Do residency directors know if you have are a reapplicant after not matching last year's cycle?

[xnmed16]

Reapplicant with several red flags did not match last year's cycle.
Applied very broadly this cycle and sitting on 12 interviews thus far.

I have attended 2 interviews so far and have been asked this question. "Did you apply last year?"
Do program directors have information on my previous year's record of application and results?

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[AnatomyGrey12]

They know you most likely didn't match because you have a year between graduation and applying. What did you fill that time with?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I can look at my application data from last year -- so if I want to know whether you applied to my program last year, I can answer that. But I can't tell if you applied and didn't match vs applied but withdrew from the match vs didn't apply at all.

 

[Doc_Ock]

I can look at my application data from last year -- so if I want to know whether you applied to my program last year, I can answer that. But I can't tell if you applied and didn't match vs applied but withdrew from the match vs didn't apply at all.

I think what OP is getting at is if you just generally applied broadly in the last cycle-not necessarily at your school- would you have any way of knowing applicants applied the last cycle in general? Even if they didn't apply to your school specifically?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

No, we can't tell (other than the gap in your training)

 

[Holierthanthou]

No, we can't tell (other than the gap in your training)

So do most programs keep full applications from last year so that if you applied the following year to the same program they could potentially see the full details of your previous application and look for differences.

 

[Browns99]

So do most programs keep full applications from last year so that if you applied the following year to the same program they could potentially see the full details of your previous application and look for differences.

Regardless of whether they know/don't know, keep applications or not, you cannot just reapply to the same program without having improved your application. Merely resubmitting the same app to the same programs is not going to be beneficial and may be a waste of your time/money.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

So do most programs keep full applications from last year so that if you applied the following year to the same program they could potentially see the full details of your previous application and look for differences.

It depends. Some programs keep applications of people they interviewed. Some do not. In all cases, we can download the archive of all applications over the last 5 years or so (each year is an archive). So even if a program does not keep applications, they can still get them if they want.

Regardless of whether they know/don't know, keep applications or not, you cannot just reapply to the same program without having improved your application. Merely resubmitting the same app to the same programs is not going to be beneficial and may be a waste of your time/money.

I totally agree.

 

[Holierthanthou]

It depends. Some programs keep applications of people they interviewed. Some do not. In all cases, we can download the archive of all applications over the last 5 years or so (each year is an archive). So even if a program does not keep applications, they can still get them if they want.

I totally agree.

I totally agree.

I know its hard for you to generalize but im guessing for reapplicants to your previous program you would look at a reapplicants prior application before inviting for an interview if you were considering them or maybe during ROL time

 

[NotAProgDirector]

It depends. If a reapplicant was ranked just below where we filled, we would probably consider them again. My experience is that most reapplicants were at the bottom of our list, and in that case we don't consider them again.