Comparison of web-based and face-to-face interviews for application to an anesthesiology training program: a pilot study.

ObjectiveThis study compared admission rates to a United States anesthesiology residency program for applicants completing face-to-face versus web-based interviews during the admissions process. We also explored factors driving applicants to select each interview type.MethodsThe 211 applicants invited to interview for admission to our anesthesiology residency program during the 2014-2015 application cycle were participants in this pilot observational study. Of these, 141 applicants selected face-to-face interviews, 53 applicants selected web-based interviews, and 17 applicants declined to interview. Data regarding applicants' reasons for selecting a particular interview type were gathered using an anonymous online survey after interview completion. Residency program admission rates and survey answers were compared between applicants completing face-to-face versus web-based interviews.ResultsOne hundred twenty-seven (75.1%) applicants completed face-to-face and 42 (24.9%) completed web-based interviews. The admission rate to our residency program was not significantly different between applicants completing face-to-face versus web-based interviews. One hundred eleven applicants completed post-interview surveys. The most common reasons for selecting web-based interviews were conflict of interview dates between programs, travel concerns, or financial limitations. Applicants selected face-to-face interviews due to a desire to interact with current residents, or geographic proximity to the residency program.ConclusionsThese results suggest that completion of web-based interviews is a viable alternative to completion of face-to-face interviews, and that choice of interview type does not affect the rate of applicant admission to the residency program. Web-based interviews may be of particular interest to applicants applying to a large number of programs, or with financial limitations

Dermatology residency selection criteria with an emphasis on program characteristics: a national program director survey.

Background. Dermatology residency programs are relatively diverse in their resident selection process. The authors investigated the importance of 25 dermatology residency selection criteria focusing on differences in program directors' (PDs') perception based on specific program demographics. Methods. This cross-sectional nationwide observational survey utilized a 41-item questionnaire that was developed by literature search, brainstorming sessions, and online expert reviews. The data were analyzed utilizing the reliability test, two-step clustering, and K-means methods as well as other methods. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in PDs' perception regarding the importance of the selection criteria based on program demographics. Results. Ninety-five out of 114 PDs (83.3%) responded to the survey. The top five criteria for dermatology residency selection were interview, letters of recommendation, United States Medical Licensing Examination Step I scores, medical school transcripts, and clinical rotations. The following criteria were preferentially ranked based on different program characteristics: "advanced degrees," "interest in academics," "reputation of undergraduate and medical school," "prior unsuccessful attempts to match," and "number of publications." Conclusions. Our survey provides up-to-date factual data on dermatology PDs' perception in this regard. Dermatology residency programs may find the reported data useful in further optimizing their residency selection process

Minority Student Perceptions of Professional Pscyhology Application Packets: A Qualitative Study

This article reports the results of a qualitative study designed to determine issues salient in Black and Hispanic American students\u27 review and evaluation of program-application packets in professional psychology. The study served as an extension to the Yoshida et al. (1989) quantitative investigation. Students interested in pursuing doctoral studies in counseling or school psychology (N = 22) served as the sample. The qualitative methodology incorporated a think-aloud procedure and semistructured interviews. A theme analysis of transcribed interviews identified both major and minor themes central to participants\u27 evaluation of the packets. Major themes included financial aid, program requirements and course descriptions, demography of the student body, and the quality and clarity of application material. Specific suggestions on developing an application packet to send to inquiring prospective students are put forth. It is recommended that such a packet could serve as a costeffective minority-recruitment strategy

Prospective Minority Students\u27 Perceptions of Application Packets for Professional Psychology Programs: A Qualitative Study

This article reports the results of a qualitative study designed to determine issues salient in Black and Hispanic American students\u27 review and evaluation of program-application packets in professional psychology. The study served as an extension to the Yoshida et al. (1989) quantitative investigation. Students interested in pursuing doctoral studies in counseling or school psychology (N = 22) served as the sample. The qualitative methodology incorporated a think-aloud procedure and semistructured interviews. A theme analysis of transcribed interviews identified both major and minor themes central to participants\u27 evaluation of the packets. Major themes included financial aid, program requirements and course descriptions, demography of the student body, and the quality and clarity of application material. Specific suggestions on developing an application packet to send to inquiring prospective students are put forth. It is recommended that such a packet could serve as a cost-effective minority-recruitment strategy

ASSESSING NEW-GRADUATE APPLICANTS: ACADEMIC PERCEPTIONS AND AGRIBUSINESS REALITIES

This study empirically compares the level of importance assigned to the knowledge, skills, and experiences of applicants for entry-level positions by members of the agribusiness community and how these criteria were perceived by chairpersons of departments of agricultural economics. Chairpersons had a good understanding of criteria important to employers in evaluating applicants and how they prioritize these criteria. Communication and interpersonal skills were ranked as the most important criteria by both groups. Industry members assigned lower levels of importance for formal international training, an attribution largely shared by academic counterparts.agribusiness, agricultural economics, curriculum, international education, international exchanges, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Management as a system: creating value

Boston University School of Management publication from the 1990s about the MBA programs at BU, aimed at prospective MBA students

Pareto Optimal Matchings of Students to Courses in the Presence of Prerequisites

We consider the problem of allocating applicants to courses, where each applicant has a subset of acceptable courses that she ranks in strict order of preference. Each applicant and course has a capacity, indicating the maximum number of courses and applicants they can be assigned to, respectively. We thus essentially have a many-tomany bipartite matching problem with one-sided preferences, which has applications to the assignment of students to optional courses at a university. We consider additive preferences and lexicographic preferences as two means of extending preferences over individual courses to preferences over bundles of courses. We additionally focus on the case that courses have prerequisite constraints: we will mainly treat these constraints as compulsory, but we also allow alternative prerequisites. We further study the case where courses may be corequisites. For these extensions to the basic problem, we present the following algorithmic results, which are mainly concerned with the computation of Pareto optimal matchings (POMs). Firstly, we consider compulsory prerequisites. For additive preferences, we show that the problem of finding a POM is NP-hard. On the other hand, in the case of lexicographic preferences we give a polynomial-time algorithm for finding a POM, based on the well-known sequential mechanism. However we show that the problem of deciding whether a given matching is Pareto optimal is co-NP-complete. We further prove that finding a maximum cardinality (Pareto optimal) matching is NP-hard. Under alternative prerequisites, we show that finding a POM is NP-hard for either additive or lexicographic preferences. Finally we consider corequisites. We prove that, as in the case of compulsory prerequisites, finding a POM is NP-hard for additive preferences, though solvable in polynomial time for lexicographic preferences. In the latter case, the problem of finding a maximum cardinality POM is NP-hard and very difficult to approximate

The Nursing Faculty Shortage: Public and Private Partnerships Address a Growing Need

Provides an overview of the shortage of nursing program faculty and summarizes promising strategies and collaborations between states and educational systems to reduce barriers for potential faculty, promote curriculum reform, and expand capacity