Odd Rejection

[ohboy]

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Anyone get any weird rejection letters? I got my first one today. I've gotten six interviews so far and some pretty decent places (Loma Linda, Regions, K-zoo, OSU...) and then got a rejection from what I considered at most a backup. Not sure how to feel about it.

 

[Pure Anergy]

Anyone get any weird rejection letters? I got my first one today. I've gotten six interviews so far and some pretty decent places (Loma Linda, Regions, K-zoo, OSU...) and then got a rejection from what I considered at most a backup. Not sure how to feel about it.

Obviously you didn't think that program was a very good fit, because you considered it to be a backup at most. If the fit was that bad, probably they looked at your app and came to the same conclusion. Other than maybe a little bruise to the ego, no harm, no foul. Go interview at the other places that should be better fits for you, and don't worry about a program you probably shouldn't have applied to anyway.

 

[DrZuza]

I got one rejection and I had no idea where it was coming from😀. No name of the hospital, no name of PD or PC.... Just an email address (.com -type) - so I had to copy&paste that address in Google to find out where it was from😕.

 

[cach]

I got one rejection and I had no idea where it was coming from.

I got a rejection letter with no institution name, just the name of the program director, sent to me by a secretary using the corporate email of a large ER management company through the ERAS mail. I had to Google the program director's name to figure out where I had been rejected.


The letter did offer the challenge that if I felt they had made a mistake in rejecting me, I should send them an email.

 

[ohboy]

lol, I think we all got the same letter. I had to google the residency director's name to find out where it was coming from.

 

[Tiger26]

Had one of these too last year where I had no idea where it came from.

As for the rejection, sometimes less than desireable programs (although still probably really good) reject applicants because they believe that the applicant won't ever come there anyway and is just using them to pad their numbers come rank list time. They can only interview so many people, so they try to give the chance to people who'd be likely to rank them highly (i.e. generally with a local connection to the area)

 

[docB]

I don't think anyone should read too much into rejections. There is a lot of randomness in play. They may have some agenda they are acting on such as trimming interviews to save money, looking for some specific regional character, focusing on some particular facet of apps such as scores or experience or research this year, etc.

I got some rejections from programs that (I felt) were less desirable than other places that did interview me.

So don't sweat those rejections and don't spend time worring about why. Unless it was one of your top choices or you got a lot of rejections just let it go.

 

[Arcan57]

Region can make a big difference in where you get interviews. I was offered interviews at every program I applied to east of the Mississippi and none to the west. And while it's not as random as med school, as docB pointed out it is not always internally consistent either.

 

[ryandote]

.

 

[xaelia]

The only rule in applying to residency is to have no ego. No programs are backup programs. Every program is your first choice. If you're not grateful for every opportunity you get to interview, it will come across in your interview experience.

If you don't know the meaning of humility, life will find a way to foist it upon you. And I wish I could say I didn't speak from experience.

 

[Tiger26]

The only rule in applying to residency is to have no ego. No programs are backup programs. Every program is your first choice. If you're not grateful for every opportunity you get to interview, it will come across in your interview experience.

If you don't know the meaning of humility, life will find a way to foist it upon you. And I wish I could say I didn't speak from experience.

Absolutely correct

 

[lucky_deadman]

The only rule in applying to residency is to have no ego. No programs are backup programs. Every program is your first choice. If you're not grateful for every opportunity you get to interview, it will come across in your interview experience.

If you don't know the meaning of humility, life will find a way to foist it upon you. And I wish I could say I didn't speak from experience.

Couldn't agree more (having been on both sides of the interview process).

 

[ohboy]

The only rule in applying to residency is to have no ego. No programs are backup programs. Every program is your first choice. If you're not grateful for every opportunity you get to interview, it will come across in your interview experience.

If you don't know the meaning of humility, life will find a way to foist it upon you. And I wish I could say I didn't speak from experience.

I am sorry if I came across a bit ego-ish. It wasn't my intent. I didn't apply to any programs that I would not have been happy to go to (assuming the interview process went well). I was just a little surprised at the different ways programs must use to screen their applicants is all.

 

[Anastasis]

The only rule in applying to residency is to have no ego. No programs are backup programs. Every program is your first choice. If you're not grateful for every opportunity you get to interview, it will come across in your interview experience.

If you don't know the meaning of humility, life will find a way to foist it upon you. And I wish I could say I didn't speak from experience.

👍👍

I think that's just a great philosophy in life. I was getting a bit nervous not having interviews at some of my top choices but then I comforted a friend who is having real difficulties this cycle. Made me grateful for the interviews I do have and made me remember that there were great things about each of these programs which made me apply to them in the first place.

 

[Emergency!]

I know several people that received rejections from programs in areas of the country that they had no apparent ties to . . . once they contacted the program and expressed their interest (i.e. family in the area, etc), they were offered interviews. When paring down candidates, programs quite often use criteria like that.