Why This City / Town for Residency ?

Chances are most of you will be confronted by this question during the residency interview and even though some of you may not care much about where on earth you get a residency, or do not have many choices anyways, you still need to frame an answer. Anyways, since a residency is a long stressful period, if you have luxury of choosing a location, you should give that a good thought.

Remember that the program is looking for practical reasons on your part to consider that city, so they can get a sense of how interested are you in the program. Simply wanting to live in a city because "it is of historic importance" or "very beautiful", while good to add, may not by itself give as clear a message than some of the practical, convincing points mentioned below.

Since it will be ridiculous on my part to try and come up with a summary for every residency location, lets try to have a framework instead. First, read up about the residency city/town on sites like Wikipedia, citydata.com, etc. Also see if the city appears anywhere on the best places to live list on CNN Money - Click here for the 2007 list. Chances are that you will also find what's best about the city / town on that site itself.

Here are some practical reasons you can use for your answer, depending on what you believe and justify is important for you:


1. You have been brought up in a, or simply love a large city vibrant life / moderate town convenience / small city peaceful life (whichever applies)

2. You got family, relatives, friends in the area

3. You like the outdoor activities available in the area (skiing, biking, hiking, canoing, etc.)

4. Its a very safe place to live, it that applies e.g. I would not use this reason for Bronx ;-)

5. The places offers good job prospects for you spouse and /or good schools for your kids. (Some programs are known to consider good candidates for a prematch, if their spouse already has a job in that area or close to that area)

6. You always wanted to settle in that area

7. You were born and brought up in that area and that's home for you

8. Cost of living is attractive - buying a home is possible, etc.


More possible reasons are welcome - just drop a comment and I shall include it here