New Rules for Postinterview Communications Between Applicants and Residency Programs?
Regarding the article “Residency Postinterview Communications: More Harm Than Good?” by Grimm et al,1 I appreciate the concerns expressed by the authors and their desire to improve the residency match. The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) system adds fairness to the process, and the regulations about communications between programs and applicants are reasonable. If the authors believe that the current rules do not go far enough, they are entitled to their opinion. However, I would question any conclusions drawn from a survey of residency program directors with a 23% overall response rate, where almost 40% came from a single specialty. It seems unlikely that this self-selected sample represents the view of the majority of program directors. A comparison of these results with previous surveys of applicants cannot be reliably used to establish a clear pattern of disconnection in the communication process.
My opinion is that it can be appropriate for applicants to send thank you notes to program directors and interviewers. Occasionally, these notes demonstrate that an applicant has reflected thoughtfully on their interview experience, and this could be a small consideration in their position on a rank list. I do not think that I should tell applicants with whom, on our faculty, they can communicate.
Both program directors and applicants should take care in what they say. I have had applicants state they will rank our program No. 1, and then not do it. However, this is a rare occurrence. I am not looking forward to receiving consensus guidelines from my specialty on this issue.
I recommend that program directors review NRMP regulations with interviewing faculty, and that medical school deans discuss the interviewing and ranking process with applicants. Deans should explain how to interpret communications from programs to make sure that applicant expectations are realistic. Match violations should be reported to the NRMP. From my perspective as a program director, the biggest help would be if the deans encourage applicants to limit sending their applications to programs they might truly want to attend.
