Interview Scheduling Process
Interview Scheduling is closed for 2024 CASPR.
Consult the Interview Scheduling User Guide for detailed instructions for managing your interviews.
Interview Scheduling User Guide
1
Set Up Your Interview Events
Starting at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on December 4, 2023, COTH member programs can log in to the NMS Match System to set up their interview types, and available dates and times for each type of interview. Programs attending CRIP must set up their interview dates in accordance with their CRIP section number. Programs that are not participating in CRIP may not conduct interviews before January 17, 2024.
Programs that want to schedule different kinds of interviews with their candidates (e.g., an initial interview and a callback interview; an in-person interview and a virtual interview; a one-on-one interview and a group reception), or want to interview different groups of applicants separately (e.g., PMSR/RRA separate from PMSR), can set up a different interview type for each kind of interview.
2
Select Candidates
Applicants that are selected for an interview are referred to as interview candidates. Before sending invitations, programs must add the applicants they want to interview onto their list of interview candidates in the NMS Match System.
To add an applicant to your list of interview candidates, go to Your Applications page and update the review status of an applicant to Selected for Interview. Alternatively, go to the Candidates Tab on the Interviews page and add an applicant to your list individually, or import a csv file of applicant emails.
Programs can use the NMS Match System to send out interview invitations, rejections, and notifications of schedule changes to applicants on their list of interview candidates.
3
Send Invitations
COTH member programs send interview invitations to their interview candidates using the NMS Match System.
Note: Programs must log in to the NMS Match System and send interview invitations to their interview candidates themselves. Invitations are not sent automatically to all applicants by the system.
The NMS Match System gives programs flexibility on the timing of sending invitations, the group of recipients that will receive invitations, and the types of interviews to which the recipients are invited. For example, programs can send a first batch of invitations to their most desired candidates and decide to send a second batch of invitations to additional candidates once they know which of their most desired candidates have scheduled interviews. Programs may also choose to send invitations to all candidates for initial interviews, and then subsequently send invitations for callback interviews to a subset of their candidates at a later time. Programs may also choose to send invitations inviting candidates to both a one-on-one interview and a group reception in the same invitation.
Once interview invitations are sent, candidates schedule (and can reschedule) themselves into available timeslots in real-time. Each program and applicant can view a printable interview itinerary which shows their consolidated interview schedule.
Applicants cannot make new bookings or make changes to a booked event on or after the lockout date.
Communication Guidelines
You may freely discuss any matter with an applicant and both the program and the applicant may express a high level of interest in each other.
A program may voluntarily inform an applicant that it intends to rank the applicant. Similarly, an applicant may voluntarily inform a program that they intend to rank the program. However, neither the program nor the applicant may ask or prompt the other side for this information.
Furthermore, neither programs nor applicants may solicit or disclose information about rank positioning. For example, it is prohibited to make statements like "I will rank you first" or "You are at the top of my list".
