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[DermViser]

Has this happened to anyone else...I was offered an interview and when I went to sign up all the available spaces where filled (mind you this was the day after I got the invite). The school is saying there is no error if it's full it's full. I don't understand sending out more invites than spaces.

It's bc people have smartphones and sign up immediately. It's now a "You snooze, you lose!" game. Your school is correct.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

It sucks for sure, but it's a known thing that many programs do this.

Which is why most schools advise you to respond immediately.

I set up text-forwarding on my gmail account so that I got a text whenever I got an invite, and I then would respond as quickly as possible. I also never emailed (unless there was no other known way to contact the program) and always called, as I'd heard stories of people emailing and then not hearing back for days.

I think the longest I waited to reply was like 2 or 3 hours, and that was b/c I was scrubbed in when the alert came. And when I called I got the last spot on the day I wanted - not sure I would have even been able to make the interview had I not gotten that day! (*And that's where I ended up matching so thank goodness I made it there...)

 

[Dral]

This was a big deal when I was applying as it was right when smart phones were hitting the scene...thus those with them had a distinct advantage.

Follow SouthernIMs advice and hope that what happened doesn't happen again.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

I guess I don't understand offering more interviews than positions available....

I imagine the logic behind it is somewhat like overbooking airplanes or hotels.

 

[DermViser]

And when I called I got the last spot on the day I wanted - not sure I would have even been able to make the interview had I not gotten that day! (*And that's where I ended up matching so thank goodness I made it there...)

Yikes!

 

[Dral]

I guess I don't understand offering more interviews than positions available....

If you're on call and get a page, how fast can you respond? I'm not saying that is the 'test', but who knows. A few hours is reasonable. As you now know, a day or more doesn't cut it. You gotta jump on it.

 

[DermViser]

I guess I don't understand offering more interviews than positions available....

Well depending on specialty -- programs have to offer a lot more invites than they have spots in order to rank enough to match. A lot of people will be cancelling interviews left and right which is why they have to give out more. I knew people in IM, who were getting last minute interview acceptances (near the end), bc people were cancelling bc they got enough interviews so programs were sending invites even near the end bc they had open spaces near the end. They weren't that desperate and nicely turned them down by email (and in their mind told them to go f themselves).

Smartphones have Google Calendar and Email ready to access, hence speeding things up immensely. This ain't 1999.

 

[Dral]

Well depending on specialty -- programs have to offer a lot more invites than they have spots in order to rank enough to match. A lot of people will be cancelling interviews left and right which is why they have to give out more. I knew people in IM, who were getting last minute interview acceptances (near the end), bc people were cancelling bc they got enough interviews so programs were sending invites even near the end bc they had open spaces near the end. They weren't that desperate and nicely turned them down by email (and in their mind told them to go f themselves).

Smartphones have Google Calendar and Email ready to access, hence speeding things up immensely. This ain't 1999.

Good point. OP, make sure you stay in contact with this program coordinator. Check in fairly regularly (not to the extent of obnoxiousness) as you should theoretically be one of the first candidates in line for an interview spot if/when someone else cancels.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Well depending on specialty -- programs have to offer a lot more invites than they have spots in order to rank enough to match. A lot of people will be cancelling interviews left and right which is why they have to give out more. I knew people in IM, who were getting last minute interview acceptances (near the end), bc people were cancelling bc they got enough interviews so programs were sending invites even near the end bc they had open spaces near the end. They weren't that desperate and nicely turned them down by email (and in their mind told them to go f themselves).

Yeah, I've mostly heard of this happening in larger specialties. I assume it's because they need to plan for a certain number of non-responders out of the initial invite pool (seems crazy, but it happens), as well as the cancellation rate.

I'm not saying it's right, but it's about figuring out their yield when they are playing around with scheduling hundreds of people.

Smaller fields where they may interview only 50-100 people it's easier (and the interviews are generally viewed as precious, precious gold to be hoarded so non-responders or cancellations are much less common)

 

[DermViser]

Yeah, I've mostly heard of this happening in larger specialties. I assume it's because they need to plan for a certain number of non-responders out of the initial invite pool (seems crazy, but it happens), as well as the cancellation rate.

I'm not saying it's right, but it's about figuring out their yield when they are playing around with scheduling hundreds of people.

Smaller fields where they may interview only 50-100 people it's easier (and the interviews are generally viewed as precious, precious gold to be hoarded so non-responders or cancellations are much less common)

That's exactly it. IM, Surgery, Peds, that have a lot more entering PGY-1 spots and thus have to give out many more interviews to have a good enough yield to get a fully matched class, bc they could go much further down their list depending on the year.

Some people won't respond to interview invites for whatever reason (didn't care, ended up in spam box), some people will respond and grab a date, but later on, just cancel as they're getting tired of interviewing. So if the person drops it enough in advance, the program coordinator will just email the next person on the list which is easy to send thru ERAS. If they're discourteous then they'll drop it and it might be too late, or the PC will still send it hoping someone will pay out the wazoo for a last minute plane flight.

I was just saying the reason my friends didn't go to those last minute offers near the end of season was bc they felt the program was just trying to get their interview yield and didn't really care about their application high enough to rank them bc if they did they would have gotten an interview much earlier.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

To be honest I have way better board scores than this program (perfect comlex 2 score, extremely high step scores) so I'm not worried about matching and I've already interviewed at another school...however my spouse really wants me to go there so we don't have to move again happy spouse=happy life...

Approaching the interview process with this much hubris is not advisable.

 

[MU420]

It's relatively common in larger specialties. Are you applying to EM by chance?

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

To be honest I'm
Not worried about getting other interviews (perfect comlex 2 score, extremely high step scores) ...however my spouse really wants me to go there so we don't have to move again happy spouse=happy life...

I've always wondered what a perfect comlex equals. 900?

 

[tnara]

If it's a self-sign-up page, just keep checking it. Several times a day. This happened to me last week for one of my first invites, but yesterday I noticed that someone had dropped a spot. Just keep checking and if they have some sort of wait list system, get on that.

 

[mvenus929]

This is why schools advise you to check your e-mail constantly throughout the day. And you should call if they give you a phone number to call. I actually got an invite while I was interviewing at another program, and by the time I had a chance to sign up, all the slots had been taken. I signed up for a waitlist and ended up canceling because I didn't want to pay for the last minute flight if someone happened to cancel.

I also e-mailed a program I was interested in later in the season and got an interview invite as a response with dates the following week.

 

[DermViser]

To be honest I'm
Not worried about getting other interviews (perfect comlex 2 score, extremely high step scores) ...however my spouse really wants me to go there so we don't have to move again happy spouse=happy life...

What's a "perfect" comlex score? Anyways, check the hubris. It wouldn't serve you well in the match process regardless of specialty.

 

[sazerac]

As a third year student on my surgery rotation, I don't even scrub in anymore. I have to monitor the phones of the fourth year and sub-I students for when they get their invites. I swear, we should be putting the EKG leads on the 4th years not the patients.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

As a third year student on my surgery rotation, I don't even scrub in anymore. I have to monitor the phones of the fourth year and sub-I students for when they get their invites. I swear, we should be putting the EKG leads on the 4th years not the patients.

lol

 

[DermViser]

As a third year student on my surgery rotation, I don't even scrub in anymore. I have to monitor the phones of the fourth year and sub-I students for when they get their invites. I swear, we should be putting the EKG leads on the 4th years not the patients.

Wow, seriously?!!? Attendings allow this ****?!

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

As a third year student on my surgery rotation, I don't even scrub in anymore. I have to monitor the phones of the fourth year and sub-I students for when they get their invites. I swear, we should be putting the EKG leads on the 4th years not the patients.

I'd tell the 4th years they are welcome not to scrub if they are so concerned.

3rd years have their own educational needs, not their job to be the sub-I's scut monkey

 

[DermViser]

I'd tell the 4th years they are welcome not to scrub if they are so concerned.

3rd years have their own educational needs, not their job to be the sub-I's scut monkey

Exactly. I've never heard this happening to any MS-3 student on a Surgery clerkship - these are MS-4s not interns/residents. The MS-3 has their own educational objectives to meet on the clerkship (regardless if they're going into Surgery or not).

 

[thesauce]

Candidates are now being screened based on their access to their phones and email. I had a friend who missed out on almost half of her interviews for a competitive specialty because she was on an intense surgery rotation during the month that most of the invites went out.

 

[Rothbard]

As a third year student on my surgery rotation, I don't even scrub in anymore. I have to monitor the phones of the fourth year and sub-I students for when they get their invites. I swear, we should be putting the EKG leads on the 4th years not the patients.

da fuq? 4th years have no authority over 3rd years. Unless your supervising MDs are telling you to do this, you can tell the 4th years to **** off.

 

[dienekes88]

Respond immediately. E-mail back with your preferred date and your back up date.

Some places in the same area will schedule their interview days together, e.g. I seem to recall that The MGH and The Brigham had consecutive interview dates. UTHouston and Baylor were also on consecutive days or a day apart. As a result, some dates filled up very quickly. Also, get on the waitlist.

My view: spending a couple extra dollars now on flights and hotels to make sure that you have a long enough rank order list to match is absolutely worth it. If you don't match, that would be terrible.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

R
Some places in the same area will schedule their interview days together, e.g. I seem to recall that The MGH and The Brigham had consecutive interview dates.

There were also a few programs that, allegedly, chose their interview dates so that you as an applicant had to choose between one or the other...

 

[dienekes88]

There were also a few programs that, allegedly, chose their interview dates so that you as an applicant had to choose between one or the other...

Heard about stuff like that too, but it was mostly gossip on the trail.

There are only a certain number of weekends during the interview season, so I am sure some of that was unintentional.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Heard about stuff like that too, but it was mostly gossip on the trail.

There are only a certain number of weekends during the interview season, so I am sure some of that was unintentional.

Oh definitely. I had three programs where it was only possible to interview at 2 of them. But unless Penn is harboring some grudge against Northwestern that I'm unaware of, I think it's just that there are a small number of weekends available.

There were rumors of some of the chi-town programs conspiring against each other but I am sure that is just hearsay/hyperbole

 

[AMEHigh]

Eeek I'm glad I read this post. I actually think I was somewhat in shock when I got my first invite last week that I didn't respond with my preferred date until 4 hours later. I was told that date was taken, so I had to take the other date. Which is fine, but now I know responding asap, means asap! It didn't even cross my mind that some people who are offered interviews might not be able to interview if the date fills up. How nerve wracking.

 

[microshar88]

This sucks for me because I'm doing an audition rotation where wifi is not acailable and my cellular reception doesn't work. Sucks for me I guess. Is there anyway to change this with Verizon and iPhone

 

[evilbooyaa]

As a third year student on my surgery rotation, I don't even scrub in anymore. I have to monitor the phones of the fourth year and sub-I students for when they get their invites. I swear, we should be putting the EKG leads on the 4th years not the patients.

I'm going to guess that you're kidding and that DV and SouthernIM didn't see it.

Alternatively, you're not kidding and I'm the idiot.

Please advise which of the above scenarios is real.