I had a unique situation because of my significant other's concurrent nationwide job search. I told all the PDs that my partner was looking for a job as well and his job prospects would play very much into our decision-making process (i.e. if he's not going to be able to find a job, I'm going to have to rank it lower). I heard from WUSTL, UCSF, UCSD, Stanford, Penn, and Columbia. The chair at Stanford (yes, the actual Allan Schatzberg -
) called me twice to offer me a letter stating that I would be ranked high enough to match, so that my partner could feel free to go ahead and accept a job prior to the Match date (something that was also a huge confounder in the whole process). I know for certain that Columbia calls the top 12-15 people on their list to let them know they are "ranked very highly" but not everyone who matches gets that call. Also, Yale very much sticks to their promise of not calling you unless you call them to find out if you are "highly ranked." Some other places said they do that and then called anyway
.
Frankly, getting the calls can be a very weird process. Like my experience at UCSF, I had a weird interview with PD who said things that were very disparaging of the chair at my school's department. A few other interviewers were all about my research background and what project I might be able to pick up in their lab, flattering clearly, but less about the actual person I am. So I was shocked that the person who called me twice from the program was the one interviewer I actually liked and had a great conversation with about life, work, and family balance. That made it really difficult for me to decide whether to disclose my intention to not rank the program. Ultimately, I left it at the ambiguous, "I really liked aspects of the program, but ultimately I'm waiting until the last minute to make my final decision based on my partner's job situation." This was very true, I made last minute switch in my ROL based on the fact that at 9pm the list was due my husband got called to interview at a job he'd been very interested in, so that location's school got moved up on the list.
One thing I would recommend is to maintain e-mail contact with 1-2 residents at each program you interview at. If you get that feedback call, e-mail them and ask what their experience was? Did they get the call? Do they know that the PD calls the top 50 people on the list or the top 10. Usually residents know this information and will disclose it once you've established contact with them. And vice versa, if you don't get a call, I would ask if everybody in the program got calls.
Things to ask residents about after you leave the interview day - their experience of supervision on inpatient units, in the ER, on C/L, and in the outpt setting. Too much, too little, weaker in one of the settings? Also, work-life balance, is it encouraged, discouraged, or ignored? Are there mechanisms to improve class cohesiveness - namely class process groups each of the years? And finally, if you think you are interested in a specific fellowship, what do residents think about their exposure to that area, is the program set up to fast-track into child fellowship (if you're interested), and where do people from the program match in the fellowships, does everyone stay in the same place (can be good or bad, but suggests inertia) or do people leave for great places too?
