Back34 said:
I'm bringing this up because I'm a skeptical person by nature and just wanted to get some thoughts. I interviewed at my #1 choice, which happened to be where I did my audition rotation. The interview went well and was told by the program director that the attendings/residents I worked with had a pretty high opinion of my work habits, etc., and gave every indication that he'd be ranking me high, without actually saying so. Two days later, I got a letter from the program director telling me that they'd love to have the opportunity to train me.
This may seem like a stupid post because, on the surface, I'm already there. But, again, I've been burned far too many times to take anything at face value. Has this happened to anybody else? What happened? Thanks.
Well, it sounds real good. Congrats. It seems to me that he sincerely likes you and would be happy to train you. It's not a guarantee. I certainly would be happy to train far more people than my program can fit. The following is a post I put on a Psych thread today. I think it's applicable.
<Quote=poety>
Originally Posted by Poety
Yeah, I think its all generic, I'm starting to think every program is writing the same thing to every applicant but a different variation of it </Quote>
<QUOTE=Atsai> Rather than suspect PDs of being disingenuous, I think it might be more productive to see them as trying to encourage qualified applicants to come to their program. Even the 'top' programs know that they will have to go down on their rank list to fill their spots, some deeper than others. If you have 10 spots, you're not going to limit your recruiting phone calls to the top 10 candidates, because many of them are going to pick other programs. There may be 50 candidates that you would be more than happy to have in your program. So you call all 50 and say "We'd love to have you here." And depending on how the market shakes out on Match Day, hopefully 10 of them will choose your program.
Am I just being too naive? </QUOTE=Atsai>
I think you're both right even though your posts seem to conflict.
I would be happy to train almost every candidate I interview and I tell them that. I'm not being disingenuous, I'm giving them feedback that they seem to want. Having done this for a while, I'm pretty sure that most will match. If I'm of that opinion for a particular candidate, I say so.
I don't make promises, tell her she's ranked to match or close a deal early, because we do our list after the last interview. But if a candidates application is so outstanding that I think it very likely that he'll be ranked above our traditional lowest matching slot, I'll tell him it's probably his choice whether he comes to our program. I can say this only to a small proportion of our interviewees.
The reason I went to the trouble of writing this down is that the discussion on this forum seems much more angst ridden than on EM. I guess that's just the specialty "personality" since you guys are in the driver seat. EM candidates are not (neither are ED PDs).
My reaction from what you report about your interviews is that the Psych PDs are doing much more recruiting because they need to. Good news for you. Even so, I think most PDs are honest and what they say is what they mean. If they say they like you, that means they like you, nothing more. I'd make a similar evaluation about "good fit" and "competitive" and "would be happy to train you" statements."
Back to the game theory thing. It is to the PDs advantage to affect all of his candidates ranking of his program upwards. It is to your advantage to affect your ranking upwards on all or your programs lists. It to neither sides advantage to put their list in other than true order.
My point is that even if you are told "you are ranked to match" by an honest PD, that shouldn't affect your list. All it should mean is that if none of the programs above love you, you're going to this place. Attempts to influence your decision, either by "love" or "guilt" should be seen as what they are, coercion. If you want to go there take the bait. If not, be noncommital.
I also respectfully suggest that you stop trying to be junior shrinks and read things into the exact wording (this means you P). Sometimes an analysts cigar is just a cigar. The rest is silence.
