Each year, more than 15,000 U.S. medical students—along with more than 18,000 graduates of foreign medical schools and schools of osteopathic medicine—take part in the National Residency Matching Program, vying for a small number of positions in the United States. In this keenly competitive environment, they seek every advantage they can get. Based on more than two decades of experience preparing candidates for residency programs, John Canady has developed a concise practical guide to making one’s way through the maze of residency applications and interviews.

Guiding residency applicants past the pitfalls in all aspects of the process, 101 Tips to Getting the Residency You Want includes sections on tried-and-true methods for senior year planning, the importance of networking, tips for interviewing, practical advice for carefree travel, and guidelines for follow-up to out-of-town rotations and interviews. This guide covers the do’s and don’ts that will maximize each applicant’s chances and exposes the common blunders that can ruin an application in spite of the best grades and test scores.

John Canady, M.D., is a professor in the departments of Surgery and Otolaryngology at the University of Iowa, where he is also the faculty advisor for the Iowa Surgical Interest Society. He is president-elect of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.