Professionalism and the match: a pediatric residency program's postinterview no-call policy and its impact on applicants.

Objective: The National Residency Matching Program allows match participants to recruit each other and try to influence future ranking decisions in their favor, but it also states that participants "must not make statements implying commitment." The National Residency Matching Program cautions against statements such as, "We plan to rank you very highly on our list," because they can be misinterpreted as an informal commitment. To avoid issues around miscommunication, the University of Washington Pediatric Residency Program instituted a postinterview no-call policy with applicants.

The impact of the interview in pediatric residency selection.

Objective: To better understand the impact of USMLE scores and interview scores on the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) rank of applicants to the residency program at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Methodology: We evaluated 935 applicants' files from 2000, 2001, and 2002. For each candidate, one interviewer had access to the full application, while the other interviewer was blinded to USMLE scores and grades.