Not receiving "perfect fit" emails after interview

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I got the line "obviously, we can't say anything official... but let's just say that if you rank us first your odds of landing here are very high". Followed by a letter saying the same thing. From my home program. Ranked them first. Didn't match there. For the life of me, I can't figure out what the point of that was.
 
LasVagus said:
I got the line "obviously, we can't say anything official... but let's just say that if you rank us first your odds of landing here are very high". Followed by a letter saying the same thing. From my home program. Ranked them first. Didn't match there. For the life of me, I can't figure out what the point of that was.
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r u serious..that’s so ****ed up..did u talk to the PD?
 
LasVagus said:
I got the line "obviously, we can't say anything official... but let's just say that if you rank us first your odds of landing here are very high". Followed by a letter saying the same thing. From my home program. Ranked them first. Didn't match there. For the life of me, I can't figure out what the point of that was.
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The worst part is that it clearly starts with a lie: Obviously, they can actually say something official. They absolutely could say "you will match with us should you choose to rank us high enough." The purpose of this nonsense is beyond me. All that they have done is made sure that you'll never give money to your med school and will probably and rightly encourage people to stay away from their psych department. I hope you said something to the school.
 
downwithDTB said:
The worst part is that it clearly starts with a lie: Obviously, they can actually say something official. They absolutely could say "you will match with us should you choose to rank us high enough." The purpose of this nonsense is beyond me. All that they have done is made sure that you'll never give money to your med school and will probably and rightly encourage people to stay away from their psych department. I hope you said something to the school.
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Applicants can't really say anything. As long as programs don't say "you're definitely matching if you're ranking us first" they can get away with anything.

That was also my experience with residency admissions. People don't realize how dirty programs play it. They are also desperate to match high so they try to sell applicants snake oil. It was all ironic to me; we get bamboozled early in med school about professionalism and honesty, get quizzed about the tiniest potential hole in our applications (because duh not being 100% transparent is sooo unethical) and then we get this.

The reality is that this is a power game and we're brainwashed throughout the process to play the minions.
 
fpsychdoc said:
Applicants can't really say anything. As long as programs don't say "you're definitely matching if you're ranking us first" they can get away with anything.

That was also my experience with residency admissions. People don't realize how dirty programs play it. They are also desperate to match high so they try to sell applicants snake oil. It was all ironic to me; we get bamboozled early in med school about professionalism and honesty, get quizzed about the tiniest potential hole in our applications (because duh not being 100% transparent is sooo unethical) and then we get this.

The reality is that this is a power game and we're brainwashed throughout the process to play the minions.
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I mostly agree with you; however, I do think that after match day, mentioning the above behavior to someone trusted within the medical school would be reasonable and unlikely to harm you if you have physical evidence.
 
downwithDTB said:
I mostly agree with you; however, I do think that after match day, mentioning the above behavior to someone trusted within the medical school would be reasonable and unlikely to harm you if you have physical evidence.
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Highly doubt it would have any effect though. They would probably get something like "but they didn't tell you you will match for sure". This was the kind of response people were getting here on an anonymous board anyhow. Who knew residency programs like to play scam?
 
Merely said:
r u serious..that’s so ****ed up..did u talk to the PD?
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Yeah, it really happened. I'm an attending now so this was 5-6 years ago. I'm mostly over it. It was a bizarre situation. From day one, my medical school had emphasized a commitment to trying to keep their graduates in state. It was four years of "please don't leave us... we have a doctor shortage and we want you to come do residency here". When the program director gave me the "odds of you landing here will be high" line, I had assumed he was alluding to this mission (i.e., "of course we're going to take you; we're trying to keep our doctors here"). He was not. He was not alluding to anything. Oh well. Life certainly doesn't owe me anything and they were not obligated to rank me to match. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out what the point was in saying that. "Thanks for interviewing with us" would have been perfectly appropriate. I periodically share my story so people know not to take the love letters or nudgenudgewinkwinks too seriously.
 
LasVagus said:
Yeah, it really happened. I'm an attending now so this was 5-6 years ago. I'm mostly over it. It was a bizarre situation. From day one, my medical school had emphasized a commitment to trying to keep their graduates in state. It was four years of "please don't leave us... we have a doctor shortage and we want you to come do residency here". When the program director gave me the "odds of you landing here will be high" line, I had assumed he was alluding to this mission (i.e., "of course we're going to take you; we're trying to keep our doctors here"). He was not. He was not alluding to anything. Oh well. Life certainly doesn't owe me anything and they were not obligated to rank me to match. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out what the point was in saying that. "Thanks for interviewing with us" would have been perfectly appropriate. I periodically share my story so people know not to take the love letters or nudgenudgewinkwinks too seriously.
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I would have asked the PD if I was you after youmatched..or hell ask him now as an attending
 
LasVagus said:
Yeah, it really happened. I'm an attending now so this was 5-6 years ago. I'm mostly over it. It was a bizarre situation. From day one, my medical school had emphasized a commitment to trying to keep their graduates in state. It was four years of "please don't leave us... we have a doctor shortage and we want you to come do residency here". When the program director gave me the "odds of you landing here will be high" line, I had assumed he was alluding to this mission (i.e., "of course we're going to take you; we're trying to keep our doctors here"). He was not. He was not alluding to anything. Oh well. Life certainly doesn't owe me anything and they were not obligated to rank me to match. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out what the point was in saying that. "Thanks for interviewing with us" would have been perfectly appropriate. I periodically share my story so people know not to take the love letters or nudgenudgewinkwinks too seriously.
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I think it's most likely that this PD is over delivering and should not have spoken in such a manner to you, but there is definitely some variability in the match. Many mid to even upper end of mid tier programs deviate wildly year-to-year with how far down their list they go. It's possible ranking you #20/100 was "odds of you landing here will be high" when last year they went down to #40, but somehow slots 1-10 went to their top 19 the year you matched.
 
JoseyCali123 said:
I've interviewed at 6 programs and NONE have sent me a "perfect fit" email... am I screwed at these programs?
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I received exactly zero post-interview e-mails and matched at my top choice. I also committed the great heresy of not sending "thank you"/follow-up e-mails after the interview. The only e-mail that I sent was near the ROL due date to inform my top choice that they were, in fact, my top choice and that I hope to match there.

These e-mails mean nothing. Applicants put so much value on them, IMO, because they are desperately looking at the tea leaves driving to divine what's going to happen.
 
NickNaylor said:
I received exactly zero post-interview e-mails and matched at my top choice. I also committed the great heresy of not sending "thank you"/follow-up e-mails after the interview. The only e-mail that I sent was near the ROL due date to inform my top choice that they were, in fact, my top choice and that I hope to match there.

These e-mails mean nothing. Applicants put so much value on them, IMO, because they are desperately looking at the tea leaves driving to divine what's going to happen.
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Same here. I sent one email in January to my top choice and that was it. Received no unsolicited emails from any program (what the heck even is a "perfect fit email"?). Matched at my top choice.

Everyone chill you'll be fine.
 
NickNaylor said:
I received exactly zero post-interview e-mails and matched at my top choice. I also committed the great heresy of not sending "thank you"/follow-up e-mails after the interview. The only e-mail that I sent was near the ROL due date to inform my top choice that they were, in fact, my top choice and that I hope to match there.

These e-mails mean nothing. Applicants put so much value on them, IMO, because they are desperately looking at the tea leaves driving to divine what's going to happen.
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Evidence Based said:
Same here. I sent one email in January to my top choice and that was it. Received no unsolicited emails from any program (what the heck even is a "perfect fit email"?). Matched at my top choice.

Everyone chill you'll be fine.
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Out of curiosity, what if anything did you guys hear back after sending your “You’re my number 1” emails?
 
MacDonaldTriad said:
"You're my number 1 emails" are awkward to receive and the odds of getting them, tend to be inversely proportional to how high the candidate is on the rank list.
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I imagine that this is inherent to the match in some ways. If you assume universal linear rankability of residents and programs (a poor but not completely unreal approximation of reality), the average resident's #1 is above their reach and the average program's top candidates are above their reach, such that only man's greatest hospital ever matches their top choices. Clearly this isn't reality, but is probably somewhat true.

I would be annoyed receiving them if I were a PD and would discourage applicants from sending them at interviews... but I'm not.
 
Our hospital has a policy stating staff and residents should not engage in any in post-interview communication, regardless of how desirable the applicant is. So I absolutely would not worry. Regardless, don't trust anything anyone says or let that influence where you rank a program.
 
downwithDTB said:
I imagine that this is inherent to the match in some ways. If you assume universal linear rankability of residents and programs (a poor but not completely unreal approximation of reality), the average resident's #1 is above their reach and the average program's top candidates are above their reach, such that only man's greatest hospital ever matches their top choices. Clearly this isn't reality, but is probably somewhat true.

I would be annoyed receiving them if I were a PD and would discourage applicants from sending them at interviews... but I'm not.
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This is exactly what happens I think. Well said.
 
Ludwig2000 said:
Out of curiosity, what if anything did you guys hear back after sending your “You’re my number 1” emails?
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I received a nice but vague e-mail from the PD.

After being involved in our resident selection committee, I've learned that these e-mails have no impact on one's rank on the ROL, so it was a completely pointless exercise.
 
I believe that some programs give these emails to anyone above a certain number on their rank list. Or perhaps to their whole rank list? Idk.

I think it would be negative if you get an email from a PD or program professing that they want you and you don't respond positively or if you ignore it.
 
NickNaylor said:
I received a nice but vague e-mail from the PD.

After being involved in our resident selection committee, I've learned that these e-mails have no impact on one's rank on the ROL, so it was a completely pointless exercise.
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It does have some impact at our institution although more broadly in the "do they actually want to be here?" sense. I somewhat disagree with it but several of the faculty feel that wanting to be here = happier resident = better resident.
 
I think my PD probably sent everyone the same e-mail (as long as they weren't a total jerk on interview day) -- that the program would be a good fit for them.
 
I received one personalized e-mail from a PD stating that I would be a good fit (though not perfect, mind you). However it was made clear to us on interview day that we would all be receiving an e-mail of pleasantries from the PD so I am sure if all interviewees compared letters from that program they would be quite similar. I'm five interviews deep and that's only been from one place, you are not alone.
 
JoseyCali123 said:
I've interviewed at 6 programs and NONE have sent me a "perfect fit" email... am I screwed at these programs?
Click to expand...

Lol, if I'd have gotten one of these I'd have known the program was pretty desperate or just full of crap. I wouldn't even think twice about not getting a message from them.
 
From what I understand SOME PDs do typically send this stuff out to people that are “higher” on their rank lists. That doesn’t mean that receiving a card means you’ll match, but it does mean you may be ranked higher than someone that didn’t receive one. Doesn’t mean you can’t match there though
 
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Was working on applications with my PD as chief last year and he refused to send any of these emails. He thinks it's unfair and programs who sent them are lying anyway. He wanted to let the match be as fair as possible without all these mind games. Guessing most PDs are the same. I wouldn't worry about it.
 
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