The medical student's perspective of psychiatry residency selection procedures

To determine what factors influence medical students' perception of the application and selection procedures of psychiatric residency programs, the authors sent a questionnaire to 100 medical students interviewed for the residency program at a major psychiatric facility; 43 returned the forms. There was general concordance between the respondents' perception of the institution's selection criteria and their convictions regarding what those criteria ought to be, with the exception that applicants tended to downgrade the dean's letter. Factors important in the residents' evaluation were the warmth, enthusiasm, and interviewing skills of the faculty and residents. They did not object to psychologically probing interviews if the interviews were skillfully conducted. It was important to them that they met the chairman and program director, and if the applicant was a woman, she wanted to have at least one woman interviewer.