How does interview scheduling work?

[JACO22]

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Can I, for example, plan right now to schedule my interviews(in a specific region,ie Los Angeles) for the first two weeks of January? or do they restrict the dates you can interview during.

Again, I'm applying for radiology

 

[Jim Picotte]

They certainly restrict the dates. That was the biggest problem with applying to radiology this year. I'd get the interview, call and get a choice of 2-4 dates for most programs. Most radiology programs only interview on a few select days. I even had some conflicts and just wasn't able to attend all the interviews. I know that Penn only offers one interview date (well it's a 2 day interview) and that's all. I didn't apply to California, but I interview at programs starting around Mid November and my very last interview was around the beginning of February. Was very difficult. Although the transitional year, prelim positions were extremely flexible and I even did some phone interviews for these programs. Good luck.

 

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

Depending on the place, they'll give you a choice of 1-10 or more interview dates. Also depends on when you get the invite, the ealier the better. I was able to get all 4 of my west coast radiology interviews as well as 4 transitionals in the first 2 1/2 weeks of January.

Here's a tip if you are planning on doing a lot of interviews (I did 20 radiology and 10 transitional/prelim). Your best interviews will most likely be in the middle, numbers 4-10. The reason I say this is that I felt early on, I was getting used to the whole process. I scheduled places I wasn't as interested in first (late November). In early December, I had my best interviews, I was still excited and not as tired of giving the same answers over and over, but I wasn't as nervous. Then, in January (when I unfortunatly scheduled my top 2 choices), I was so tired and worn out that I really had to try hard to seem excited. I got into one of the programs I interviewed in December, so it may have been a factor.