4th Year Help

[breaker1919]

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Hi everyone,
I'm scheduling my fourth year next week and I'm not sure when to schedule an 'off' month. I'm leaning towards December, and I want to take an easy elective either November or January. My question is, assuming I turn in my application early, are there more interviews in November or in January? Also, do they even schedule interviews close to Christmas (say, a week before)? Can you choose when you interview? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[trkd]

Hi everyone,
I'm scheduling my fourth year next week and I'm not sure when to schedule an 'off' month. I'm leaning towards December, and I want to take an easy elective either November or January. My question is, assuming I turn in my application early, are there more interviews in November or in January? Also, do they even schedule interviews close to Christmas (say, a week before)? Can you choose when you interview? Any advice would be appreciated.

December is a fine as long as you don't need a letter from that rotation. January definitely has more interviews. They generally don't have interviews in the very beginning of November but lots like to get it done early so schedule some in November. However, if you are not a super strong candidate, you may not get a whole lot of interviews for November. As for Christmas, it seems like most programs don't have interviews for at least a few days before Christmas. The latest I saw this year was the 22nd I think. Then it started up again around the 2nd or 3rd of January. As for your interview date, after they sent you invite to interview, you call or email the program coodinator and pick a date from those available. The available dates vary by program but it will be like every wednesday from Nov. 15th-Feb. 4th except for around the holidays. Sometimes it is twice a week. You can switch it up later as long as there is room available on another date.

 

[StudentDoc327]

Hi everyone,
I'm scheduling my fourth year next week and I'm not sure when to schedule an 'off' month. I'm leaning towards December, and I want to take an easy elective either November or January. My question is, assuming I turn in my application early, are there more interviews in November or in January? Also, do they even schedule interviews close to Christmas (say, a week before)? Can you choose when you interview? Any advice would be appreciated.

I actualy had the same question as you last year and picked December as my off month. The problem is most programs (at least the ones I interviewed with) stop interviewing in December like a week or so before Christmas and dont start back up again until a couple days after new years so December ends up being a short month. I actualy did most of my interviews in January for this reason and think that would be the better month to be off. I didnt interview in November even though I got offers at that time just because plane tickets were more expensive because I had less time in advance to buy them. Anyway if you take a light rotation during December instead of Jan im sure it will be even lighter because its 'the holidays'.

 

[ispic]

Hi,

Most of my classmates' and my interviews came in January. If you can swing it, try to have the "easy" rotations in December/January, or just take January off. Also consider your Step 2 prep in mind. If you want to take it early, prepare well and blow it away, take some time off early in the year and prepare then. If you're a strong candidate, then it is not really an issue when you take the step (it has become a little more of a "tie-breaker" in the past couple of years due to the competitiveness of EM, therefore taking step 2 early might be advantageous). Hope this helps.

 

[c.bear]

I think January might be the best month. Seemed like you could schedule most interviews during that month.

 

[membsr-8890]

one more vote for taking Jan off instead of Dec. EM tends to have slightly later interviews than other specialties. Take an easy month in December. Another advantage of interviewing in Jan is that you're not fighting the holiday crowds so not only is traveling easier but the ticket prices are a little cheaper since the rest of the world just took a vacation and has no desire to fly again in mid-Jan.

 

[joeG]

Hi everyone,
I'm scheduling my fourth year next week and I'm not sure when to schedule an 'off' month. I'm leaning towards December, and I want to take an easy elective either November or January. My question is, assuming I turn in my application early, are there more interviews in November or in January? Also, do they even schedule interviews close to Christmas (say, a week before)? Can you choose when you interview? Any advice would be appreciated.

It depends - if you plan on interviewing at many schools (>15) you probably want Jan off.

I would recommend taking off December and plan this way...schedule a few interviews in November for programs that are "lower" on your list. Schedule your prime programs for th first two weeks in December and then finish off your list. This can be accomplished if you have approx 9-10 interviews. If you have more than one interview in the same city - make sure to schedule them in the same week. Dont schedule a rigorous rotation in Jan - so if you have to miss a few days, so be it.

 

[met19]

I actually had more interviews in Dec than January with a few in late november. What I did is split my easy elective btwn Nov/Jan and a month off in Dec.

 

[ditch doctor]

I took January off this year and didn't have a problem scheduling any of my interviews; and I was a very "average" applicant on paper, so it's not like I had the cream of the crop. Having Jan off was also handy as I had one "last minute" interview that I attended without all the hassle of going to my clerkship director to get permission and such.