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[goldenhuman444]

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If they rank on interview plus one's stats, wouldn't it hold back those with average or low stats who were just lucky enough to receive interviews from these top 10-20 programs and lead them to end up on the lower end of the programs' rank list?

 

[operaman]

I feel like we would usually end up with a short list of 80-100 applicants with pretty similar strong apps. A few of those would be superstars, but most were just strong but relatively average for a competitive field (S1 > 250, all/nearly all honors, AOA, decent research, etc).

Yes the superstars would always stand out, but they stand out everywhere and often have their pick of programs. So say there were 10-20 superstars, you can rest assured they’re interviewing all the top places. We noticed that when we just went by stats and stars, we would drop further down our rank list as many of the stars chose programs closer to home, family, etc.

For us, we could interview about 40 people tops. If we blow a lot of those on folks who are only interviewing because of our name/reputation, then we miss out on meeting other strong applicants who would do well. It made sense to look closely at fit and likelihood of them ranking us highly so we weren’t wasting a bunch of precious slots meeting stellar people who were always going to rank us behind all the top programs on their home coast.

For us, fit was everything and the interview really sealed the deal. I always found it interesting that our internal resident rank list on interview days where we honestly didn’t even look at scores was nearly identical to the final one once all the faculty and resident scores were averaged.

After a certain point, a few more step points or an extra pub or one more honors doesn’t really make that big a difference in the long run. Much better to get great people who fit in and will be happy living in your city for 5 years.

 

[Goro]

Strong audition rotations?

 

[goldenhuman444]

Strong audition rotations?

Nope no rotations there.

 

[Goro]

Nope no rotations there.

Networking?

 

[thumbz]

Think of it like this. You need to buy a car, absolutely need to. Need it to keep your job. You have $50,000 to spend and you get 10 offers. You rank your offers 1 to 10, and the dealership considers them in order and either says yes or no. You go to a dealership and you pick out seven or eight $55,000 to $70,000 cars. You would love to get one of these, but you know they may not accept your offer. You rank these 1 to 8.

You know you need a car. So you also throw down a $50,000 offer on a couple of $30,000 cars. Best case they say yes to your offer of $50,000 on the $70,000 car. You feel great.

Worst case you still get a car so you can keep your job. You know you're gonna get one of those $30,000 cars. It beats walking.

That's the match. We all want the superstars. We also need to make sure we don't end up in the SOAP. Trust me, programs HATE having to SOAP as much as applicants.

 

[goldenhuman444]

Networking?

Connection to the area. Worked at an affiliated institution for about 2 years. But I feel like stats trump this? Idk

 

[goldenhuman444]

Think of it like this. You need to buy a car, absolutely need to. Need it to keep your job. You have $50,000 to spend and you get 10 offers. You rank your offers 1 to 10, and the dealership considers them in order and either says yes or no. You go to a dealership and you pick out seven or eight $55,000 to $70,000 cars. You would love to get one of these, but you know they may not accept your offer. You rank these 1 to 8.

You know you need a car. So you also throw down a $50,000 offer on a couple of $30,000 cars. Best case they say yes to your offer of $50,000 on the $70,000 car. You feel great.

Worst case you still get a car so you can keep your job. You know you're gonna get one of those $30,000 cars. It beats walking.

That's the match. We all want the superstars. We also need to make sure we don't end up in the SOAP. Trust me, programs HATE having to SOAP as much as applicants.

But are top programs really worried about having unfilled spots? They’re going to get students regardless.

 

[LucidSplash]

Are you upset about this interview or happy? Can’t tell why you are perseverating on this after really good answers already given. If “top” programs all only interviewed the same 50 students, some of them would go unfilled. And sometimes it’s not about the stats. And each program has their own methodology.

 

[operaman]

Connection to the area. Worked at an affiliated institution for about 2 years. But I feel like stats trump this? Idk

I think you’re giving stats way too much credit.

Let me share a story from my interview trail. Friend from the trail gets rejected from an interview outright by a top program. She thinks she’s a good fit so asks her mentor to call and talk to PD. He extends her an interview after all. She matches there as her first choice. Obviously her stats and app were good enough in the end but for some reason she got passed over for an interview. Instead of treating it like a pity interview, she walked in there and nailed it and matched there.

My guess is someone made a call to someone you worked with and you got glowing reviews. Most students look pretty similar on paper, but if someone I know and respect and who has to look me in the eye from time to time says someone was really solid over an entire two years, then that’s someone I’d like to meet. Plus they know you’ve lived in their city and thrived and seemed happy enough that you’re trying to come back.

I would treat the interview like you absolutely belong there.

ETA: never underestimate the attractiveness of the candidate who looks like they will be solid and no trouble for the PD. PDs don’t really get paid enough for the amount of extra BS they do, and definitely not enough to deal with the BS that comes from a problem resident. The one stat that’s trumped everything on every PD survey ever: personal knowledge of the applicant. If someone vouched for you, that may have sent you up to the top of the pile.

 

[Goro]

To follow up on the sage advice by the O-man, it's best to remember that an interview for residency is a job interview, not one for medical school.

 

[LucidSplash]

To follow up on the sage advice by the O-man, it's best to remember that an interview for residency is a job interview, not one for medical school.

The older I get and the more I see posts on SDN, the more I think it should be mandatory for people to take time off between college and med school and to apply for and work at a real full-time job for 1-3 years before going to medical school. The amount of perspective that working a non-residency-related full-time job gives you, when you actually do apply for residency, is its own reward.

 

[Goro]

The older I get and the more I see posts on SDN, the more I think it should be mandatory for people to take time off between college and med school and to apply for and work at a real full-time job for 1-3 years before going to medical school. The amount of perspective that working a non-residency-related full-time job gives you, when you actually do apply for residency, is its own reward.

You're preaching to the choir here, lucid splash!