I just have to say, I knew that replying in a timely fashion to interview requests was important, but this is getting absurd. Yesterday I replied to an invitation to interview, in 9 minutes and was told I was 3rd! on the waitlist for the date selected.
After 4 years of college, 4 more of medical school, to get invite to a residency interview and replying 10 MINUTES after you get the invitation - to be told this was too late, I find the whole thing extremely unprofessional. They should simply invite candidates they would like to interview, give them the right of refusal, and then proceed to their next applicant. This whole process becomes a little undignified when we all CONSTANTLY refresh our phone email, race to our computer, only to find that replying within 10 minutes wasn't good enough.
Anyway, best of luck to everyone, I never really post on this thing, but find the information here very useful, thought I would share