2016-2017 Interview Thread

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Anyone with Step 1 around 240 and Step 2 around 250 getting decent interviews?

What specialty are you applying for? Just curious because you're posting similar questions on the neurology, psychiatry, and radiology threads...


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What specialty are you applying for? Just curious because you're posting similar questions on the neurology, psychiatry, and radiology threads...


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I am an indecisive 3rd year who has electives in each of these specialties beginning in my 4th year to figure it out. I know that I would do Neuroradiology if I did Radiology so there is some similarity there. I love the neurosciences.
 
I am an indecisive 3rd year who has electives in each of these specialties beginning in my 4th year to figure it out.

Makes sense, I went through a similar elimination process 3rd year. With your scores, you are competitive for all 3 specialties.


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Anyone who interviewed at Penn State-Hershey for IR/DR, what time did the day end for you? The email said 3:30 pm but I wanted to know how accurate this is in order to plan transportation. Thanks.
 
Anyone who interviewed at Penn State-Hershey for IR/DR, what time did the day end for you? The email said 3:30 pm but I wanted to know how accurate this is in order to plan transportation. Thanks.

It stays pretty true to that, you won't get out earlier. They don't do interviews until after lunch/conference and then the day ends with a talk with the prelim med people that lasts about 5 minutes and you're done.


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Are there any applicants this cycle with mid-high 230s step 1, and an improved step2, who are getting interviews at top 10-20 places?

yeah definitely. strong LORs and extracurriculars helps tremendously. If you really want an interview at a place - email the PD!
 
Are there any applicants this cycle with mid-high 230s step 1, and an improved step2, who are getting interviews at top 10-20 places?

Me. Ive gotten interviews at a number of top places on both coasts. I wasn't going to apply to most of these places until the last minute when my PD said it was at least worth a shot. Glad I did, as probably 1/3 of my interviews are at top 20 programs. To be honest though, unless you are some MD/PHD research powerhouse kid, there are a lot of less talked about programs out there that are really great places to train at.
 
Are there any applicants this cycle with mid-high 230s step 1, and an improved step2, who are getting interviews at top 10-20 places?

I have pretty similiar stats to you. So far I've gotten 2 invites from Top 20 programs (if you are using Doximity as a gauge for top 20), both being in the midwest. I haven't had any luck from programs in the coasts, but I also didn't apply to NYC/Boston.

Good luck.
 
Doximity rankings are pure garbage. Absolutely no correlation with residency program quality. You're better off using US News rankings of medical schools.

US News is also useless for residency, but at least the rankings are based on some actual data. Doximity is just a scam. Anyone can vote - you just need to download the doximity app. And if you don't download the app (and give access to your personal data), you can't vote. Our hospital CEO emails us every year to get us to download the app and get our hospital higher up on the rankings for each specialty. Most of my colleagues refuse to play the game.
 
Doximity rankings are pure garbage. Absolutely no correlation with residency program quality. You're better off using US News rankings of medical schools.

US News is also useless for residency, but at least the rankings are based on some actual data. Doximity is just a scam. Anyone can vote - you just need to download the doximity app. And if you don't download the app (and give access to your personal data), you can't vote. Our hospital CEO emails us every year to get us to download the app and get our hospital higher up on the rankings for each specialty. Most of my colleagues refuse to play the game.

This is the same argument that everyone from a mediocre program makes. While not perfect, the rankings are generally accurate. MGH and UCSF are clearly the two most elite programs nationally, followed by a lot of other excellent programs.

The doximity rankings are only as intelligent as the person using them. Comparing programs #5 and #8 is meaningless, but for uninformed medical students, they are incredibly useful in establishing broad quality tiers.

The elite programs attract the most brilliant people. There is no shame in going to a mediocre program, but to argue that your training is just as
good is utterly ridiculous. The cream always rises to the top.
 
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This is the same argument that everyone from a mediocre program makes. While not perfect, the rankings are generally accurate. MGH and UCSF are clearly the two most elite programs nationally, followed by a lot of other excellent programs.

The doximity rankings are only as intelligent as the person using them. Comparing programs #5 and #8 is meaningless, but for uninformed medical students, they are incredibly useful in establishing broad quality tiers.

The elite programs attract the most brilliant people. There is no shame in going to a mediocre program, but to argue that your training is just as
good is utterly ridiculous. The cream always rises to the top.

so the best teachers always go to MGH and UCSF?
 
so the best teachers always go to MGH and UCSF?

On an individual basis, not at all. You will have some brilliant researchers at these programs who can't teach at all. In aggregate, absolutely. You don't get faculty positions at these programs without being exceptional.
 
First off, I went to a program that's in the top 20. But I currently have no horse in the race - I'm in private practice without residents. I'm simply bothered by the fact that a for-profit social networking site is having an impact on how the newer generation of med students are evaluating residencies.

Doximity is the equivalent of an ESPN poll of what the top college football program is. It's near impossible to screw up the top few, but after that the rest is just a crapshoot of who happened to have voted and when the voting took place. It's a really bad way for people to sift through the non-top tier programs -- which train the majority of future radiologists.



This is the same argument that everyone from a mediocre program makes. While not perfect, the rankings are generally accurate. MGH and UCSF are clearly the two most elite programs nationally, followed by a lot of other excellent programs.

The doximity rankings are only as intelligent as the person using them. Comparing programs #5 and #8 is meaningless, but for uninformed medical students, they are incredibly useful in establishing broad quality tiers.

The elite programs attract the most brilliant people. There is no shame in going to a mediocre program, but to argue that your training is just as
good is utterly ridiculous. The cream always rises to the top.
 
First off, I went to a program that's in the top 20. But I currently have no horse in the race - I'm in private practice without residents. I'm simply bothered by the fact that a for-profit social networking site is having an impact on how the newer generation of med students are evaluating residencies.

Doximity is the equivalent of an ESPN poll of what the top college football program is. It's near impossible to screw up the top few, but after that the rest is just a crapshoot of who happened to have voted and when the voting took place. It's a really bad way for people to sift through the non-top tier programs -- which train the majority of future radiologists.

I agree with you that the rankings for programs outside the top 20 are fairly arbitrary, but to say that doximity rankings are garbage is BS. The top 10-15 programs in the doximity rankings are, for the most part, the best programs with the highest quality residents and the best teaching.

I realize we are living in a "post-truth" America thanks to Drumph and his right wing cronies, but Doximity is the closest thing to objective rankings that we have for radiology programs. US News rankings for Med schools have absolutely zero correlation with the quality of the radiology residencies.
 
My point is that you didn't need Doximity to tell you what the top 10-15 are. Those are no-brainers. Any half-way decent advisor at your med school or chief of radiology could point those out.

Doximity is terrible because it's giving false credence to the rankings of those programs outside the top tier. And outside the top tier, I would wager that US News correlates better with residency quality than Doximity. Keep in mind that I think US News is a BAD ranking system. But at least there's some formula to it. And at least its not based on a popularity vote among people who happen to have downloaded the Doximity app on their smart phone.

Students simply have to be aware that Doximity is just social media. It's not some formal ranking system with any methodology.


I agree with you that the rankings for programs outside the top 20 are fairly arbitrary, but to say that doximity rankings are garbage is BS. The top 10-15 programs in the doximity rankings are, for the most part, the best programs with the highest quality residents and the best teaching.

I realize we are living in a "post-truth" America thanks to Drumph and his right wing cronies, but Doximity is the closest thing to objective rankings that we have for radiology programs. US News rankings for Med schools have absolutely zero correlation with the quality of the radiology residencies.
 
"Doximity is proud to offer medical students the first-ever transparent look into over 3,600 residency training programs in collaboration with U.S. News & World Report."

The methodology for reputation is surveying board certified radiologists about the 5 programs that give the best clinical training. Self voting is also accounted for. So as was mentioned, the rankings have some value for top programs. These are the programs that might be nominated by any radiologist across America. At most that works for the best 75 programs, but probably more like 40. After that, the difference between for example #120 and #130 has virtually no meaning because it's not reasonable to put these two programs in your top 5 unless you are partial to the particular program.

Another weakness of the rankings versus other systems such as the medical school rankings is the lack of any kind of integration of the available data. The doximity rankings for reputation and for research are completely independent. And neither of those rankings takes into account board pass rate, subspecialties, resident satisfaction or anything else. These are all reported, but not integrated into any kind of metric. Keep the methodology in mind.
 
Dang I didnt mean to spark all this with my top 20 comment about Doximity. I think its a decent gauge for some programs. But I seriously doubt Pennsylvania Hospital is more prestigious than Vanderbilt or UT Houston. It does have its flaws.
 
I agree with you that the rankings for programs outside the top 20 are fairly arbitrary, but to say that doximity rankings are garbage is BS. The top 10-15 programs in the doximity rankings are, for the most part, the best programs with the highest quality residents and the best teaching.

I realize we are living in a "post-truth" America thanks to Drumph and his right wing cronies, but Doximity is the closest thing to objective rankings that we have for radiology programs. US News rankings for Med schools have absolutely zero correlation with the quality of the radiology residencies.

spoken like your typical ivory tower person. can't just keep your politics out of the discussion
"Doximity is proud to offer medical students the first-ever transparent look into over 3,600 residency training programs in collaboration with U.S. News & World Report."

The methodology for reputation is surveying board certified radiologists about the 5 programs that give the best clinical training. Self voting is also accounted for. So as was mentioned, the rankings have some value for top programs. These are the programs that might be nominated by any radiologist across America. At most that works for the best 75 programs, but probably more like 40. After that, the difference between for example #120 and #130 has virtually no meaning because it's not reasonable to put these two programs in your top 5 unless you are partial to the particular program.

Another weakness of the rankings versus other systems such as the medical school rankings is the lack of any kind of integration of the available data. The doximity rankings for reputation and for research are completely independent. And neither of those rankings takes into account board pass rate, subspecialties, resident satisfaction or anything else. These are all reported, but not integrated into any kind of metric. Keep the methodology in mind.

The difference between 1 and 2 has no meaning. there's no point in a rankings system. I would say a 3 tier system is the practical way. You have your tier 1, big national names that everyone knows. Going to see everything possible here. Tier 2 is like regional names, state centers, mid range academic places. See almost everything possible here too. A few community programs would fit there too. Then tier 3 Is everything else and more bread and butter.

As long as you're in a similar tier you're probably going to get extremely similar training
 
Anyone who's interviewed at UTSW, can you comment on how accurate the 3 pm end time is? Any chance of getting out earlier than that? Thank you!
 
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Anyone who's interviewed at UTSW, can you comment on how accurate the 3 pm end time is? Any chance of getting out earlier than that? Thank you!

It ended up being around 2-215p on my interview day. Seemed like both the afternoon tour and interview groups finished around the same time.
 
do post-interview love letters from the PD or chairman really mean anything?
 
Take it as a huge compliment but don't let it affect your rank list. May I ask which school(s) is sending out love letters already? I thought those don't come out until closer to the rank deadline.
 
i received them within a week after the interviews.
 
Definitely a huge compliment/good sign if you're receiving them. I'm usually the person sending out the love letters/thank you cards ... without a reply most times.
 
Doximity rankings are pure garbage. Absolutely no correlation with residency program quality. You're better off using US News rankings of medical schools.

US News is also useless for residency, but at least the rankings are based on some actual data. Doximity is just a scam. Anyone can vote - you just need to download the doximity app. And if you don't download the app (and give access to your personal data), you can't vote. Our hospital CEO emails us every year to get us to download the app and get our hospital higher up on the rankings for each specialty. Most of my colleagues refuse to play the game.

I wouldnt say doximity is complete garbage. The doximity top 15-20 programs are pretty accurate as far as reputation and quality of residents they attract. After 20ish, it becomes a crapshoot though.

Anyways, goodluck everyone!
 
Hi, UT Southwestern has last interview date 1/5, how accurate is this? I'm on wait list🙁
 
For anyone who has interviewed at USC- is there a dinner the night before? Can't find it in any emails
 
Do you know if Case/UH is still interviewing? When is/was the last interview day?
 
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