I've mentioned my fondness for Your College Bound Kid, a podcast on college admissions. This week I heard a discussion that will also resonate with medical school and residency applicants:
In episode 677, host Mark Stucker (who is famously gentle) mentions that he's still angry - twenty years later - about the following scenario: A student said that the school Mark was representing was the applicant's first choice. Mark reports expending significant political capital to get the applicant through committee only to find out later that the candidate had told four schools the same thing. He reports he's still salty from the experience. (The co-host he's speaking to gasps when he tells the story.)
Mark reminds college applicants not to overpromise. "Don't couch things in definitive terms" is his advice, and I couldn't agree more. Years ago, during a residency interview, an applicant promised to place my institution's program first on his NRMP rank list. When we ranked him to Match and he didn't, my colleagues noted that he had dissembled (although they used stronger language) and promised to remember him if he applied for any positions going forward. Of course, applicants change their minds, but institutions are understandably frustrated by empty promises. Don't fall into the trap of making promises you might not keep during your medical school and residency interviews.
