EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2015-2016 Thread

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12 invites, 4 waitlists, 14 rejections, 26 no response.
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Hey Guys! First-time poster from the SW and starting to interview on Thursday... I just have a question and would like your opinion.

What are the pros/cons that you see from asking to "observe" for a couple of hours at the ED after the interview? I just want to get a sense of the ED at those programs that I have not done an away rotation at and I'm seriously interested in. Thanks.
 
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Pros: many

(helps to get an idea of the acuity, patient population, flow, resident strength, resident autonomy, ancillary services, consulting services, EMR, etc..)

Cons: none

(well besides having to stay there for another few hours)
 
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10 invites, 3 wait lists, 6 rejections, 23 haven't heard from
 
25 invites, 4 rejections, 4 waitlists, 17 no response
 
Alright folks, need some opinions on this pickle I am in: I have an interview scheduled 8 days from today that I cannot attend due to $$$ limitations (flight + hotel at reasonable distance > $600). How bad will it look if I cancel this late? I declined previous invites 2-4 weeks in advance of the scheduled dates, so I do not know what the consequences of cancelling this late will be.
 
There is no consequences other than not allowing someone else to get the spot. EM is competitive enough where someone will still make that interviews regardless of it it's 8 days or or two weeks (which is obviously more preferable). Just email them now and than follow up with a phone call tomo if you don't get a response from them. Be honest and explain and there will be no repercussions lol!!
 
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Cinematographer said:
Alright folks, need some opinions on this pickle I am in: I have an interview scheduled 8 days from today that I cannot attend due to $$$ limitations (flight + hotel at reasonable distance > $600). How bad will it look if I cancel this late? I declined previous invites 2-4 weeks in advance of the scheduled dates, so I do not know what the consequences of cancelling this late will be.
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8 days >7 days > 5 days > ...hopefully you get the point.

Cancel yesterday. Since that's not an option, cancel now.
 
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Cinematographer said:
Alright folks, need some opinions on this pickle I am in: I have an interview scheduled 8 days from today that I cannot attend due to $$$ limitations (flight + hotel at reasonable distance > $600). How bad will it look if I cancel this late? I declined previous invites 2-4 weeks in advance of the scheduled dates, so I do not know what the consequences of cancelling this late will be.
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I think that 1 week is generally the limit for what is considered acceptable in terms of canceling. Many programs on interview broker allow you to cancel up until 7 days before. It's obviously not preferred, but I don't think there will be any consequences such as them contacting your home program to complain about you, etc. Just do it ASAP! They should be able to find someone to fill the spot, either someone local or someone with fewer options.
 
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Saminto said:
I think that 1 week is generally the limit for what is considered acceptable in terms of canceling. Many programs on interview broker allow you to cancel up until 7 days before. It's obviously not preferred, but I don't think there will be any consequences such as them contacting your home program to complain about you, etc. Just do it ASAP! They should be able to find someone to fill the spot, either someone local or someone with fewer options.
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Agreed. 2 weeks is ideal but 1 week is still acceptable.

Plenty of people out there with <10 interviews who either live locally or would be willing to cough up the money for one extra interview.
 
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alpinism said:
Agreed. 2 weeks is ideal but 1 week is still acceptable.

Plenty of people out there with <10 interviews who either live locally or would be willing to cough up the money for one extra interview.
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Ha, yea at this point I would be willing to cough up money for an extra interview.
 
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Cinematographer said:
Alright folks, need some opinions on this pickle I am in: I have an interview scheduled 8 days from today that I cannot attend due to $$$ limitations (flight + hotel at reasonable distance > $600). How bad will it look if I cancel this late? I declined previous invites 2-4 weeks in advance of the scheduled dates, so I do not know what the consequences of cancelling this late will be.
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When you look back on this, $600 is a drop in the bucket. If you're at all interested, go on the interview.
 
coachB said:
When you look back on this, $600 is a drop in the bucket. If you're at all interested, go on the interview.
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The kid is going on 24 interviews, just a hunch but not going to one interview isn't going to hurt him all that much lol
 
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sitting on 9 invites on 13 apps

turned down two of them

I'm only a moderately competitive guy, so I'm still confused why all you guys apply to dozens of programs. The competitiveness of EM this year is artificially created. Y'all apply for 50 programs and now everyone is trying to get an interview at every program and wondering why they aren't getting all the interviews they want. If every US MD was capped at 20 apps or so getting interviews would be easy.
 
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HoosierdaddyO said:
The kid is going on 24 interviews, just a hunch but not going to one interview isn't going to hurt him all that much lol
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Going on 13, actually. Cancelled all other invites well in advance; it was this last one in particular that I was unsure because of (1) airfare + no accomodations provides, (2) not a lot of interest in the program, and (3) came off the waitlist for another interview that I am more excited interested in attending.

Thanks everyone for the advice.
 
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AlmostAnMD said:
sitting on 9 invites on 13 apps

turned down two of them

I'm only a moderately competitive guy, so I'm still confused why all you guys apply to dozens of programs. The competitiveness of EM this year is artificially created. Y'all apply for 50 programs and now everyone is trying to get an interview at every program and wondering why they aren't getting all the interviews they want. If every US MD was capped at 20 apps or so getting interviews would be easy.
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But the chance of matching would be the same. And that's what counts.

The more interviews attended overall by an applying class, the longer the rank lists of both applicants and residency programs will be, and programs will go farther down their rank list to fill. If you artificially reduce the number of interviews attended, everyone's rank list will be smaller, but no extra spots will open up.

Is there a neurotic lemming-race to more and more interviews fueled by unreasonable anxiety? Perhaps. Is EM becoming more competitive? Perhaps. Are the people "hogging" all the interviews keeping others from matching? No.
 
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How guilty should one feel having to call the same PC 3 times in the span of 2 weeks trying to reschulde an interview for the 3rd time bc my dates keep changing. Part of me says if only they had interview broker this wouldn't be an issue...but still is it expected or am I overdoing it (my excuse is that there are only so many Wednesdays you can interview on and dates change as you hear from other places)???
 
Having talked with a person in the selection committee for a similar situation ... Anything past 2 is overkill. She said "it sends the message that we are not a priority and only a place holder until something better comes along". :-/
 
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Interview broker should be mandated by the ACGME for every program!!!!!!!!!!!

Public disclosure: interview broker paid me a dollar to post that :)!
 
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HoosierdaddyO said:
Just kinda curious where people are in the spectrum of interviews lol?? I figured it could be fun and since its been kinda quiet recently why the heck not! At 9 categorical EM and 3 EM/IM interviews to date, still waiting to hear from 20 plus programs.
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6 invites, 2 wait lists, 9 rejections (6 from Cali schools, no love from the Golden State) and 33 to hear from.
 
Hey guys,

Quick question- Just received a less then stellar grade from one of my away rotations. Weird because the comments were actually pretty good. I will obviously not be submitting a SLOE from this program since I already have enough SLOE's anyway. Will programs see an updated copy of my transcript prior to the match, or will it be the same transcript that was uploaded in September?
 
They will see the same transcript that you submitted with your application...so you should be in the clear ;)
 
Any ideas when waitlist invites are sent out? There are a couple of programs I was interested in interviewing at that I never heard from...
 
Anyone know if there is a general time period most programs begin to sent waitlist invites?
 
A program coordinator at a place I'm waitlisted said that if this year is like past years, movement will likely occur in December. I assume this will be for spots in January.
 
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I feel like I'm at the top for most programs I haven't heard anything from (33/50). You guys think that spending my whole life in one city (Born, raised, college, med school), is a soft flag for programs far away? BTW I'm in a state with one EM program.
 
HouseMD2016 said:
I feel like I'm at the top for most programs I haven't heard anything from (33/50). You guys think that spending my whole life in one city (Born, raised, college, med school), is a soft flag for programs far away? BTW I'm in a state with one EM program.
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Did you do any aways?
 
What's the consensus....thank you email to just the PD after an interview, or to each and every interviewer?
 
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cyanide12345678 said:
What's the consensus....thank you email to just the PD after an interview, or to each and every interviewer?
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Curious as well...stuck between:
1) Just the PD
2) Every interviewer
3) To the PC (but addressing and thanking each interviewer within the same email to the PC)
 
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Do some programs waitlist everyone rather than send out rejections? In applying to medical schools, I remember some schools would either not reject any applicant until the end of the application season or would waitlist interviewees instead of rejecting them.

Just wondering if being waitlisted means I actually have a chance.
 
Have an absolute field day with the brand new ERAS preliminary data:
Up 58 USMD applicants from last year.
Up 33 DO applicants from last year
Up 5 IMG Applicants from last year
Average number of programs applied:44ish up from 40 last year lol!!

https://www.aamc.org/services/eras/stats/
 
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Cookiecrumbles ....
Im currently a surgery resident ...reapplying to EM. Going through this the first time... I never heard from about 15 of my invites. No yay or nay. I think some programs don't send out rejections at all.
 
I think emailing is half-assing it, IMO

but I'm the kind of person that either full asses or no asses. Not half assing.

So I'm not doing any cards/emails for all but one of my programs. My #1 I hand-wrote detailed thank you notes and delivered them in person to the coordinator the next day.

Not saying this was the right or wrong thing to do, but it's, um, the thing to do that I did.
 
I'm just curious to see what some of your thoughts are out there. Step 1 was 233, step 2 was 245. I had honors at home program, high pass from away rotation. got honors on surgery, peds, IM. High pass on ob/gyn, psych. Grades were good. A couple publications, 2 first author (not EM), won several research awards and had good long term extracurriculars that are interesting to the EM world. From the mid west.
Never heard back from places like Akron general, Iowa, Wisconsin, Alabama... what have your experiences been with these programs? just curious to hear your thoughts!
 
JohnRhom said:
I'm just curious to see what some of your thoughts are out there. Step 1 was 233, step 2 was 245. I had honors at home program, high pass from away rotation. got honors on surgery, peds, IM. High pass on ob/gyn, psych. Grades were good. A couple publications, 2 first author (not EM), won several research awards and had good long term extracurriculars that are interesting to the EM world. From the mid west.
Never heard back from places like Akron general, Iowa, Wisconsin, Alabama... what have your experiences been with these programs? just curious to hear your thoughts!
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Im similar stats (slightly lower step 1): from CO, haven't heard from anywhere in the Midwest except UMKC and reject from NE. All my interview love has been on the east coast
 
JohnRhom:

I have similar stats except not the research prowess that you have :). Applied to 34 in basically the SE + Texas (I'm from the SE): 19 invites, 4 rejections, 1 wl, never heard from other 10. Alabama is the only one that you listed that I applied to; I did get an invite.
 
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This process is very arbitrary, indiscriminant and random. Just accept it and move on, and kick ass on the ones you have!!!
 
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mmich369 said:
JohnRhom:

I have similar stats except not the research prowess that you have :). Applied to 34 in basically the SE + Texas (I'm from the SE): 19 invites, 4 rejections, 1 wl, never heard from other 10. Alabama is the only one that you listed that I applied to; I did get an invite.
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JPS too? Didn't hear from them either!
 
StephBee said:
Im similar stats (slightly lower step 1): from CO, haven't heard from anywhere in the Midwest except UMKC and reject from NE. All my interview love has been on the east coast
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I feel like this could be why I didn't get many responses yet. I'm west coast, and specifically did not apply to East Coast. That's where a lot of people at my school are getting most of their interviews. As for Midwest specifically, I got wl at NE and Arkansas, and invites from two MO schools.
 
JohnRhom said:
I'm just curious to see what some of your thoughts are out there. Step 1 was 233, step 2 was 245. I had honors at home program, high pass from away rotation. got honors on surgery, peds, IM. High pass on ob/gyn, psych. Grades were good. A couple publications, 2 first author (not EM), won several research awards and had good long term extracurriculars that are interesting to the EM world. From the mid west.
Never heard back from places like Akron general, Iowa, Wisconsin, Alabama... what have your experiences been with these programs? just curious to hear your thoughts!
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This process if a crap shoot. It is very random, that's what I've learned. Your application is likely buried under a pile, never to be seen again. Both my step 1 and step 2 were much higher with top quartile from a very good reputation school. But up until Oct 31st I had a dry streak of not getting many interviews (had 7 by then). I went ahead and contacted programs just to get them to take a look at my application again. Sitting on 16 invites now. Literally received interviews within days of contacting programs. Received more interviews in the first week of november after contacting programs than I did during ALL of october. If a program over looks an application the first time, they'll almost never go back to it, unless you give them reason to take a look again.
 
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