Reception etiquette

[Cookie Queen]

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Quick question guys,
Does a program look at you negatively if you do not attend their reception? I just realized I have interviews back to back but their receptions are on the same night. Should I move one of my interviews so that I can attend both receptions or just pick my favorite (since one I'm much more excited about one than the other)?

I guess my real question is - do programs look poorly on you for not attending their reception?

 

[Slade]

Quick question guys,
Does a program look at you negatively if you do not attend their reception? I just realized I have interviews back to back but their receptions are on the same night. Should I move one of my interviews so that I can attend both receptions or just pick my favorite (since one I'm much more excited about one than the other)?

I guess my real question is - do programs look poorly on you for not attending their reception?

I have the same question, if anyone has any thoughts?

 

[Cookie Queen]

So I actually had a meeting at my school tonight for MS4s applying to peds. My program director and several other faculty there thought that it did not reflect negatively on you if you did not go. They understand that it is a busy time and everybody is traveling. It's more for our benefit to get to know the residents and ask questions. One prof even said that the reception won't effect your chances at all unless the residents cannot stand you and tell the faculty that they could not work with you.

 

[Stitch]

So I actually had a meeting at my school tonight for MS4s applying to peds. My program director and several other faculty there thought that it did not reflect negatively on you if you did not go. They understand that it is a busy time and everybody is traveling. It's more for our benefit to get to know the residents and ask questions. One prof even said that the reception won't effect your chances at all unless the residents cannot stand you and tell the faculty that they could not work with you.

This. These things are for you to see and interact with the residents so as to get a feel for the program. The only way it could negatively affect you is if you go and you're a jerk or something. Other than that, people understand if you can't make it.

 

[deleted311769]

They don't take attendance. No one knows who is "supposed' to be there most of the time. It's almost always just a bunch of residents who show up at a location for free food, one of whom is in charge of making sure the bill gets paid at the end, and then whatever applicants. You could go to a reception in a totally different month if you wanted to and missed the one around your interview day, no one would notice. Plus, everyone knows that you can't always make it - people have flights and other interviews. There are people who don't go to any of the dinners ever for whatever reason. These dinners are for you, they are not at all for the program and there is no one there to impress. This may be different in other specialties, especially the surgical subspecialties, but in peds, with so many applicants it's not practical for them to be any more than for the applicant.

The only way anything gets back to the program is if someone does something REALLY and EXTREMELY out of line to the point that a resident goes out of their way to tell someone in the program office.