I recommend that if you have not heard from medical school, residency or fellowship programs to which you’ve applied, that you contact the institutions to inquire about your status.

After offering that advice to a client recently, she emailed me this week to say she obtained an interview in a competitive specialty with a call. Another said she received two preliminary interviews with simple emails. (I recommend calls over emails, however, because it’s hard to ignore someone on the other end of a phone line.

Still, if you simply can’t bring yourself to call, an email can be effective.) In years’ past I’ve seen this phone call strategy work for fellowship and medical school interviews as well.

Of course, if the school or program explicitly asks in written materials that you don’t contact them about your status, then calling is not a good idea.