4th year questions...help!

[fatboy]

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Sorry to bug you all with more questions about 4th year, but I'm having a bit of a crisis regarding how to schedule my final year of med school.
In particular, what is the best time to schedule "vacation" for interviews. In fact, how does the interview process work (by and large)? Do schools give you a specific date that you're required to be there or do they give you flexible options? I'm hoping to schedule the bulk (and possibly all?) interviews for december, and am thinking of taking the whole month off. Is this reasonable? Or should I rather take time off in January or November?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you guys so much!!

Fat

 

[Tappat]

Sorry to bug you all with more questions about 4th year, but I'm having a bit of a crisis regarding how to schedule my final year of med school.
In particular, what is the best time to schedule "vacation" for interviews. In fact, how does the interview process work (by and large)? Do schools give you a specific date that you're required to be there or do they give you flexible options? I'm hoping to schedule the bulk (and possibly all?) interviews for december, and am thinking of taking the whole month off. Is this reasonable? Or should I rather take time off in January or November?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you guys so much!!

Fat

December would be fine for interviews, if you keep in mind that not all places will offer interviews the last week or two of December. Any way you could get mid-November through mid-December off for interviews? Only having November off would probably not work so well, as you'd be unlikely to be able to schedule all of them quickly enough after getting your invitations, let alone arrange the travel. Otherwise, put your most flexible/lax required courses in November-January, for example radiology.

Several places I interviewed let me to just pick a day sometime in November - January -- this was possible because I had gotten my application materials in on the early side. One provided a list of dates (e.g. most Tuesdays during that time period), and another let me pick but suggested I'd want a particular day of the week due to a weekly seminar. Aim to get ALL of your information in absolutely as soon as possible after ERAS opens -- this way, you're more likely to get interview invites in the first wave and have a much greater selection of dates. You don't want to have to wait until other applicants drop their interviews to get offered yours! Early January is okay, too, but I'd avoid late January if possible. One program director (when I was doing an away rotation there) said that while they do interview then, she wouldn't recommend waiting.

Good luck, it will all work out.

 

[Supersheep]

Sorry to bug you all with more questions about 4th year, but I'm having a bit of a crisis regarding how to schedule my final year of med school.
In particular, what is the best time to schedule "vacation" for interviews. In fact, how does the interview process work (by and large)? Do schools give you a specific date that you're required to be there or do they give you flexible options? I'm hoping to schedule the bulk (and possibly all?) interviews for december, and am thinking of taking the whole month off. Is this reasonable? Or should I rather take time off in January or November?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you guys so much!!

Fat

Hi~ It really depends on the school and when you get your invitation as to when you'll be able to interview. At some places I was given basically my choice of any day within 3 months and at others, they only had maybe 10 or so left. Also, unlike other specialties, many path programs only interview on a select number of days of the week (ie only Wed or something like that) so at times it makes it more difficult to place all of your interviews into a small amount of time. How many interviews are you planning to do? This can really impact how much time you'll need.

I personally took the month of Dec as my interview month and was able to fit one in the end of Nov and then with the end of the year break, that gave me the first week of Jan as well. If you can, I'd recommend taking an elective that allows some flexibility the month after you decide on (I did research) for any left over interviews or second looks if you need to do one. It is difficult, my school is super strict on us missing clerkships (and there are 2 required during our 4th yr that we are not allowed any absenses)... it's silly cause this is really important. Oh, the one downside of Dec though is that many places I found weren't running interviews from the 19th until Jan 1 with the holiday season; that's something to think about if you're planning on visiting a large number of programs. Jan seems a bit late to start; many of the places that I visited were already wrapping up the season in late Dec or early Jan; maybe someone else can offer better insight on that for you.

Best of luck!!

 

[irish6977]

I had a few interviews (3) in November and December, and ended up scheduling the bulk (8) of my interviews in January. This was partially due to required clerkships in Dec and when interviews were available. I would recommend giving yourself some time off in each month (if you can) or schedule flexible classes (research or humanities) during December or January if you can. This also spreads out your vacation a bit more instead of having it all at once. I wouldn't recommend taking any one entire month off.

 

[yaah]

There are a handful of places that do not interview candidates until later - like starting in december or even january. But most will start in october or early november. If for some reason you expect that you are not a great candidate, you may wish to schedule free time for later in the year, as many programs start offers with the best candidates.

I completed all but one by the middle of december, then cancelled 3 of 4 that I had set up for january.