Residency Central started as a personal project. I built it as the husband of a (now) resident who spent months trying to figure out which programs were actually worth applying to — and kept running into the same problem: there just wasn't good information out there.
Spreadsheets passed around between med students existed, but they were inconsistent, often outdated, and completely unmoderated. Beyond that, it mostly came down to word of mouth — whoever you happened to know, whatever they happened to have heard. For a decision that shapes the next several years of your life and career, that didn't feel like enough.
So this site exists to do something simple: give medical students a single place to read honest, moderated reviews from actual residents — culture, work-life balance, education quality, compensation, schedules — and make that information easy to find and compare across programs and specialties.
It's still early, and it'll keep growing. If you're a resident, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review for your own program — the next applicant trying to make this decision will thank you.