Hi gang-
Got my first 3 categorical surgery interview invitations since Friday- I'm very excited about it. They all gave me a few dates to choose from and asked for me to respond ASAP. I definitely want to go to all of them; I am confused, however, about what is the best way to go about scheduling them. For example, I applied to a few in North Carolina which is at least 10-12 hours from where I live; if I could hit a few on the same trip, that'd be great; I could really use to save a few bucks. Should I wait to hear from some more places before setting up a specific date? In the meantime, is it appropriate to e-mail something back along of the lines of, "Thank you, I am looking forward to interviewing, and will let you know the best date as soon as my schedule permits." What do you guys think? Any other helpful hints about scheduling/setting up interviews?

Thanks!

2003doc,
I am having the same problem. I received two interview invitations, one on the west coast and one on the east coast. I went ahead and scheduled interviews with each of them, but I don't know how I am going to schedule other interviews, assuming I get a few more. I wonder how flexible these programs are - will they let me rearrange my interview dates if get other invites nearby but for different dates?

It is completely appropriate to ask places what their interview days are ahead of time even before you hear back on your interview. These are established well in advance (at least here - our first day is November 3). Many of the larger programs do not usually do interviews outside of their given days I don't think, it just gets logistically hard to do for them & arrange people to interview you.