Interviews 2022-2023

[Anna Bingham, MHA]

Has there been any discussion of in person vs. virtual interviews for this recruiting season?

[Maia Knox, C-TAGME]

Hey Anna!

In the Sports Medicine Fellowship world there has been LOTS of discussion about this…The specialty sub-committee proposed an in-person ONLY interview season for 22-23, to which LOTS of PDs replied saying that their GME offices have prohibited them to be in-person at their institutions, and have banned the G4s from traveling to places to Interview as well… so it was decided at the last PDs meeting to meet again and discuss, as that decision was not aligning with what GME offices are allowing.  In my case, we are strongly encouraged to do them virtually by the GME office, but are allowing us to follow our subcommittee decision as well, so we are waiting…Hope all is well with you!!

[Laurie Lynch]

Hi Anna!

WMed has decided to go all virtual for residency interviews, based on the AAMC recommendation earlier this year. I also had an interesting discussion with a coordinator colleague here at WMed, who has a daughter interviewing for residency this year. Her daughter told her based on the AAMC recommendation, many of her classmates did not take out loans to afford to travel for in-person interviews, anticipating interviews would be virtual. That main loan window has closed for this year. That information factored into our decision for virtual as well.

We are waiting to hear what the Universal Offer Day recommendation will be, and see how much we need to adjust our virtual interview dates!

Laurie

[Laurel Lewis]

Hello!

My PD, Dr DiPasquale, has always wanted in-person interviews for residency.  In the last GMEC meeting, he made a motion that all residencies in our institution should have the opportunity to decide for themselves.  The motion was passed, pending any possible health crisis that should arise (#pandemic).  For us, we expect to have in-person interviews for residency but Zoom interviews for our two fellowships.  Using the virtual interview platform for fellowships has worked great for us and busy residents seem to appreciate it also.

~Laurel

[Kim Reising]

CORD has not made any type of official announcement yet.

Laurie, thanks for sharing the information from your colleague about the student loan process. I’m sure many of us have not even thought about this and how it could effect applicants during the interview season if programs offer in-person interviews, if permitted.

[Starla Pathak]

At Tufts, we will be doing both residency and fellowship interviews virtually.  Our institution has mandated that all programs be virtual again this year.   I would like to offer some “food for thought”.  During the past two+ years, we’ve all had to shift our “normal” and consider different formats for recruiting/interviewing across the board.  I know that we, our program directors and medical students would all like to be back to an in-person format, however, for those programs that will be interviewing in-person – how will you/your programs handle the inevitable situation where a medical student’s flight is cancelled at the last minute and/or their flight is significantly delayed and they can’t make the interview? How will you reschedule – knowing your faculty already give up clinic and/or OR time or will you offer to reschedule the interview?  How will students be able to afford the insanely high cost of airfare, hotels (for those whose programs don’t cover that expense for applicants) and other travel-related expenses?  I think Laurie has a good point when she points out that the student loan window has closed for this year.  The excuse or reasoning that some have used that all students get loans isn’t a financially sound reason to take out 10s of thousands of dollars to cover travel-related expenses at a time when economically everything is substantially more expensive.  These reasons and the consideration that we have all been living with in terms of considering applications holistically and not relying on the traditional “filters” we may use, as well as the financial considerations for all students not just those that come from an economically disadvantaged situation are reasons enough in my mind that we should continue at least for one more year to be completely virtual.  Again – food for thought.

[Courtney Matlach]

We are still undecided about what to do. My PD enjoyed the virtual interviews and wouldn’t mind doing them again. I’m sure everyone will agree that the virtual interviews were a lot easier on us then having in person events. However, I do think that if other programs in our area (NYC) are doing in person, we almost feel like we have to do in person as well to be on the same playing field as them.

I agree with what Starla said about the costs of flights these days and so many cancellations/ delays. What will we do if they can’t make it to the interview day, you would feel terrible if you couldn’t reschedule them. Similarly, I thought about what if a candidate reached out a day before their interview saying they had COVID and wanted to reschedule, but your other interview days were all already full or that happened to be your last interview day. And of course, what if there are students who don’t want to take the risk of cancelling or trying to reschedule so they come anyway.

Will definitely be interesting to see how this all plays out.

[Melissa Wheeler]

We are doing virtual interviews.  My Program Director believes that it’s the best for the students and it’s easier for us to get faculty involved.  We also think it’s actually  helped us diversify our residency because we are able to interview candidates that might not otherwise have traveled to Akron Ohio.

[Angela Weiss]

We are doing all virtual interviews at University of Washington again this year.  Virtual interviews really help med students that don’t have as many financial resources available to them.  Since med students are doing away rotations, it is better to save everyone the travel expense and possibility of getting Covid from in person interviews.  I’m fully vaccinated and double boosted and in my third week of recovering from Covid and I’m about 80% better now.

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