Interview Week

Mondays

On the Monday nights before RTT interview days, the RTT side of our program hosts a virtual pre-interview social. Applicants will receive details via email.

Tuesdays

On Tuesdays, RTT holds virtual interviews via Thalamus in the mornings. On the evenings before Seattle interview days, residents from our five Seattle sites hold virtual socials.

Seattle’s optional Zoom socials start at 6:00 pm PST. This more casual event is an opportunity to meet residents and ask questions about the Seattle side of the program in an informal atmosphere. Partners, family, and children (pets as well) are welcome to participate! The hosting resident will send you more information on how to log in closer to the date.

Wednesdays

We hold Seattle interview days on Wednesday mornings. Here’s the exact breakdown for what the day will look like:

You will log into Thalamus a little before 7:25 am Pacific time. Use a computer and your favorite Internet browser to log in to https://thalamusgme.com/. The Thalamus app does not have all the features like the web version does.

1. Click the “Schedule” button in the top menu. Under our interview day, find the first event, Program Director Welcome, and click the “Join Meeting” button. This is when Julie, our program director, will give you an overview of our residency.

2. Now it’s time for the interviews. Between 8:25 am and 12:45 pm, you will have one or two* 40-minute interviews, each with a panel consisting of one faculty member and one second- or third-year resident from different clinics. Each Carolyn Downs resident will be joined by a Carolyn Downs staff member, so those panels will have three interviewers.

   But how do you log into each interview?? The Thalamus schedule page is your all-in-one roadmap. For each segment of the day, the Thalamus schedule gives you the video link you need.

   • *Number of Interviews: Applicants who also have a Rural Training Track interview day will have one 40-minute interview on their Seattle interview day, usually in the 8:25 or 9:20 time slot. Applicants only considered for Seattle sites will have two interviews.

   • Optional Spanish Question: If you note on ERAS that your Spanish fluency is good, advanced, or native, one of your interviewers will offer to ask you the supplemental Spanish fluency assessment question.

   • Zoom Home Base: In the downtime between your interviews, we invite you to go back into the Zoom link used for the Program Director Welcome. This Zoom room will be our virtual home base for the day. You’ll be able to chat with other applicants and one of the program staff, and residents and faculty will be popping in whenever they get the chance.

   • The downtime between your interviews is also an opportunity to watch our virtual tours and faculty intros. You will be better prepared for your interviews if you’ve watched these videos.

3. The day ends with an optional Q&A session with Julie, our program director, running from 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. This is a great chance to ask questions in real time—instead of messaging over email!—especially for things that you weren’t able to ask residents and faculty during your interviews or at the resident social.

Fridays

It’s been our experience that many applicants wish to be considered for more of our Seattle clinic sites after learning about them during interview day. You are welcome to submit (and re-submit!) your clinic preferences anytime throughout recruitment season until January 22*.

*For more guidance and details around rank, please visit the Rank List page.

And that’s it! We all wish we could meet you in person, but hopefully this virtual version of the day is at least half as fun =)