The Lore of Admissions Policies: Contrasting Formal and Informal Understandings of the Residency Selection Process

Abstract

Purpose: The selection process forresidency positions is sometimes seen as being``opaque'' and unfair by students, and can be asignificant source of student stress. Yetefforts to clarify the process may not havehelped reduce student stress for a number ofreasons. This paper examines the nature of theknowledge that students possess and describesthe implications for future efforts ataddressing this knowledge.Methods: The current study assessedthe perceptions of three groups (selectioncommittee members, faculty advisors, andstudents) at a single institution using twoevaluation methods (ranking of a context-freelist of variables, and an assessment of thelegitimacy of 20 ``common language'' opinionstatements comparing the variables).Results: For the context-freeranking of variables, ICC's were moderatelyhigh for all three groups (0.479–0.584) andthe disattenuated correlations were very high(0.872 to 0.946). By contrast, when morecontextually relevant opinion statements wereevaluated, the ICC's were much morevariable (less than 0 to 0.279), the correlations (where calculable) were lower(0.449 to 0.547), and inconsistencies of opinionregarding particular variables became apparent.Conclusions: To properly understandthe true nature of the opinions that are beingheld by the various groups it is necessary touse statements that reflect the vernacular ofthe ``rumour mills'' that are the common sourceof student information.