WTH..dissappointed/confused..has this happened to anyone?

[Chickenwing]

An anonymous program, a decent one by most accounts (in the southeast) offered me an interview on Friday, even had a nice letter from the program director as an attachment. Gave me a bunch of dates and asked for my top 2. I responded within about 4 hours (I know its a bit long but I was working and to be honest am not compulsively checking my emails anymore). Anyways, today I get an email back saying not only are my two dates full, but ALL dates are full...WTH, If I'm offered an interview, isn't there some expectation that there will be a spot for me? Are programs offering more than they have spots for and just making this a smartphone free-for-all? Really disappointed by this, wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I'll leave the program unnamed, I don't want to cause trouble, but it's more the principle of it that bothers me.

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[LovelyBRass]

Unfortunately it happens :-/ Some programs offer more interviews than they have spots and then put you on a waitlist, just to ensure they at least fill up all of their spots. They're busy - they can't do much better than first come first serve (gotta love smartphones). I agree it's pretty unsavory for you as the applicant and probably dissuades good applicants, but it doesn't really make a difference to them I think. If it's the best program you end up getting an interview to, it would be foolish to rank them low because of this. So they have minimal reason not to operate this way - which is to keep all their spots filled and ASAP.

 

[Chickenwing]

Well, I guess its somewhat comforting to know that its happened before...but man, it just doesn't seem right. What if you're on a plane, or on a long drive, or sleeping after a night shift or (heaven forbid) actually working during working hours. Pretty messed up, que sera sera i guess

 

[darkelven29]

At this stage of the game, most applicants have their schedule full or inflexible flights booked. If schools want to fill their interview spots, they have to contact multiple people at once. Otherwise they would be calling/leaving messages or emailing and re-emailing every couple of hours. And remember, this is a busy administrator (maybe 2-3) coordinating everything.

We should all convince our residency programs next year to use interview broker!

 

[OveractiveBrain]

An anonymous program, a decent one by most accounts (in the southeast) offered me an interview on Friday, even had a nice letter from the program director as an attachment. Gave me a bunch of dates and asked for my top 2. I responded within about 4 hours (I know its a bit long but I was working and to be honest am not compulsively checking my emails anymore). Anyways, today I get an email back saying not only are my two dates full, but ALL dates are full...WTH, If I'm offered an interview, isn't there some expectation that there will be a spot for me? Are programs offering more than they have spots for and just making this a smartphone free-for-all? Really disappointed by this, wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I'll leave the program unnamed, I don't want to cause trouble, but it's more the principle of it that bothers me.

Happened to me at UCSD. They asked if I wanted to be on the wait list. Uh. Serial? Eat a pair of donkey balls. Email --> 3 hours --> call them --> full.

 

[jdh71]

That's dirty bull**** in my opinion.

We should keep a list of these places.

Send me PM with places that have done this to you guys and I'll make a list. It might be that shaming these programs on one of most looked at medical forums will help

 

[doobiedoobah]

It happened toe too, and I replied within 5 min of getting the email. They put me on the waikato though, and we're able to schedule me a few weeks later after some cancellations.

 

[doobiedoobah]

Sorry for all the typos. I'm using an iPhone and have fat thumbs

 

[ArcGurren]

Yeah, this happened to me too, although thankfully a spot managed to open up a little later. I think it's an unethical and nasty tactic, but I don't really know what you can do about it. It puts people who don't have smartphones at a disadvantage, and clearly if there's one group of folks with money to throw away on smartphones, it must be medical students... sigh

 

[laconfidential]

I had this happen twice.

The first, the email said "we're pleased to offer you an interview to X" and the next paragraph said "we are out of interview spots." Um, thanks?

The next was a plain old interview invite that when I called shortly thereafter was told there were no spots available.

I thought they weren't supposed to pull this crap in IM! Isn't this type thing more suited for surgical sub-specialties?

 

[kjamess]

That's dirty bull**** in my opinion.

We should keep a list of these places.

Send me PM with places that have done this to you guys and I'll make a list. It might be that shaming these programs on one of most looked at medical forums will help

It will be a pretty long list...

 

[jdh71]

It will be a pretty long list...

Well. I'm starting one.

 

[infarct]

An anonymous program, a decent one by most accounts (in the southeast) offered me an interview on Friday, even had a nice letter from the program director as an attachment. Gave me a bunch of dates and asked for my top 2. I responded within about 4 hours (I know its a bit long but I was working and to be honest am not compulsively checking my emails anymore). Anyways, today I get an email back saying not only are my two dates full, but ALL dates are full...WTH, If I'm offered an interview, isn't there some expectation that there will be a spot for me? Are programs offering more than they have spots for and just making this a smartphone free-for-all? Really disappointed by this, wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I'll leave the program unnamed, I don't want to cause trouble, but it's more the principle of it that bothers me.

they dont owe you anything...you were too slow in replying. if you think that's bad...talk to some of our orthopedic colleagues, they definitely have it worse.

 

[infarct]

That's dirty bull**** in my opinion.

We should keep a list of these places.

Send me PM with places that have done this to you guys and I'll make a list. It might be that shaming these programs on one of most looked at medical forums will help

A LOT of places do that.

 

[ArcGurren]

they dont owe you anything...you were too slow in replying. if you think that's bad...talk to some of our orthopedic colleagues, they definitely have it worse.

So if you're in the middle of the road driving somewhere, or you don't own a smartphone and aren't within near access of a computer, how is that okay? That seems pretty screwed up and dirty to me

 

[jdh71]

A LOT of places do that.

then we will make a list of A LOT of places