Appealing for Reconsideration after a Rejected Residency Application

Let me begin on a cautious note by saying that this post isn't for everyone. It is for those candidates who have rejects from residency programs where they might be a strong fit at, with their credentials such as specific research, clinical and/or work experiences. For such guys, justifying why their application should be reconsidered, by writing a polite email that directly reaches the program director or chairman is worth a chance - coz' its very likely that the program director did not bother to look at their resume beyond screening criteria such as scores and inadvertently missed a diamond.

Please note that I am not suggesting that you blindly spam and anger the program directors or chairmen, coz' a great score does not automatically make you eligible for interview invites from every single residency program you apply to. Rather I suggest doing this only after getting reject from a program where you specifically feel and can justify yourself as a strong fit. A hypothetical example to explain this further = Lets say we have a candidate who did some outstanding work and had experiences / publications in say ... sleep pattern studies . But the candidate gets a reject from a good psychiatry residency program that does have ongoing research study & faculty specializing in sleep patterns study. He felt he was rejected because of not meeting scores criteria or years-since-graduation criteria. Such a candidate should probably take that chance.

My friend who interviewed for residency positions in 2006 for the 2007 Match season will vouch for this. He had some rejects from some good university places despite having a 99/99 and 5 publications, most probably coz' he was more than 5 years since medical school graduation. Chagrined, he fished out emails of the residency program directors using some innovative search methods - (which I shall outline on another post on this blog) , justified himself politely and sure enough, got himself 3 more interviews from places that initially had rejected him.


Notice that in the first paragraph I said that the email's gotta reach the program director / chairman directly. Why stress 'directly' ? Coz' most of the contact emails listed publicly on the websites or even MyERAS are controlled by residency program coordinators, who may not forward such emails that they might consider as 'spam'. Hence you might need to use different methods to search director / chairmen emails. I shall cover than soon !

Again....no spam to residency programs please - write only if the specific scenario mentioned above applies to you :-)


Also read:

- Residency Interviews tips - n -tricks
- Maximizing Interview chances after applying