It's unfortunate that things like this have a way of happening in a system that's supposed to be fair to everyone involved. In another thread, I posted that while I had gotten some non-committal statements from a department chair via an e-mail correspondence, I, for one, am glad that no programs have deliberately contacted me and given me "a line." I think that the potential for events like this to change the non-biased nature of the match process (like the cases that we have mentioned above) can be both favorable and detrimental to a candidate. The fact that the latter can occur is enough to recognize the importance of the rules and regulations governing match violations.
In the waiting room during one of my interview sessions, a particular program's extension of a contract to an applicant outside of the match was discussed at length, and I have to admit, there was more than one person who felt, "Wow, he's so lucky." In reality, occurrences like those do nothing but hurt all of us in this fair and impartial system.
I'm both glad and sorry that people have heard from programs. On the one hand, I know that it can alleviate much anxiety about one's worth and value, and that of all of the hard work that undoubtedly went into getting this far. On the other hand, I hope that it is taken as just that, a "pat on the back," and not something to be acted upon. Rank programs as you would have should you never have heard from anyone, because unless they're handing you a contract to sign (which raises other issues), their words don't mean anything.
