Originality and the Resident Interview

To the Editor.—  I initially read with a smile the light-hearted satirical piece by Dr Shwayder¹ in regard to interviewing residents. Apparently, he had just finished a round of interviews, and he was bored with the repetitiveness of the answers to his questions. Having interviewed applicants for dermatology residency positions, I recognized the pat answers he listed, and I feel certain interviewers from coast to coast shared the chuckle.However, note that these pat answers are solicited by our pat questions. The fault of the redundancy in these interviews does not lie with the applicants. They spend hundreds to thousands of dollars traveling to these sessions to vie for residency positions. They, too, are wary of the same questions and answers.Granted, the answers to the questions listed are important, but, actually, the idea of sending his questionnaire with applications may not be so farfetched. As we interviewers