How many programs to apply to?

[fourthyear]

How many programs should a general surgery applicant be applying to? I know this varies based on competetiveness of program, but any general guidlines?

I'm an "average" applicant - solid but not top-of-the class grades, below national avg step 1 score (hoping for higher step2), lot of extracirriculars and some, but not lots, of research experience - only 1 publication.

Any comments appreciated, thanks.

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[carddr]

Applied to 20 programs...took 3 interviews and ranked all 3, and accepted top choice, which was my last interview but did consider all three as fitting the bill for me.

 

[droliver]

I would reccomend 20-30 applications (unless you have some kind of unbreakable ties to one area for personal reasons). I would also try to interview as many places as you can comfortably do. Only doing 3 or so interviews could really come back & bite you

 

[carddr]

Concur with droliver's advice... I was interviewing other specialties as well, like ortho, so had to give some consideration to other interviews. Have heard some folks do around 12 interviews.

 

[droliver]

I think most people schedule 10-15 interviews, some of which you might cancel as you get near the end - you really get mentally fried & tired from the travel after a while. If you doing the east-west commutes too it can get very expensive & hard to coordinate your trips to do multiple interviews on a given trip

 

[dr.evil]

I applied to around 25, luckily got interviews to all of them, and interviewed at 8 places. I ranked 7 of them. After interview #5, I was tired of interviewing.