Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Due to the continued impact of coronovirus 2019 (COVID-19), residency programs were advised to offer virtual interviews in place of traditional in-person interviews for the 2021 match recruitment season. As a result, many pathology residency programs offered preinterview virtual open-house events to meet prospective applicants before the interview season. This article aims to understand applicants' perspective on those events during the residency recruitment season of 2020 to 2021. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional survey-based study involving 95 pathology residency applicants. RESULTS: Our results demonstrated that applicants generally have a positive perception of open house events; 91% found virtual open-house events beneficial, 63.2% attended open-house events for programs they were not considering applying to. Considering the high number of offered virtual open house events, 17% of applicants felt overwhelmed by attendance and 30% felt obligated to attend. CONCLUSIONS: This brief report demonstrates the generally positive impact of these events.