Resident recruitment and selection
- Qualifications required for resident appointment:
The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics (UWHC) and its affiliates are committed to provide a training program for Residents that meets all requirements for programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
The University of Wisconsin Department of Neurology seeks well-rounded candidates with a track record of academic success and great potential for the future. Desirable attributes include strong intellectual abilities as documented by success in past academic performance, sincere interest in a career in child neurology, and excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
To enter the child neurology training program candidates must complete either (a) two years of training in pediatrics, in a program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in the United States or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada; (b) one year of education in pediatrics and one year of education in family medicine or internal medicine or (c) one year of pediatrics plus one year of basic neuroscience training, whereby the program director must review and determine the acceptability of these initial two years of training.
- Procedures for evaluation and selection of applicants to the program:
Applications to our program are only accepted via ERAS. All applications are reviewed in their entirety by the Recruitment Committee, who will objectively rate each application with regard to: academic performance in college and medical school, performance on USMLE or COMLEX, interpersonal communication (personal statement, etc.), extracurricular activities, research accomplishments, and letters of recommendation. This serves as a screening process; the most highly rated applicants are invited for in-person interviews. Applicants accepted for interview will be presented to the Department of Pediatrics for consideration for PGY1 and PGY2 years. The program director for Pediatrics will communicate to the program director of Child Neurology which candidates are acceptable to Pediatrics.
The final rank list is created in a multi-step process. A preliminary ranking is completed by the program director after review of the resident and interview evaluations. The Recruitment Committee will then have a closed-door discussion to create the final rank list by consensus.
All candidates must meet the UWHC “Qualifications for Appointment,” and attest to this by signing an agreement form provided by GME office.
Application Process
Applications to our program are only accepted via the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Our ACGME ID# is 1855618109 and the NRMP program code is 1779185C0.
All applications are reviewed by the Recruitment Committee, which will evaluate each application with regard to the following:
- Academic transcript
- Medical Student Performance Evaluation (Dean’s letter—once available)
- Letters of recommendation
- Research experience
- Personal statement
- USMLE (at minimum, step 1) or COMLEX-USA (at minimum, level 1) scores
The most highly-rated applicants are invited for in-person interviews. Those accepted for interviews will then have their applications reviewed by the Pediatrics residency program director for consideration of eligibility for a PGY1 appointment.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, interviews are currently being held virtually. Our virtual interview day will begin with program overviews of both the child neurology and pediatrics programs. Afterwards, candidates will meet with pediatric faculty in the morning. The lunch break will include an opportunity to meet with residents from both the child and adult neurology programs. The interview day will conclude with interviews with the child neurology faculty. There will be an optional opportunity to attend an evening reception with the UW pediatric program. Attendance will not be recorded at these optional receptions; they are for candidates to learn more about the pediatric program at UW.
Post-Interview Communications
It is axiomatic that applicants and programs need complete and reliable information about each other in order to best determine the ordering of their respective rank lists. Regrettably, there is ample literature showing that both applicants and residency programs often exaggerate their interest in one another. In order to promote the most fair and transparent matching process possible, our program has chosen to adopt the suggestions of Grimm, et al.:[1]
- We request that post-interview communications be limited to requests for objective information.
- Our faculty and staff will not personally respond to correspondence expressing thanks or volunteering ranking preferences. This is not to be taken to mean that our program lacks appreciation for our applicants’ interest generally or that a particular candidate is disfavored! Rather, we seek to minimize the possibility of misleading communication by limiting our correspondence to the exchange of objective information.
- If post-interview communication is required, it should occur via the program coordinator; the faculty have been requested not to directly respond to post-interview communications from applicants.
- To further safeguard our ethical standards, the program coordinator will log all post-interview communications.
Latest Revision: 10/5/22, Adam Wallace
[1] Lars J. Grimm, Carolyn S. Avery, and Charles M. Maxfield (2016) Residency Postinterview Communications: More Harm Than Good?. Journal of Graduate Medical Education: February 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 7-9.
