Competition 2008

[GasPrincess]

Just a quick question to all the PD's, resident's, and students out there.

It seems just skimming all the posts on here that Anesthesiology seems to dip up and down in terms of competitiveness. I'm wondering what everyone's take is on 2008.
1)More, less, the same???
2)What makes this year different?
3)What can we as candidates do to improve our chances during the interview season?

I don't know that this will help me sleep at night, but I'm just curious.

Good luck to all of us!

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[amyl]

the couple of places i have heard about from rotating there myself or via friends rotating there seem to suggest that the number of applications is way up even from last year. where i am rotating now a record number of inbreds want anesthesiology according to the students i am rotating with. at my own school record numbers of people want anesthesiology. only one place have i heard gossip that the candidates are better, most places i have heard gossip about is that the numbers of apps are up. and wayne state that usually has a spot or two specifically for DOs is not accepting any DOs this year.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I would guess that the number of applications may be higher, but the number and quality of applicants should be close to last year.

 

[ozzie20]

one school i called said they have a total of 460 applicants for something like 6 spots. Another school said pretty much the same thing. so, given that there are really only around 600 spots in the country for gas, it seems like there are a LOT more applicants than there are spots available. I can't say whether or not there are more quality applicants or not, because lets face it, we can't ALL be in the top 10% of our class, and its not like the top 10% of every class in the nation is going for gas. I'm sure its a good mix of everything, just a lot of it.

 

[lord_jeebus]

one school i called said they have a total of 460 applicants for something like 6 spots. Another school said pretty much the same thing. so, given that there are really only around 600 spots in the country for gas, it seems like there are a LOT more applicants than there are spots available. I can't say whether or not there are more quality applicants or not, because lets face it, we can't ALL be in the top 10% of our class, and its not like the top 10% of every class in the nation is going for gas. I'm sure its a good mix of everything, just a lot of it.

Actually, there are more than 1200 spots.

 

[lane]

one school i called said they have a total of 460 applicants for something like 6 spots. Another school said pretty much the same thing. so, given that there are really only around 600 spots in the country for gas, it seems like there are a LOT more applicants than there are spots available. I can't say whether or not there are more quality applicants or not, because lets face it, we can't ALL be in the top 10% of our class, and its not like the top 10% of every class in the nation is going for gas. I'm sure its a good mix of everything, just a lot of it.

uh, there were 1,264 spots last year. 66 USMGs did not match. so unless there is a huge swell in the number of people who are applying this year, the odds of matching should still be pretty good. it seems more likely that each applicant is simply applying to more programs, but it may be a mixture of the two factors.

 

[ozzie20]

sorry, my bad, i was going off of a nrmp match data list, but you guys are probably right.

 

[lane]

sorry, my bad, i was going off of a nrmp match data list, but you guys are probably right.

in 2005 the NRMP document matchoutcomes.pdf listed 1283 positions
in 2007 the NRMP document chartingoutcomes2007.pdf listed 1264 positions

not sure why they decided to cut the number in half in an official document...

 

[fakin' the funk]

the couple of places i have heard about from rotating there myself or via friends rotating there seem to suggest that the number of applications is way up even from last year. where i am rotating now a record number of inbreds want anesthesiology according to the students i am rotating with. at my own school record numbers of people want anesthesiology. only one place have i heard gossip that the candidates are better, most places i have heard gossip about is that the numbers of apps are up. and wayne state that usually has a spot or two specifically for DOs is not accepting any DOs this year.

This is the same thing people said last year. And guess what? Maybe a tad more competitive. Maybe more applications. Mean Step 1 score 220. Over 1500 total applicants for over 1200 spots.

My conclusions:
it's not that competitive
don't believe the hype about application #'s

 

[GasPrincess]

Chances seem good then. I'm surprised that more people aren't applying to Anesthesiology. Its only the best field in ALL of medicine.

This is the same thing people said last year. And guess what? Maybe a tad more competitive. Maybe more applications. Mean Step 1 score 220. Over 1500 total applicants for over 1200 spots.

My conclusions:
it's not that competitive
don't believe the hype about application #'s

 

[Pilot Doc]

sorry, my bad, i was going off of a nrmp match data list, but you guys are probably right.

They usually split the PGY1 and PGY2 spots into separate categories. You only looked at one.