PUROSE: The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Electronic
Residency Application Service® (ERAS®) application includes sections on
geographic preferences, setting preference, and program signaling. There is
limited understanding of how geo-preferencing directly relates to interview
invites and matching. We aim to identify the influence of geographic
preferencing and its ability to mitigate application deficits.
METHODS: A survey was administered to residency program directors (PD)
utilizing the ACGME Webpage (IRB# 2023-357-NSU). The survey explored PD views
on applicant geographic setting and institutional connections related to
interview invites and matching.
RESULTS: Greater than 50 % of participants (n= 206) viewed aspects of all
local tie domains as having a positive or strongly positive impact on
interview and/or match selection. 54% of participants agreed or strongly
agreed that a personal statement should discuss local ties to their
geographical interest. Multiple possible mitigatable shortcomings and
multi-division factors had between a 1-34% selection range. Roughly 51%
(~104/206) participants stated some variation of none or N/A to mitigable
application factors with geographical preferencing.
CONCLUSION: PDs felt local ties should be discussed in the personal
statement and local ties are positively impactful in interview/match
selection. However, geographical preferencing might not mitigate application
shortcomings, such as a Step 1 fail. Two study limitations are a lack of
representation from rural programs and moderately sized/large cities for most
respondents, potentially skewing data. We next plan to dissect the survey
data to explore individual specialty perceptions of geographic preferencing.