Question 1

What is Resident Insider?

Accepted Answer

Resident Insider is a platform that connects verified medical students with verified residents for anonymous, paid messaging. Students get honest, unfiltered advice about residency programs, and residents earn money for sharing their experience.

Question 2

Is it really anonymous?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your name, email, and personal details are never shared with the other side. Students and residents only see each other as "Verified Student" and "Verified Resident." We verify your identity during signup but never reveal it in conversations.

Question 3

Which degree tracks and specialties are supported?

Accepted Answer

Resident Insider covers two degree tracks:

Medicine (MD/DO) — all ACGME-accredited residency programs across every specialty listed on ERAS. Major specialties include Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Emergency Medicine, General Surgery, OB/GYN, Anesthesiology, Radiology, Orthopedic Surgery, Dermatology, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology (ENT), Urology, Plastic Surgery, Radiation Oncology, Neurosurgery, Pathology, and PM&R.

Podiatry (DPM) — all CPME-accredited programs nationwide.

Question 4

Is there a mobile app?

Accepted Answer

Resident Insider runs in your browser and is fully optimized for mobile — there's no separate App Store or Google Play download. For an app-like experience, open myresidentinsider.com on your phone and tap "Get the App" in the menu; it installs to your home screen with one tap.

Question 5

Where can I find match statistics?

Accepted Answer

We publish public match data for Medicine (MD/DO), Podiatry (DPM), and International Medical Graduates (IMGs) — updated annually. Each track has its own dedicated page: myresidentinsider.com/stats/mddo covers NRMP match rates, specialty competitiveness tiers, and a DO-senior breakdown; myresidentinsider.com/stats/dpm covers CASPR match data, the multi-year applicant trend, and fill rates; myresidentinsider.com/stats/img covers US vs Non-US IMG match rates, IMG-friendly specialties, and multi-year trends. Start at the Match Statistics hub at myresidentinsider.com/stats or jump straight to your track below.

Question 6

I signed up but never got the verification email. What now?

Accepted Answer

University and hospital email systems sometimes filter automated emails, even from senders configured correctly. First, check your spam or junk folder — that catches most cases. If it still hasn't arrived after a couple of minutes, click "Send a sign-in link instead" on the verification screen. That delivers a one-click sign-in link from a different template that routinely threads through institutional filters. As a last resort, click the "email support" link on the same screen — your email will be pre-filled with the info we need, and we'll verify you manually within a day.

Question 7

Who built Resident Insider?

Accepted Answer

Resident Insider was built by two practicing US attendings. We've each been on every side of the match: student, applicant, resident, now attending. We built this because we wished it existed when we were applying — the honest take on programs only happens behind closed doors, and that information shouldn't be reserved for whoever happens to know the right person. We stay anonymous for the same reason our residents do: anonymity is what makes the truth possible. Professional retaliation for honest advice is a real risk in medicine, and the trust model that protects our residents also protects us.

Question 8

What is the Resident Insider Weekly newsletter?

Accepted Answer

Resident Insider Weekly is our free, opt-in editorial newsletter — one short read each week on the "hidden curriculum": the things medical school and residency don't formally teach you. Every issue is written for residents — personal finance, contracts, insurance, tough conversations, and the lawsuits-and-risk part of the job no one warns you about — with students reading along to see what's coming. Subscribe in two ways: the signup card on the homepage, or the default-checked consent checkbox during platform signup (which you can uncheck if you don't want it). Sends come from newsletter@news.myresidentinsider.com — a separate subdomain from our transactional email, so unsubscribing from the newsletter never affects account, payout, or verification emails. Every issue includes a one-click unsubscribe link. Free, no ads, no third-party sharing of your email.

Question 9

How do I verify as a student?

Accepted Answer

Sign up with your .edu email and enter the verification code we send you. Select your school and year, create a password, and you're ready to start messaging residents.

Question 10

How much does it cost to message a resident?

Accepted Answer

$50 for a Standard message (3-day response window) or $75 for a Priority message (1-day response window). If the resident doesn't respond within the time window, you get a full refund. If a resident becomes unavailable, any pending questions are automatically refunded. Each message is one question, one answer. There are no subscriptions, no hidden fees, and no recurring charges — you only pay when you send a message. Years of your life. A fifty-dollar question.

Question 11

What can I ask a resident — and is anything off-limits?

Accepted Answer

Ask anything about the program and the training experience: culture, call schedule, autonomy, case and surgical volume, how the program treats its residents, fellowship placement, what they'd change, red flags — the honest, lived-experience things you can't find online. The one thing to keep out is personal medical or clinical advice; this is for program insight, not patient care. Residents can decline any question they'd rather not take, and you're refunded in full if they do, so there's no risk in asking something specific. Keep your own identifying details out of the question, too — anonymity protects both sides.

Question 12

Is using Resident Insider allowed by my school or the Match?

Accepted Answer

There's nothing improper about it. Talking to current residents to research a program is something applicants have always done — at conferences, through mutual friends, on interview day. Resident Insider just makes it anonymous, structured, and open to everyone instead of only whoever knows the right person. It has no connection to the NRMP Match algorithm, never touches your ERAS application, and involves nothing a program would ever see. Schools don't typically have rules about how you research programs, but if yours has a policy on outside services, it's worth a quick check.

Question 13

What if a resident's answer isn't helpful?

Accepted Answer

A few safeguards protect answer quality. Every answer must be at least 250 characters, so you won't get a one-line brush-off, and you choose who to ask partly on their displayed rating. After an answer arrives you have 7 days to rate it 1–5 stars, and those ratings carry weight: a resident whose average drops too low is warned, then reviewed by a real person, and residents who stay low-rated can lose their spot. Full refunds are reserved for when a resident doesn't respond, declines, or becomes unavailable — a delivered, substantive answer isn't refundable — but if an answer is genuinely off-topic or ignores what you asked, email support@myresidentinsider.com and we'll look into it.

Question 14

How will I know when my question gets answered?

Accepted Answer

We email you the moment a verified resident submits their answer — no need to keep refreshing your dashboard. The email comes from support@myresidentinsider.com, so whitelist that address (or check your spam folder) if you don't see it. You'll also get an email if your question is refunded for any reason — the resident declines, the response window expires, or their account becomes unavailable. Refunds are issued automatically to your original payment method and typically appear within 5–10 business days — the exact timing depends on your bank, not us. After the answer arrives, you have 7 days to rate the response from 1 to 5 stars from your dashboard. The rating row shows a clear countdown ("X days left to rate") so the deadline is visible — past 7 days the rating window closes.

Question 15

Can residents see who I am?

Accepted Answer

No. Residents never see your name, email, school, or any identifying information. They only see your question and that it came from a verified student.

Question 16

Can I message residents from any program?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can browse programs across any degree track and message any verified resident on the platform — you're never restricted to your own track. If the resident's degree differs from yours (e.g., you're a DPM student asking an MD/DO orthopedic resident), they may speak to their field generally rather than your specific track — and they can decline off-track questions at no cost to you.

Question 17

What if there are no residents at a program I'm interested in?

Accepted Answer

You can join the waitlist for any program that doesn't have a resident yet — just open the program and tap 'Join the Waitlist'. You'll receive an email the moment a verified resident from that program signs up. Speed matters when the email arrives — each resident can take only 3 pending questions at a time, so early movers get their questions in before the queue fills. Every email includes a one-click unsubscribe link, and the most requested programs get moved to the top of our recruitment list — you tell us where, we go get the insider.

Question 18

What if a resident already has pending questions from other students?

Accepted Answer

Each resident can have up to 3 pending questions at a time. If a resident's queue is already full, you'll see an "At capacity" notice on their profile before you start writing — no wasted typing — and if another verified resident at the same program has capacity, we'll point you straight to them with a one-click link. Otherwise queues typically clear within 1–3 days as residents answer (priority questions clear in 1 day, standard in 3 days). This cap keeps answer quality high — residents aren't buried under a wall of questions they can't thoughtfully get to — and it's why being early on a program's waitlist matters when a new resident joins.

Question 19

Can the platform help me decide which specialty to apply to?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your student dashboard has a Find Your Specialty tool: answer fourteen questions about how you want to practice — procedural mix, illness severity, weekly hours, schedule predictability, training length, research intensity, diagnostic ambiguity, team coordination, and more — and we rank twenty-four major MD/DO specialties against your stated preferences. Each match shows plain-English reasoning, cited data from NRMP, Medscape, ACGME, AAMC, and specialty societies, and explicit flags where a top match contradicts something you said. You can compare any three side by side. It's a reasoning tool, not an answer key — surface tradeoffs you might otherwise miss, then verify with people actually in the field. Available to MD/DO and IMG students; DPM students follow a different match (CASPR), so the tool is gated accordingly.

Question 20

Which specialties does Find Your Specialty cover?

Accepted Answer

All twenty-four categorical MD/DO residencies that account for >99% of NRMP, SF Match, and AUA Match positions — every primary specialty you can apply to directly from medical school through ERAS, from Internal Medicine and Family Medicine to Neurosurgery and Plastic Surgery. Smaller dedicated tracks — Child Neurology, Medical Genetics, Nuclear Medicine, Preventive Medicine, and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities — aren't included; they're real residencies, but they're typically chosen by students who already know that's where they're headed, not picked through cross-specialty comparison. Fellowship subspecialties (Cardiology, GI, Heme/Onc, Pulm/Crit Care, and the rest) are also outside the tool's scope — those come after residency, so they're not relevant to a Match-cycle decision. Combined programs like IM/Psych or IM/EM are dual-specialty paths; we cover both component specialties separately.

Question 21

I'm a DPM student. Can I research every podiatry residency program in one place?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your student dashboard has a Find Your Residency tool: browse every CPME-accredited podiatry residency program in the US — 226 programs total — organized by state. Each program shows its CPME-authoritative details (program type, authorized positions, accreditation status, program director, liaison, address, contact, next CPME evaluation) plus city economics for the program's location (cost of living from BEA Regional Price Parities and median 1-bedroom rent from HUD Fair Market Rents). Each program also shows anonymous externship ratings — pooled letter grades from verified DPM students who externed there (more on how those work below). The goal is one organized place to research programs instead of digging through CPME PDFs, hospital sites, and AACPM individually. Available to DPM students; MD/DO students have a separate Find Your Specialty tool that ranks specialties against their preferences.

Question 22

I'm a DPM student. How do the externship ratings work?

Accepted Answer

Externship ratings are anonymous, structured grades that verified DPM students leave for programs they've externed at, pooled into a per-program average on Find Your Residency. After a rotation you grade the program A–F across nine areas — surgical volume, case diversity, operative autonomy, clinic experience, teaching, didactics, facilities, culture & morale, and work-life — and answer one yes/no: whether you'd rank it. We pool everyone's grades into a per-program letter grade for each area, plus a "% Would Rank," so you see how a program landed with students who were actually on the ground.

It's fully anonymous: only the pooled averages and the number of externs are ever shown — never your name, and never your individual grades. A few rules keep the signal honest: only verified DPM students can rate; you can rate each program once (you can update or remove your own grade anytime); and you can rate up to ten programs total. Only the last two externship years count toward a program's average, so older grades roll off automatically and the signal stays current — each program shows which year the grades are from.

Treat it as a first impression, not a verdict — each grade reflects one extern's experience over a roughly one-month rotation, not Resident Insider's opinion. It's a strong starting signal; for the real inside story on a specific program, ask a verified resident who actually trains there.

Question 23

Is there a way to track my interviews and rank list?

Accepted Answer

Yes — two tabs work together. The Interviews tab is where you log invites, update their status, and add notes after each one. The Rank List tab pulls every program from your interviews and your rotation/externship debriefs into one place, lets you weight what matters and score each program (pre-filled from your debrief ratings), and builds a ranked order you can reorder by hand — flagging where your gut differs from the scores. Both are free, private, and visible only to you.

Question 24

Can I debrief my rotations and externships?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your student dashboard has a Rotations tab where you can capture each rotation while the experience is fresh — ratings across clinical and procedural/surgical exposure, education, environment, and lifestyle, plus a rank decision (Must Rank / Probable / Maybe / No) and a one-sentence gut feeling for each program. The questions adapt to your degree: DPM students get podiatry-specific fields like surgical case mix and hands-on scrub level; MD/DO students get specialty-conditional procedural exposure plus four quick flags on culture and safety. Everything stays private to you — fill it out after each rotation so you have real data when it's time to rank for the Match.

Question 25

Can the platform help me write my residency application emails?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your student dashboard has The Right Words — fill-in-the-blank email templates for the high-stakes moments of applying: requesting a letter of recommendation, interview thank-yous, letters of intent and continued interest, program-coordinator and faculty outreach, and a dedicated set for IMG applicants (observership and US clinical experience requests, visa-sponsorship inquiries, and mentorship outreach). Pick a template, fill in a few blanks, and copy it into your email. The sensitive ones — post-interview notes, letters of intent, second-look replies — carry a short note on how to stay inside the NRMP Match Code of Conduct, for example telling only one program it's your top choice and never asking or stating how you'll rank. They're deliberately fixed templates rather than AI-generated text, because the pre-vetted wording is what keeps them safe. Free to MD/DO and IMG students; DPM students follow a different match (CASPR), so it's gated to MD/DO and IMG.

Question 26

Where can I see key match dates and deadlines?

Accepted Answer

Your student dashboard has a Timeline tab that shows all key dates for your match cycle, auto-selected based on your degree. Medicine (MD/DO) students see the ERAS and NRMP timeline. Podiatry (DPM) students see the CASPR timeline. You can also view this on our public Match Statistics page under Resources or at myresidentinsider.com/stats.

Question 27

I'm an international medical graduate (IMG). Can I use Resident Insider?

Accepted Answer

Yes. IMGs can sign up using any email address and verify with a verification code. Select the 'International Medical Graduate (IMG)' option on the signup page under Medicine (MD/DO). Once verified, you have full access to message residents at any US program.

Question 28

How do I verify as a resident?

Accepted Answer

Sign up with your institutional email (.edu, hospital, or program email), enter the verification code, then provide your NPI number. After signing up, your dashboard prompts you to complete identity verification with a government-issued ID ($1.50 one-time fee, powered by Stripe) and connect a bank account for payouts via Stripe Connect. Your profile goes live to students only once both identity verification AND payouts setup are complete — this keeps the platform clean of half-onboarded profiles that couldn't actually answer questions. On top of the automated checks, every resident is also reviewed by name against their program's current roster — a human verification layer that automated checks can't replicate, and part of what keeps the platform genuinely resident-only. The full signup-to-earning-ready flow takes about 10 minutes. Spots are limited to 2 insiders per specialty program — if your program is full, you can join the waitlist. Personal emails (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are not accepted for residents.

Question 29

How much do I earn per message?

Accepted Answer

You earn $25 for every Standard message you respond to, and $38 for Priority messages. Payouts are initiated automatically after each answer and typically arrive in your bank account in about 5 business days. That accounts for Stripe's charge-clearing period (~2 days), the standard payout delay (~2 days), and ACH to your bank (~1 day). Same cadence for every answer. In some cases Stripe extends this window for new accounts under additional verification — if yours does, it's their standard process, not something on our end.

Question 30

What is The Lounge?

Accepted Answer

The Lounge is a private, off-the-record space inside Resident Insider where verified residents talk to each other peer-to-peer. There's a general room for whatever's on your mind, plus rooms for academics, careers, finance, wellness, and venting. There's also a room for interesting clinical cases — diagnostic puzzles, unusual presentations, and cases worth learning from, with strict PHI rules pinned at the top. And a Guides room — a curated library of plain-English career guides covering the major decisions and documents of training: contracts, student loans, money management, billing and coding, board certification, and more. New guides are added over time. MD/DO and DPM each have their own Lounge with the same room set and House Rules. Audience-segregated at the data layer — verified MD/DO residents see only MD/DO members, verified DPM residents see only DPM members, never the other. Every voice in the room has cleared the same verification you did — institutional email, NPI, government-issued ID, and payouts setup — so there are no bots, no throwaway accounts, and no students. That bar is also why moderation stays light: when every member has met it, the Lounge largely governs itself, and the House Rules (anonymity, patient privacy, mutual respect) are a quiet backstop, not a hovering presence. The Lounge unlocks automatically from your dashboard the moment your verification is complete, and medical students and visitors can never access it.

Question 31

Is The Lounge anonymous?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every member is assigned an automatic pseudonym in the format [Specialty] Insider R[PGY year]-[sequence number] — for example, "IM Insider R2-001" is the first internal medicine resident to enter the Lounge, who joined as a PGY-2. The components come from your verified profile (specialty + year), and the sequence number is permanent and per-specialty. You can't choose your handle and you can't change it — that's by design. A self-chosen handle ("MGHIM2027") could leak identity in two characters; an auto-generated one can't. Your real name, email, and program details are never shown to other Lounge members.

Question 32

How do I set up payouts?

Accepted Answer

From your Resident Dashboard, click 'Set Up Payouts' on the setup checklist at the top of the page (or under Settings → Payouts). Select 'Individual' as your business type, enter your personal details and bank account info. Setup takes about 3–5 minutes — this is the bank-account step of the roughly 10-minute end-to-end signup flow. It's powered by Stripe, so your financial info is never shared with Resident Insider. Once connected, payouts are initiated automatically after each answer. Funds arrive in your bank in about 5 business days, measured from the moment the student's payment clears through ACH settlement.

Question 33

How will I be notified about new questions and what other emails will I receive?

Accepted Answer

You get an immediate email the moment a student sends you a question, so you never have to check the dashboard proactively. If you haven't answered with 24 hours of runway left on the Standard (3-day) tier or 12 hours of runway left on the Priority (1-day) tier, we send one reminder email with the dollar amount waiting — never more than one nudge per question. You'll also receive: a rating email after each answer (with the student's 1–5 score), a payout confirmation when funds are sent to your bank, a heads-up 30 days before your account expires at the end of training, and account alerts if Stripe ever pauses payouts or your ratings need attention. Every email comes from support@myresidentinsider.com. No third-party sharing of your email, and no unsolicited marketing. The one piece of non-transactional email we send is the optional Resident Insider Weekly newsletter — opt-in only, with a one-click unsubscribe in every issue. If your institutional inbox isn't the one you check daily, you can route all of these to a personal email instead — Settings → Notifications on your dashboard. Login and identity verification stay tied to your institutional email; only the notifications switch over.

Question 34

Can my program find out I'm on here?

Accepted Answer

No. Your identity is completely anonymous. Students never see your name, and we never share your information with programs, hospitals, or anyone else. You can speak freely.

Question 35

Why is there a limit on residents per program?

Accepted Answer

We cap each residency program at 2 verified insiders to keep the platform exclusive. Fewer insiders per program means more messages directed to you and higher earnings. Important: the cap is per specialty program, not per hospital — at Johns Hopkins, for example, the Internal Medicine residency has its own 2-slot cap, the Psychiatry residency has a separate 2-slot cap, Emergency Medicine has its own, and so on. A large institution with 15+ specialties can easily support 15+ insiders total, just distributed across programs. If your specific program is full, you can join the waitlist; we email the next person in line in waitlist order when a slot opens, and the spot is reserved for 48 hours so you have time to verify before we move on to the next person. Your slot stays yours through your training; it opens to the waitlist only when your account expires at the end of training.

Question 36

I'm in a combined integrated IR/DR program. Which program do I sign up under?

Accepted Answer

Pick either one during signup — whichever you choose becomes your primary specialty and leads your profile, with the other listed right beneath it. Then email support@myresidentinsider.com after you're verified: for integrated Interventional Radiology/Diagnostic Radiology tracks, we'll activate you for both specialties at your institution by hand, so students searching either one can find you. One account, one verification, one set of earnings — visible in both rooms. Want the order switched later? One email does it.

Question 37

How does account renewal work?

Accepted Answer

Your account is active for the rest of your residency, based on the PGY year you enter at signup — a PGY-1 internal medicine account is active for 3 years, a PGY-2 general surgery account is active for 4 years, and so on. Each July 1, your PGY year automatically advances. Your account stays active through your full training — no action needed on your part. We email you a confirmation each July so you can flag any non-standard track (research year, gap, repeat, leave) by replying to support. If you've completed training (you reach the max PGY year for your specialty), your account expires naturally and the slot opens for the next cohort.

Question 38

Are fellows eligible to join?

Accepted Answer

Right now, Resident Insider is residents only — fellowship is not currently supported. Your account stays active through the entire span of your residency, then auto-deactivates July 1, at the end of your final training year — even if you're staying on at the same institution for fellowship. If you're currently in your final year of residency, you're still eligible to join now and earn for the rest of your training year — applicants ask a lot of useful questions of graduating residents about the program experience, fellowship application advice, and rotation realities.

Question 39

How do I update my profile information?

Accepted Answer

If you need to update your program, specialty, school, or other account details, contact support@myresidentinsider.com and we'll update it for you. For security and platform integrity, profile changes are handled manually by our team.

Question 40

Does this count as moonlighting?

Accepted Answer

Resident Insider is not clinical work — no patient care is involved. You're simply sharing your personal experience anonymously. However, some residency programs have policies regarding outside employment or paid activities. It is your responsibility to review and comply with your program's moonlighting and outside employment policies before participating.

Question 41

What if I get a question I don't want to answer?

Accepted Answer

You can decline any question. There's no obligation to respond, and declining won't affect your rating or standing on the platform. If a question is inappropriate or harassing, you can flag it and our team will review it immediately.

Question 42

What are the requirements for answering a question?

Accepted Answer

Standard messages must be answered within 3 days; Priority messages within 1 day. If you don't respond in time, the student receives a full refund. Answers must be at least 250 characters so students receive a thorough, meaningful response. You can have up to 3 pending messages at a time.

Question 43

How does the rating system work?

Accepted Answer

After you answer a question, the student has 7 days to rate your response from 1 to 5 stars. After 7 days the rating window closes — past that point your reputation on that answer is final. The student dashboard shows a clear countdown ("X days left to rate") so the deadline is visible. Your average rating is displayed on your profile, and you'll get an email each time you receive a new rating. Top-rated residents get more visibility and more messages, which means more earnings. If your average falls to 4.0 or below after 8+ ratings, you'll receive a warning email — a soft heads-up so you can self-correct, not a flag. If it drops to 3.5 or below, your account is flagged for admin review — your profile stays visible to students while a human admin, never a script, reviews your recent activity and reaches out before any action is taken; you can reply to that email to share context. We don't auto-deactivate based on ratings alone, since 8 coordinated low ratings can be griefing rather than real feedback. Quality answers pay off.

Question 44

What is an NPI number?

Accepted Answer

A National Provider Identifier (NPI) is a unique 10-digit number assigned to every healthcare provider in the US. It's used to verify that you are a licensed, practicing resident. You can find yours at npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov.

Question 45

My NPI verification is failing — what should I do?

Accepted Answer

Two cases are handled automatically — no action needed on your end. (1) "Practice location doesn't match program state" (e.g., you finished intern year in one state and moved to residency in another, but your NPPES LOCATION still shows the old state) — your account is automatically routed to our review team. (2) "No practice location on file" (your NPPES record only has a MAILING address, no LOCATION yet) — also auto-routed for review. In both cases you'll see a "Manual verification queued" message at signup and get an email within a day when approved, with the next steps to finish your account. If you'd rather speed things up, you can update your NPPES LOCATION address at nppes.cms.hhs.gov to match your current program's state — that lets the system verify you instantly without waiting for review. One more case: if your "NPI is older than a typical residency" (you're in a fellowship or sub-specialty training), email support@myresidentinsider.com with your situation and we'll verify you manually. And a quick note on taxonomy: a leftover "student" code on your NPI — very common right after Match, since programs can take weeks to update it and you have no control over it — does not hold you up at all. The system accepts it and verifies you normally. Still stuck? Email support@myresidentinsider.com — we'll help directly.

Question 46

How are taxes handled?

Accepted Answer

Residents are independent contractors. Stripe collects your tax information securely during payout setup and issues the appropriate IRS tax form if your earnings cross the applicable federal reporting threshold for the year. Resident Insider does not handle your tax reporting — Stripe manages it directly. Thresholds and forms change from year to year, so consult a tax professional for questions about reporting your earnings.

Question 47

What is the Contract Decoder?

Accepted Answer

The Contract Decoder is a tool for verified MD/DO and DPM residents that reads your first attending employment contract and explains it in plain English, clause by clause. Upload your contract (PDF or Word) and it lays out what each section means, what your specific terms actually say, and how they compare to what's common in physician employment contracts — flagging the clauses most worth a closer look, putting real dollar figures on what's at stake, and giving you the concrete questions to ask before you sign. You get the breakdown on-screen and as a downloadable PDF you can keep or hand to an attorney. It's built for a high-stakes moment that medical training never covers. The Contract Decoder is an educational tool, not legal advice — for advice on your situation, have a licensed attorney in your state review your contract.

Question 48

How much does the Contract Decoder cost?

Accepted Answer

Your first decode is free for every verified MD/DO or DPM resident. After that, each decode is a flat $50 — there's no subscription, and a paid decode is identical to the free one. The $50 is charged at checkout; if a decode fails or the file isn't a physician contract, it doesn't use up your decode, so you can try again at no extra charge. Decode credits never expire, and purchases are final.

Question 49

I'm a DPM resident. Can I research podiatry fellowships in one place?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your resident dashboard has a Find Your Fellowship tool: browse every ACFAS-recognized and CPME-accredited podiatric fellowship in one verified directory — filter by surgical focus, compare the structure and funding behind each program, and save a personal shortlist. Available to verified DPM residents.

Question 50

I'm an MD/DO resident about to look for my first attending job. Is there anything to help?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your resident dashboard has The Attending Leap — a toolkit for landing and starting your first attending job. It pairs two things. First, fill-in-the-blank email templates for the moments that matter: reaching out to groups and recruiters, requesting references, scheduling and following up on interviews, acknowledging and responding to offers, chasing your credentialing coordinator, giving notice, and a dedicated set for visa-holders. Second, a full residency-to-attending transition checklist you can tick off as you go, covering state licensing, your DEA registration, hospital credentialing and the separate payer-enrollment track, malpractice and tail coverage, and the financial and onboarding steps training never covers. The templates deliberately stay out of salary and contract negotiation — that's what the Contract Decoder is for — and the checklist points you to the right professionals (a licensed attorney, a tax or financial advisor, your GME office) rather than giving advice. Available to verified MD/DO residents.

Question 51

How do I know residents are real?

Accepted Answer

Every resident on Resident Insider goes through a rigorous verification process. Four automated layers: (1) institutional email verification, (2) NPI number verified against the federal NPPES registry, (3) NPI practice location matched to their selected program state, and (4) government-issued photo ID verified through Stripe Identity with full name cross-checked against the NPI registry. On top of that, we check every resident by name against their program's current roster, a human review that automated checks can't replicate. It's one of the most thorough verification flows you'll find on any medical platform.

Question 52

What information about me is public vs. private?

Accepted Answer

Public on your profile (visible to students browsing the directory): your residency program, specialty, your bio if you write one, and your overall rating. Private (collected only for verification, never shown publicly): your full name, NPI number, medical school, graduation year, and email address. Your PGY year is hidden by default and can be toggled on in your dashboard settings — see the next FAQ entry for details. About the bio: a short bio can be helpful for some students when deciding between two residents at the same program. Just keep it anonymous — don't include anything that could identify you (dates, hometown, specific research, etc.). Stripe handles your government ID and bank account details directly during signup; Resident Insider never sees them.

Question 53

How is resident anonymity protected at smaller programs?

Accepted Answer

Your PGY year is hidden by default on your public profile to protect your anonymity. You have full control — you can choose to show or hide your PGY year at any time from your Dashboard under Settings. Your name, email, and personal information are never shown regardless of this setting.

Question 54

Can residents see other residents on the platform?

Accepted Answer

Not their identities. Residents can see an aggregate count of how many insiders are at their own program — e.g., "You're 1 of 2" or "You're 2 of 2 — program at capacity" — so they know whether their slot is secure. But residents never see other residents' names, emails, profiles, or any personal details. Students can't see any resident identity under any circumstances. This protects resident anonymity at every level while still giving residents honest visibility into their slot status at their own program.

Question 55

Can I browse the platform without an account?

Accepted Answer

You can browse all programs by name, city, state, and specialty without an account. However, you must log in as a verified student to see which programs have active residents, view resident profiles, or send messages.

Question 56

How is my data protected?

Accepted Answer

All data is transmitted securely over HTTPS and stored with row-level security. Your personal information is never shared with other users. We only use your verification data to confirm your identity during signup.

Question 57

What email address sends Resident Insider notifications?

Accepted Answer

All transactional emails — account verification, new question alerts, answer notifications, rating updates, payout confirmations, refunds, and account reminders — come from support@myresidentinsider.com. If you use Gmail, Outlook, or a .edu inbox, adding this address to your contacts (or marking the first email as 'Not spam') prevents future notifications from landing in spam. We never share your email address with any third party. The only non-transactional email we send is the Resident Insider Weekly newsletter — opt-in only, with a one-click unsubscribe in every issue.

Question 58

Can I delete my account?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Students can delete their account from the bottom of their Messages dashboard. Residents can delete their account from the Settings tab in their Dashboard. Your profile, email, and name are permanently removed — your identity is fully erased from the platform. Past Q&As (question text, answer text, and any ratings) stay on the platform with your identity severed. This keeps things fair to the other party: residents don't lose the ratings they earned when a student later leaves, and students keep the answer histories they paid for when a resident later leaves. This action cannot be undone.

Question 59

What happens to my contract after I upload it to the Contract Decoder?

Accepted Answer

Your contract is never stored. Our server reads it in memory only to extract the text, runs the analysis, then discards the file and its text — nothing is written to disk or any storage. The only thing we keep is the plain-English breakdown, encrypted and locked to your account so no one else can ever see it. You can delete any analysis instantly, every analysis auto-deletes 30 days after you run it, and deleting your account removes them all. (The Decoder is an educational tool, not legal advice — for advice on your situation, have a licensed attorney in your state review your contract.)

Frequently Asked Questions

General

For Students

For Residents

Privacy & Safety