The crisis in psychiatric residency recruitment shows no signs of abating in the near future. Competition between and among residency programs for applicants serves only to affect the distribution of trainees. More pressing to the field is the need to recruit more medical school graduates into the specialty.Virtually everyone in academia and in freestanding programs is increasingly pressured to generate either salary or institutional support. This pressure, unfortunately, appears to have adversely affected the availablility and perhaps the interest of full-time teachers for medical student training programs. The recommendations presented here for residency training directors to enhance recruitment are therefore more critical now than they were five years ago.These recommendations are consistent with the strategies of national planning groups for residency recruitment, translated into a local level of implementation. The training director should be actively involved in medical student pursuits at his or her own institution, including didactic, clinical, and extracurricular activities. He or she should organize recruiting affairs such as psychiatry career days. The directors in a region stand to benefit from collaborative activities. National involvement of the training director has a positive influence on recruiting from the home institution and others. Collaboration with the chair, the dean, and hospital administrators is essential for molding an environment in which successful recruiting is possible.These are time-tested and time-worthy activities. They do not require excessive preparation, and they provide a meaningful range of interactions with students and colleagues that ensures a continuous and beneficial involvement with our most critical applicant pool.Abstract Teaser