Personal statement. Letters of recommendation. MSPE. Medical school transcript. ERAS application. Your social media presence. All are important components of the residency application. "Wait a minute," you say. "Did I read that right? Social media presence?"
Some residency programs are now assessing an applicant's social media presence, and possibly using the information in the residency selection process. Researchers at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, led by Dr. Carl Schulman, surveyed 600 medical school admissions officers and residency program directors. Nine percent reported using social networking websites in the selection process. The study was published in the Postgraduate Medical Journal.
“There is no question in my mind that some percentage of medical admissions officers and residency directors do go online and Google and Facebook people to see what they’ve got up on their personal sites,” said Dr. Henry Sondheimer in a Kaiser Health News article. Dr Sondheimer is the senior director of medical education projects at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
In 2008, we raised this as a potential issue in an article written for the Student Doctor Network, and offered advice to residency applicants on how to manage their online presence.
