ORMS

Tips:

1. Time is of essence!  Start contacting potential Residency programs as soon as possible. ORMS will list the unfilled Residency programs on its website and will send out a list of unmatched candidates to the Residency Coordinators.  The list that the Residency Coordinators receives will include the resident applicant's name, mailing address, phone number, email address, gender, date of birth, Optometry school and U.S. citizenship.  A staff optometrist at your current externship or one of the doctors who wrote a recommendation letter for you may be able to offer some valuable insight about the remaining unfilled Residency programs.
2. Do not waste time!  If you are going to inquire at a program, send your CV and letter of intent along with your inquiry to the Residency Coordinator, as well as any other accompanying application materials to the Residency Coordinator (i.e., recommendation letters, NBEO scores, transcript, etc) as soon as possible.  A significant delay in transferring these documents may cost you.  Some of the residency sites that you originally applied to will have your materials and be more than willing to forward this information onward, depending on your relationship with the staff there (i.e., if you did a rotation there and know the OD well).  If you need to forward letters of recommendation, it is best to notify the doctors who wrote your recommendations as soon as possible to let them know they might need to pass along any information requested to additional programs.  While it is good to "feel out" a program before deciding to take the plunge and actually apply, the frequent exchange via email or phone can cost time if other applicants are sending their entire applications already, reducing the administrative time and review on behalf of the Residency Coordinator.  Being proactive rather than passive can really make a difference, as it may also communicate how strong of a desire you have to do a residency.
3. There are no explicit rules with the post-match process.  It is up to the discretion of the Residency Coordinator at the unfilled site to determine the selection process as he/she sees fit.  This may or may not include an interview in person or over the phone.  The Residency Coordinator may not necessarily wait for all of your application paperwork to arrive to make a decision, or the Residency Coordinator may schedule a round of interviews over the phone or ask to meet you in person.  It is first come, first served, so as soon as a Residency Coordinator has decided to offer a position, he/she will.
4. If offered a position, and you accept verbally, your verbal acceptance is a binding agreement that you are committing to and may not back out of as this is the same binding agreement that applies in the match.  It would be appropriate to notify the other programs where you inquired that you have now matched, and to notify ORMS so they can forward your application materials and remove your name from the applicant Pool List.