Interviews- what months?

american IMG said:

Hi, I have 4 electives in America this fall, from September to December. I thought doing electives at specific hospitals would give me a better shot at getting interviews there. So, I was just wondering when most emergency residencies interview. Would a December elective in EM be a waste of time as far as helping me get an interview? Do all programs interview at the same time?
Thanks.

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No, all programs do NOT interview at the same time. It's usually over the same range of months, but not on the same days/times necessarily.

The earliest interviews I know of that I was offered were in mid-October.

The classic interview season lasts from November to mid february.

later

Your best bet to get the most out of an audition rotation would be to do it early. This way you would be able to possibly get a interview out of the rotation but also you would be able to get a LOR which might help you get MORE interviews. Nov/December is not too late for a rotation to get you an interview at most programs but you won't be able to get a LOR uploaded and downloaded at that time.

Good luck.

My school allows us to take a month of vacation- I was considering taking it during December and trying to pack most of my interviews during that time. Thought being that if I could be more flexible (not having to schedule around a work schedule) I could maybe bunch interviews together and save on airfare, or even drive if it wasn't too far. What do you guys think, is this a good plan? Granted, spending my vacation doing interviews is kinda sorry, but I really would like to do this as economically as possible.

american IMG said:

Hi, I have 4 electives in America this fall, from September to December. I thought doing electives at specific hospitals would give me a better shot at getting interviews there. So, I was just wondering when most emergency residencies interview. Would a December elective in EM be a waste of time as far as helping me get an interview? Do all programs interview at the same time?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

I ended up doing electives in October and November (letter of rec from the October one). This was pretty close to cutting it close for the letter of recommendation, but I think the November month is ok (still a little late) for doing it (to try to impress them for an interview offer). I actually recieved a pretty detailed course elective evaluation from the November rotation and ended up sending that to all of the schools I applied to. I think most interview offers came out early after the first day you can send your ERAS, so December might be a bit late to "win" and interview offer if you haven't recieved one from that school by then, BUT, most places continue to offer interviews well into December, and even a few in January (when folks start cancelling due to overaccepting). So, to answer the question about would EM elective be a waste of time doing it in December, I would say its not the best time to do it, but I don't think it would hurt. You could even just get an interview at the specific place without starting the rotation and pick a december date to interview there...

ElZorro said:

My school allows us to take a month of vacation- I was considering taking it during December and trying to pack most of my interviews during that time. Thought being that if I could be more flexible (not having to schedule around a work schedule) I could maybe bunch interviews together and save on airfare, or even drive if it wasn't too far. What do you guys think, is this a good plan? Granted, spending my vacation doing interviews is kinda sorry, but I really would like to do this as economically as possible.

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I ended up taking December off for this too, but also went to India so had to use some of January.

I think if you apply early enough (that means make sure your LOR writers do too), then you will get a good choice of interview dates. If you end up turning stuff in late, then your offers may be only in January (which did happen to me from some of the places)

My recommendation is keep December off, and try to do a really light January rotation. The rotation probably varies from school to school as to which one might let you miss a few days, but I think in general radiology, anesthesiology electives seem to be eased up a bit. I would NOT do a core (acting intern) rotation in January just in case a school you really want to interview at, but didnt' get an offer early on, gives you one later in the cycle. Again, some schools are pretty strict about not missing any days on ANY elective, but some attendings are relaxed about it, as long as you work hard/extra day if you can.

JackBauERfan said:

I ended up taking December off for this too, but also went to India so had to use some of January.

I think if you apply early enough (that means make sure your LOR writers do too), then you will get a good choice of interview dates. If you end up turning stuff in late, then your offers may be only in January (which did happen to me from some of the places)

My recommendation is keep December off, and try to do a really light January rotation. The rotation probably varies from school to school as to which one might let you miss a few days, but I think in general radiology, anesthesiology electives seem to be eased up a bit. I would NOT do a core (acting intern) rotation in January just in case a school you really want to interview at, but didnt' get an offer early on, gives you one later in the cycle. Again, some schools are pretty strict about not missing any days on ANY elective, but some attendings are relaxed about it, as long as you work hard/extra day if you can.

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thanks for the info. Any suggestions on how to keep interview costs down (besides do less interviews)