may not make the decision until 3-5 days before. i realize that this is effectively "wasting" an interview spot that someone more interested could have taken, but sometimes it can't be avoided.

 

[residencycoord]

The coordinators complain about last minute notice also, but we would still want to know last minute than not at all. When you have those programs who have numerous days and only invite a few, one person cancelling at the last minute can throw a whole day off and they cannot get someone else to fill that spot. Also, some programs go to a lot of expense (some paying for hotel rooms) and it is terrible when someone doesn't show. I don't think that some of you realize how much time and effort goes into planning an interview day. We want you to enjoy your day with us and get to know what our programs are all about. We want to impress you as much as you want to impress us.

 

[Quink]

any complaints about short notice? i always email or call when i know that i'm not going to an interview, but sometimes i may not make the decision until 3-5 days before. i realize that this is effectively "wasting" an interview spot that someone more interested could have taken, but sometimes it can't be avoided.

Personally, I have a lot of complaints about short notice. If you didn't make a hotel and plane reservation, you knew more than 3 days ahead that you were not planning to go to that interview.

People on waiting lists may not be able to jump in at the last minute, or will have to pay big money for a last minute flight.

Programs should not have to have a "wasted" spot.

Also, may I add...if you are offered an interview spot with a program and you do not respond, either yay or nay, that is very rude.

 

[residencycoord]

Personally, I have a lot of complaints about short notice. If you didn't make a hotel and plane reservation, you knew more than 3 days ahead that you were not planning to go to that interview.

People on waiting lists may not be able to jump in at the last minute, or will have to pay big money for a last minute flight.

Programs should not have to have a "wasted" spot.

Also, may I add...if you are offered an interview spot with a program and you do not respond, either yay or nay, that is very rude.

Quink, I agree with you. There are a lot of applicants that know in advance that they will not be going, especially those who are planning to fly from one coast to another. I did have someone who did not respond to my invitation and I e-mailed her again just to make sure that I did not let her response fall through the cracks, and she didn't have the courtesy to respond to my second e-mail. I can see by reading this forum that the applicants have a lot of complaints about the way programs respond to them or those that don't. Sometimes things do fall the cracks. Applicants are waiting to hear from 10-20 programs, whereas programs need to respond to 300-400 applicants. We aren't perfect and things do happen.

 

[Xandie]

At the same time, I've cancelled interviews or declined them and never gotten any response. I know it's hard, and I've responded to every interview I've been offered, so it's nice to know "I'm sorry you won't be able to interview with us, best of luck". Otherwise, I worry and call and send more messages, just so I don't no-show.

Double-edged sword, I guess. But I agree, it's a common courtesy thing on our side of the equation.

 

[SippiGirl08]

Personally, I have a lot of complaints about short notice. If you didn't make a hotel and plane reservation, you knew more than 3 days ahead that you were not planning to go to that interview.

People on waiting lists may not be able to jump in at the last minute, or will have to pay big money for a last minute flight.

Programs should not have to have a "wasted" spot.

Also, may I add...if you are offered an interview spot with a program and you do not respond, either yay or nay, that is very rude.

NOT TRUE! Most hotel reservations can be cancelled as long as you give 24 hours notice. Furthermore, sometimes people actually do DRIVE to interviews, so there are no plane reservations to make. To further complicate things in my case, I have family that works for an airline, so I've been flying standby to all my long-distance trips. Since I'm only standby, I get full refunds for any trip that I cancel, no matter when I cancel it. I understand what you're saying, but please don't rush to judgment when you don't know everyone's situation.

 

[nykka3]

i do agree that it is common sense and courtesy to cancel an interview hopefully in enough time for someone on the waitlist to be considered. thanks for the advice. do you think some prgm's go as far as deciding not to interview future applicants from a certain school based on the bad behavior of a current no show applicant?

concerning canceling interviews, i have cancelled 2 weeks to one month before my scheduled interview date and have yet to receive a response to my email. i keep these emails just in case. it would be nice to get a response, though.

 

[residencycoord]

i do agree that it is common sense and courtesy to cancel an interview hopefully in enough time for someone on the waitlist to be considered. thanks for the advice. do you think some prgm's go as far as deciding not to interview future applicants from a certain school based on the bad behavior of a current no show applicant?

concerning canceling interviews, i have cancelled 2 weeks to one month before my scheduled interview date and have yet to receive a response to my email. i keep these emails just in case. it would be nice to get a response, though.

I don't think a program would decide not to interview candidates from a particular school beause of one person. Programs should respond to all e-mails that they receive from applicants. I personally respond to every e-mail that I get from every candidate and as quickly as possible. I don't agree with those programs who do not do that, especially those programs who do not notify applicants that they have not been granted an interview. As one of you said, with ERAS, you can send out a mass e-mail.

 

[OBGirlie]

I don't think a program would decide not to interview candidates from a particular school beause of one person. Programs should respond to all e-mails that they receive from applicants. I personally respond to every e-mail that I get from every candidate and as quickly as possible. I don't agree with those programs who do not do that, especially those programs who do not notify applicants that they have not been granted an interview. As one of you said, with ERAS, you can send out a mass e-mail.

No some of the stuffy little "prestigious" programs get all in a tissy when folks do it to them. We had an instance a few years back at my school where the PD specifically called our dean of student affairs and told them they would never interview anyone from our school again. At the same time, I'm sure this happens to all of the "small" programs at least once a year, I guess they couldn't take being treated badly. . . Safe to say when I cancel an interview, I send a copy of my cancellation email to 2 different people just in case the coordinator misses it (which happens on an occasion) so that there will be no questions about my courtesy ever!