Should I contact them?

[doctor_doctor]

Hi guys,

I received a letter in the mail the last week of December stating the following;

Dear xxx,

It was a pleasure to meet you on xxx at XXX . Our faculty and residents
were impressed by your qualifications and enjoyed discussing our
educational program with you. We hope that you too enjoyed your visit.

I..........Our multi-specialty faculty has the breadth of
Knowledge necessary to provide the best educational experience for our
residents. We are a strong committed department, dedicated to teaching
and research. Our residents obtain competitive fellowship sat outstanding
academic institutions. As one of our top candidates, we know that you
have many choices regarding your residency selection. I feel you would be
a great asset to our residency program.

..................
..................

Sincerely,
PD


So based on this (good points highlighted in red), I am VERY tempted to call the program coordinator and kinda ask what % of interviewees were sent this letter. I'm just afraid that it might negatively affect my position (i only have 2 interviews, so I am not in the best position!). Advice/input would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Regards

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[GmailQueen]

I personally wouldn't do that. If you want, reply to the letter discussing your interest in the program, thanking them for inviting you to interview, talk about why you think you're a good fit... but I wouldn't ask how many get the letter. #1 - it could be very off-putting, and #2 - what good does it do you? are you thinking of prematching elsewhere, or just trying to assess your standing? Also, my guess is that if you ask on the pathology forums, others who interviewed at the program will let you know whether they got it or not.

 

[ResidentMD]

I personally wouldn't do that. If you want, reply to the letter discussing your interest in the program, thanking them for inviting you to interview, talk about why you think you're a good fit... but I wouldn't ask how many get the letter. #1 - it could be very off-putting, and #2 - what good does it do you? are you thinking of prematching elsewhere, or just trying to assess your standing? Also, my guess is that if you ask on the pathology forums, others who interviewed at the program will let you know whether they got it or not.

Agreed. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT ASK THIS QUESTION (caps on purpose). Put yourself in the PDs shoes...you are one among many (say even 10) that he likes and would like you to be in their program. if you get an email from someone you are considering as a "potential" resident, what would you think?

Hi guys,

I received a letter in the mail the last week of December stating the following;

Dear xxx,

It was a pleasure to meet you on xxx at xxx. Our faculty and residents
were impressed by your qualifications and enjoyed discussing our
educational program with you. We hope that you too enjoyed your visit.

I hope I was able to offer you a comprehensive overview of our Pathology
Residency Program. Our multi-specialty faculty has the breadth of
Knowledge necessary to provide the best educational experience for our
residents. We are a strong committed department, dedicated to teaching
and research. Our residents obtain competitive fellowship sat outstanding
academic institutions. As one of our top candidates, we know that you
have many choices regarding your residency selection. I feel you would be
a great asset to our residency program.

I wish you all the best with the rest of your interviews. I know regardless
of where you train, you have the aptitude and determination to become an
exceptional pathologist. I hope you strongly consider xxx as an outstanding program in
which you would thrive. Please feel free to contact me if you have any .
further questions regarding our program.

Sincerely,
PD


So based on this (good points highlighted in red), I am VERY tempted to call the program coordinator and kinda ask what % of interviewees were sent this letter. I'm just afraid that it might negatively affect my position (i only have 2 interviews, so I am not in the best position!). Advice/input would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Regards

Do you know program directors and administrators frequent SDN? Could you have at least crossed out the program's name? I am crossing it out for you as I am copying your post, but I would really advise you to do the same in your OP ASAP. Actually, I would rather advise you to even get rid of the text, and only keep a few sentences around the statements you have highlighted. You do not know how many people the PD sent this to, and if you have only two interviews, you BETTER want to be high up on both the programs' rank order list.

 

[doctor_doctor]

Your right ResidentMD....thanks for the advice!

 

[doctor_doctor]

Do you think that some programs give similar letters to probably all the candidates they plan on ranking, just to be on the safe side and get candidates interested in them, so to avoid scrambling?

 

[doctor_doctor]

but then again, they haven't ranked the candidates yet...but i'm thinkin that they might send them to all whom scored above a cut off in their interview...(many programs grade the interviewees on a point scale)

 

[ResidentMD]

Do you think that some programs give similar letters to probably all the candidates they plan on ranking, just to be on the safe side and get candidates interested in them, so to avoid scrambling?

Quite possible. But why worry? if you want to go there, rank it high. Thats it. Take whatever emails you get with a grain of salt. Thank them for writing nice things to you, and go ahead and rank the programs the way YOU want.

 

[tarlovcyst]

Hi guys,

I received a letter in the mail the last week of December stating the following;

Dear xxx,

It was a pleasure to meet you on xxx at XXX . Our faculty and residents
were impressed by your qualifications and enjoyed discussing our
educational program with you. We hope that you too enjoyed your visit.

I..........Our multi-specialty faculty has the breadth of
Knowledge necessary to provide the best educational experience for our
residents. We are a strong committed department, dedicated to teaching
and research. Our residents obtain competitive fellowship sat outstanding
academic institutions. As one of our top candidates, we know that you
have many choices regarding your residency selection. I feel you would be
a great asset to our residency program.

..................
..................

Sincerely,
PD


So based on this (good points highlighted in red), I am VERY tempted to call the program coordinator and kinda ask what % of interviewees were sent this letter. I'm just afraid that it might negatively affect my position (i only have 2 interviews, so I am not in the best position!). Advice/input would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Regards

Honestly, take it with a grain of salt. The letter is part of the game that is played, unfortunately. When I was interviewing, I received about three of those type of letters, thanking me for coming to interview. Very generic letter, in my opinion. I know this crushes your hopes, but it just makes you rank them higher. I know that doesn't make much difference, since you only interviewed at two places. But you never know.

In February, the real personalized letters come out. Your name, who interviewed you, what they liked about you, etc would be in these letters. That's if they are really trying to recruit you.

Regardless of what they send you or how aggressively they are trying to recruit you, always ask yourself -- which of the two programs do I fit better at? That's how you shold rank your programs.

 

[guv_garfunkel]

In February, the real personalized letters come out. Your name, who interviewed you, what they liked about you, etc would be in these letters. That's if they are really trying to recruit you.

So, I can expect to recieve personlized letters in February from those programs that want me? Do most programs do this? Granted I'm going to rank them how I want, but it would be nice to know which programs are more interested than others. I hate the match!

 

[Seville]

I put no weight on those letters. I received one worded almost exactly the same as yours. I called two of my friends who interviewed there on separate dates from me and yeah, they got the EXACT same letter. Same wording and everything. It's all blowing smoke.

 

[Winged Scapula]

So, I can expect to recieve personlized letters in February from those programs that want me? Do most programs do this? Granted I'm going to rank them how I want, but it would be nice to know which programs are more interested than others. I hate the match!

This is by NO MEANS a program wide activity. Some programs make no contact with interviewees, some will contact those they are highly ranking and some are somewhere in between.

Please do not assume that all programs contact applicants in February (frankly I've never heard of this as a common practice) or that if you hear nothing that you're not highly ranked.

 

[doctor_doctor]

Thanks guys for the input! We'll see how it goes!!!