Family Medicine Residency Interview Invites 2015-2016

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especially relevant to anyone who applied to NYPH-Columbia's family med program: http://www.aafp.org/news/opinion/20151019guested-nypfmresidency.html

tl;dr - Columbia made the decision to suspend their family medicine residency and fire all of their family medicine faculty, but reversed the decision 36 hrs later.
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I can't believe how quiet family med has been. My guess is that November and December will be unbelievably busy.
 
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DoctorDontStop said:
I can't believe how quiet family med has been. My guess is that November and December will be unbelievably busy.
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In the spirit of confidentiality I did not add to the list because I wanted to remain anonymous. I have no idea who monitors these forums.
That being said the list is far from complete.
I aplied to over 100 fm, im, psych mostly fm
I have heard back from about 50 schools for fm dont know exact number
So far have 38 fm iv scheduled and most are not on this list.
Almost all of my interviews came out mid sept and early oct basically right after I handed in my app and after deans letters were released. This seems to be the case every year from my understanding.
Last week was very quiet got 2 invites only. After the week deans letters were released, I have heard back from schools less and less.
So I would say that this list is not complete and should not be used as your indicator of actually how many schools have sent invites.

Also to give every one hope I have horrific step 1 scores and failedstep 1.
Only applied to schools allowing step 1 failures (exception my own school) plus met cutoffs. Also avoided top tier and University programs except my own school
Out of about 50 schools who have repkied so far onky got rejected by about 8 didnt count exactly.

calling programs and emailing them and begging your atte b dings to out in a good word helps......got me 2 invites last week
 
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38 interviews scheduled ?!?! I'm assuming you're not possibly planning on attending all of those, are you?
 
Menacer said:
38 interviews scheduled ?!?! I'm assuming you're not possibly planning on attending all of those, are you?
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I plan to attend them all. 38 FM interviews plus some IM and psych inteviews
You learn something new for each interview that helps you calibrate for the next one.
Stats for me aren't that great for independent apps 20+ interviews for 90% chance.. who knows what could happen.

The interviews I scheduled in Jan I may not attend since they were reach schools + very far away
 
playingfrombehind said:
In the spirit of confidentiality I did not add to the list because I wanted to remain anonymous. I have no idea who monitors these forums.
That being said the list is far from complete.
I aplied to over 100 fm, im, psych mostly fm
I have heard back from about 50 schools for fm dont know exact number
So far have 38 fm iv scheduled and most are not on this list.
Almost all of my interviews came out mid sept and early oct basically right after I handed in my app and after deans letters were released. This seems to be the case every year from my understanding.
Last week was very quiet got 2 invites only. After the week deans letters were released, I have heard back from schools less and less.
So I would say that this list is not complete and should not be used as your indicator of actually how many schools have sent invites.

Also to give every one hope I have horrific step 1 scores and failedstep 1.
Only applied to schools allowing step 1 failures (exception my own school) plus met cutoffs. Also avoided top tier and University programs except my own school
Out of about 50 schools who have repkied so far onky got rejected by about 8 didnt count exactly.

calling programs and emailing them and begging your atte b dings to out in a good word helps......got me 2 invites last week
Click to expand...
You an AMG???
 
Im a prev AMG grad
If I were img I dont think I would have gotten any iv at all with my record
 
That's awesome that you have had such a positive response to your application, and go on as many interviews that time/resources allow for, however there is one issue that your case raises (and as do other posts across the interwebs). People are putting way too much emphasis on these matching outcome reports and program surveys that are put out by the NRMP. I don't think they're intended to provide us with a magic number of interviews to target before we can absolutely guarantee ourselves of a match. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but are we not limited to 20 entries on our overall rank list?

Regardless, I'm sure there is a point of diminishing returns once you have more than 20-25 interviews when it comes to maximizing chances of a match. 38 interviews for FM just seems indicative of borderline neuroticism (along with interviews for IM/Psych? I believe there is data that shows chances of a match are decreased if you rank 3+ specialties.)

Like I said, congrats on your success and keep doing what you're doing, I'm just questioning the utility of the time/resources/effort you're putting into potentially attending 40-45 interviews.
 
Menacer said:
That's awesome that you have had such a positive response to your application, and go on as many interviews that time/resources allow for, however there is one issue that your case raises (and as do other posts across the interwebs). People are putting way too much emphasis on these matching outcome reports and program surveys that are put out by the NRMP. I don't think they're intended to provide us with a magic number of interviews to target before we can absolutely guarantee ourselves of a match. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but are we not limited to 20 entries on our overall rank list?

Regardless, I'm sure there is a point of diminishing returns once you have more than 20-25 interviews when it comes to maximizing chances of a match. 38 interviews for FM just seems indicative of borderline neuroticism (along with interviews for IM/Psych? I believe there is data that shows chances of a match are decreased if you rank 3+ specialties.)

Like I said, congrats on your success and keep doing what you're doing, I'm just questioning the utility of the time/resources/effort you're putting into potentially attending 40-45 interviews.
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I guess it is a diff story if you are a full time med student (m4) then alot of interviews may be unncessary.
In my case I am not a full time M4 so my full-time job since Oct has been preparing for IV and interviewing.
NRMP states on their website that there it is up to their discretion whether to charge you for excess ranking - they say on their FAQs that they may or may not charge you and warn you not to rank places you haven't interviewed at.
 
Unless you are couples matching, 38 interviews is straight up selfish..
 
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Has anyone discovered a way to organize the information in a spread sheet for each residency? Any suggestions would be appreciated!!!
 
Anyone here a NON-US IMG receiving interviews?

Also, from experience, anyone in the past received interviews in January?

Thank you..!
 
@whatyoutalkingfor

I'm a Canadian Carib grad in need of a J1 visa, and I've received a handful of interviews thus far. Still holding out hope for a few more but it seems like a pretty competitive season. I've been told to not expect the majority of my interviews till Nov-Dec given my profile by people who've been through the process before.
 
@Menacer

Same here man Canadian IMG from Carribean (4th year)

Just wondering my stats are
Steps 220s and pass on CS 1st. Is this average for this year from what you've heard?

Cheers
 
Hopefulness said:
Has anyone discovered a way to organize the information in a spread sheet for each residency? Any suggestions would be appreciated!!!
Click to expand...
Google sheet so you can access it anywhere, 4 tabs.

1. Tab 1 is "Schedule", your scheduled interviews in calendar format. List weeks through January. Print this and carry it around so you can move quickly when you get an invite. Scribble notes on it.
YhcPpdC.png

2. Tab 2 is "Pending", the list of programs applied to that you haven't heard from yet. Rows get moved to Tab 3 "Acked" as you hear from programs.
hm7ZLbJ.png

3. Tab 3 is "Acked" (short for they acknowledge your existence), the list of programs that have said "hang on", "you're invited", or "no". This is where I put my program-specific info so I can do ranking. This one I sort in various ways to see what's going on. "Rank" column is gut feel partially based on "Rationale" column.
wOtDwn5.png

4. Tab 4 is "Travel".
f2RfU0p.png


Everything else is in email where it belongs, such as reservations, interview invites etc.
 
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DrMidlife said:
Google sheet so you can access it anywhere, 4 tabs.

1. Tab 1 is "Schedule", your scheduled interviews in calendar format. List weeks through January. Print this and carry it around so you can move quickly when you get an invite. Scribble notes on it.
YhcPpdC.png

2. Tab 2 is "Pending", the list of programs applied to that you haven't heard from yet. Rows get moved to Tab 3 "Acked" as you hear from programs.
hm7ZLbJ.png

3. Tab 3 is "Acked" (short for they acknowledge your existence), the list of programs that have said "hang on", "you're invited", or "no". This is where I put my program-specific info so I can do ranking. This one I sort in various ways to see what's going on. "Rank" column is gut feel partially based on "Rationale" column.
wOtDwn5.png

4. Tab 4 is "Travel".
f2RfU0p.png


Everything else is in email where it belongs, such as reservations, interview invites etc.
Click to expand...
 
Is there a "number" of interviews that seems good for matching in family medicine residency? How can you find out how many interviews each residency offers?
 
Applying next year and I was wondering if anyone would be willing to PM me their experiences on the interview trail? I'm a US M3 with an average step 1 score and no red flags. I'll be couple's matching so I intend on applying all over the country. Would be grateful for even brief impressions of programs!
 
residencyhopeful16 said:
its now been a week out from one of my interviews at a place I would really like to go. Received an email from the PD this morning saying that she hopes I'll find the ideal fit for a residency program, and not to hesitate to email with any questions. Does this mean I don't have a chance at this place? I read it basically as an employer having interviewed a potential candidate and deciding to tell the candidate best of luck in their future because he won't be hiring them. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

See the thread from earlier with "...nail in the coffin?" in the title
 
residencyhopeful16 said:
its now been a week out from one of my interviews at a place I would really like to go. Received an email from the PD this morning saying that she hopes I'll find the ideal fit for a residency program, and not to hesitate to email with any questions. Does this mean I don't have a chance at this place? I read it basically as an employer having interviewed a potential candidate and deciding to tell the candidate best of luck in their future because he won't be hiring them. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm missing something, but why would this email be a bad thing?
Sounds like a friendly email that the director is sending out so you can feel comfortable following up with any questions.

No need to read too deeply in to it.
 
@AMEHigh--just wondering about the possibility that it was a passive aggressive way of letting me know that I would not be ranked/ranked high (although I thought the interview went okay), since normally rejection letters/emails/etc. end with a similar phrase of 'you're not right for this job, and we hope you find the right one for you'. or something along those lines (best wishes for finding the ideal program/fit for you, etc.)
 
residencyhopeful16 said:
its now been a week out from one of my interviews at a place I would really like to go. Received an email from the PD this morning saying that she hopes I'll find the ideal fit for a residency program, and not to hesitate to email with any questions. Does this mean I don't have a chance at this place? I read it basically as an employer having interviewed a potential candidate and deciding to tell the candidate best of luck in their future because he won't be hiring them. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Do they send this emaik to allmapplicants?. So far on my iv all pd play everything close to the chest.
It is really hard to know what ppl are actually thinking
 
playingfrombehind said:
I plan to attend them all. 38 FM interviews plus some IM and psych inteviews
You learn something new for each interview that helps you calibrate for the next one.
Stats for me aren't that great for independent apps 20+ interviews for 90% chance.. who knows what could happen.

The interviews I scheduled in Jan I may not attend since they were reach schools + very far away
Click to expand...

I assume that you had applied last year but didn't match. Did you get many interviews last year?

How did you get so many interviews this time? What did you do different?
 
GUYS.

PDs interview about 10x as many applicants as there are spots. 90% OF INTERVIEWEES MATCH SOMEWHERE ELSE.

Accept this reality, as the PDs have. The well-wishes from a PD take the odds into account.

On interview day the PD has at least 8 candidates on his/her mind as he/she is wishing you well. He/she has most likely not yet even seen the feedback on you from the rest of the day.

Emails to those who have completed interviews are most likely done in bulk and the text is probably what the PD has been using for many, many years.

I hope you find your ideal residency match. <<-- this is a kindness. This is the nicest, most generally supportive thing a PD can say as you leave, or in a followup email.

You're going into Family Medicine. Your PD is in Family Medicine. You will probably see him/her at conferences for the rest of your life. If you do not match at this PD's program, the PD is smart to leave you with a kindness because he/she could very likely see you again, and/or maybe work with you in the future.

The PD only controls whether you are ranked by his/her program. The PD does not control where you match.

An idea for what to do with your overthinking and anxiety: get into the practice of saying nice things to the cashier at Starbucks, at the airline counter, on the phone. This might desensitize you to how foreign it seems when somebody is arbitrarily nice to you.

Or, maybe the PD is a dick, and is being passive aggressive in not quite actually telling you you're not being ranked. Be thankful you don't have to work for him/her for the next 3 years.
 
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50% of FM applicants match to their top spot. 80-90% match to their top 1 or 2 spot. Nearly 100% match in their top 5. Relax. If this program is very appealing to you make sure to send a thoughtful thank you note to the PD and any others you interviewed with or spent time with on your interview day.
 
Are there any IMGs reading? I only have 4 set in stone FM interviews. 1 pre-match psych interview. 1 waitlist FM interview I figure I'll never hear back from. So, 4 real interviews. How is this season going for IMGs? Is this normal?
 
twistyturny said:
Are there any IMGs reading? I only have 4 set in stone FM interviews. 1 pre-match psych interview. 1 waitlist FM interview I figure I'll never hear back from. So, 4 real interviews. How is this season going for IMGs? Is this normal?
Click to expand...

How many places did you apply to? I have some friends who said basically 10% of the places you apply will be how many interview invites you get...
 
DrMidlife said:
GUYS.

PDs interview about 10x as many applicants as there are spots. 90% OF INTERVIEWEES MATCH SOMEWHERE ELSE.

Accept this reality, as the PDs have. The well-wishes from a PD take the odds into account.

On interview day the PD has at least 8 candidates on his/her mind as he/she is wishing you well. He/she has most likely not yet even seen the feedback on you from the rest of the day.

Emails to those who have completed interviews are most likely done in bulk and the text is probably what the PD has been using for many, many years.

I hope you find your ideal residency match. <<-- this is a kindness. This is the nicest, most generally supportive thing a PD can say as you leave, or in a followup email.

You're going into Family Medicine. Your PD is in Family Medicine. You will probably see him/her at conferences for the rest of your life. If you do not match at this PD's program, the PD is smart to leave you with a kindness because he/she could very likely see you again, and/or maybe work with you in the future.

The PD only controls whether you are ranked by his/her program. The PD does not control where you match.

An idea for what to do with your overthinking and anxiety: get into the practice of saying nice things to the cashier at Starbucks, at the airline counter, on the phone. This might desensitize you to how foreign it seems when somebody is arbitrarily nice to you.

Or, maybe the PD is a dick, and is being passive aggressive in not quite actually telling you you're not being ranked. Be thankful you don't have to work for him/her for the next 3 years.
Click to expand...
This is great advice! I'll be beginning with my #2, "kind of in their" residency FM department in <8 months. I'm glad I was cordial because I know most of these academics. If not, well, it'd be awkward. I agree with the "say nice things" advice to anyone. Not to devalue please/thank you/you're welcome, but it's second nature now. If I DON'T say it I feel awkward. People are being courteous. Don't read into things.
 
twistyturny said:
199
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That sucks. Not sure if that's normal or not, but I'm guessing it depends on your stats and where you're applying. I know the people I have met have better board scores than I do and got fewer invites... :( best of luck though
 
are there any more interview invitations coming?:(
 
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medimedimedi said:
are there any more interview invitations coming?:(
Click to expand...

I got 2 invites today and I think 3 last week. As well as a few rejections. So I do think programs are still going through apps, making decisions and sending out invites.
 
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I received one today from UAZ South in Tucson, been crickets otherwise
 
Good lord, it's been years since I've been in one of these threads....

I'm a GP that took hiatus from residency and I'm back in the fray this year. I'm at the point where I can't remember how far into the interview season we are. Only one interview so far, 10 rejections and 25 pending. I'm freaked that I haven't heard from 25 programs yet... it's starting to feel late.

Well, at least one in good ol' colorado...
 
Timmythemic22 said:
Good lord, it's been years since I've been in one of these threads....

I'm a GP that took hiatus from residency and I'm back in the fray this year. I'm at the point where I can't remember how far into the interview season we are. Only one interview so far, 10 rejections and 25 pending. I'm freaked that I haven't heard from 25 programs yet... it's starting to feel late.

Well, at least one in good ol' colorado...
Click to expand...

I applied to a different specialty last year and didn't hear back from the vast majority of programs.

I did get a family interview invite over the weekend, but still probably have 40 or so programs that I heard absolutely nothing from. I don't really expect to hear anything and I assume no news is bad news unfortunately. But it seems like programs are (surprisingly) still sending out invites here and there. I did personally reach out to a few programs via email expressing interest and heard back from a few of them.

Good luck!
 
AMEHigh said:
I applied to a different specialty last year and didn't hear back from the vast majority of programs.

I did get a family interview invite over the weekend, but still probably have 40 or so programs that I heard absolutely nothing from. I don't really expect to hear anything and I assume no news is bad news unfortunately. But it seems like programs are (surprisingly) still sending out invites here and there. I did personally reach out to a few programs via email expressing interest and heard back from a few of them.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
Thank you so much... are people no longer sending out rejection letters? Am I just potentially going to hear nothing? Wow, things have changed. I hope it's not so.
 
Timmythemic22 said:
Thank you so much... are people no longer sending out rejection letters? Am I just potentially going to hear nothing? Wow, things have changed. I hope it's not so.
Click to expand...

I think it depends on the program. Last year I applied to a lot of programs and I'd say I got maybe 10 or so rejection letters. That was probably out of 70 programs.

I think the general advice though is that by mid-November interview invites are pretty sparse unfortunately. I'd definitely reach out to a few programs if I were you.
 
AMEHigh said:
I think it depends on the program. Last year I applied to a lot of programs and I'd say I got maybe 10 or so rejection letters. That was probably out of 70 programs.

I think the general advice though is that by mid-November interview invites are pretty sparse unfortunately. I'd definitely reach out to a few programs if I were you.
Click to expand...

So things really have changed. I guess it's an over-inflated sense of self, but I guess I've felt like we've put the effort and the money into applying to their institution, at the least we can get a crappy form letter saying we didn't make the cut. Thank you for the hard reality though.

I've never been good with the calls. Is it just to call the residency office and inquire on the status of my application? I've always been funny with the wording.
 
Timmythemic22 said:
So things really have changed. I guess it's an over-inflated sense of self, but I guess I've felt like we've put the effort and the money into applying to their institution, at the least we can get a crappy form letter saying we didn't make the cut. Thank you for the hard reality though.

I've never been good with the calls. Is it just to call the residency office and inquire on the status of my application? I've always been funny with the wording.
Click to expand...

I've only sent emails. I emailed the program directors and cc'd the program coordinator. I put specific reasons why I was interested in their program and highlighted one of my strengths.

It did lead to 2 interviews...they directly replied back. And 2 direct rejections about why I wasn't being considered. I sent 6 of these emails that I was truly interested in.

For other programs you could call just to see if they're still reviewing applications.
 
AMEHigh said:
I've only sent emails. I emailed the program directors and cc'd the program coordinator. I put specific reasons why I was interested in their program and highlighted one of my strengths.

It did lead to 2 interviews...they directly replied back. And 2 direct rejections about why I wasn't being considered. I sent 6 of these emails that I was truly interested in.

For other programs you could call just to see if they're still reviewing applications.
Click to expand...

Thank you friend, I will do this.
 
Ask and you shall receive. I got an interview and a rejection last week and one more interview today. Programs are still sifting.
 
medimedimedi said:
Ask and you shall receive. I got an interview and a rejection last week and one more interview today. Programs are still sifting.
Click to expand...

Though this is a simple statement, it still gives me a modicum of hope. Thank you.
 
I heard from one last week. Was a little surprised actually, as I figured most places were done by now... I know several places that filled all their interview slots within one week of sending invites...
 
I'm still getting rejections from FM programs. Got an email from a program that said I'm on their hold list as of now.
 
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