Negotiating Residency Contracts?

[imyy4u]

Has anyone heard of negotiating your residency contract in terms of salary, benefits, housing subsidies, etc? Not sure if the Match has rules about this, but even if it did can you still negotiate or if you sign out of Match? Any advice on how to approach this topic?

 

[Goofy]

Originally posted by imyy4u:
•Has anyone heard of negotiating your residency contract in terms of salary, benefits, housing subsidies, etc? Not sure if the Match has rules about this, but even if it did can you still negotiate or if you sign out of Match? Any advice on how to approach this topic?•••

Sample negotiation to follow:

Program A: 'We will pay you x dollars and here are your benefits, please sign here.'

Applicant: Can I borrow your pen?

Unfortunately this is not an adavanced finance job your are applying for. Very very little room if any for the sort of thing you are interested in doing. The program gives you a contract and you sign it.

 

[surg]

Couldn't agree more with Klebsiella on this one. The only negotiating going on after the match is... ummm... what day am I on call first?

That being said, there are a very few select circumstances I could imagine, all incredibly unlikely. 1) You are such a star that basically they are trying to get you for a faculty job, 2) you are taking a position out of the match that no one in their right mind would take. This also is predicated on them having absolute faith that you would never disclose to your fellow residents the special treatment that you got, since that would almost certainly necessitate them giving this treatment to others.

In short, as Klebsiella said,

"Applicant: Can I borrow your pen?"

This is not to say that you are helpless. Many places now have house officer associations or unions that can bargain for all the residents on their behalf. Don't go to programs that have truly egregious policies. Only when students stop going to the malignant programs will they wake up and realize that they need to change.