Other Apply to How Many Programs?!?

[kayaktj]

Now that ERAS season is here I'm curious as to how many programs the typical residency applicant will apply to. I've heard everything from 25 to 200 to have a valid chance. The cost is enormous and the transparency of the process is woefully non-existent so one can never know what the magic number should be. What we do know is medical students feel tremendous pressure to apply to more and more programs and the AMA keeps making millions off that fear.

So what do you think? What's the best number of programs to apply to and why?

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[radsisrad]

Depends on your stats, specialty choice(s), and education/training pathways - e.g., if you have a 255 Step 1 and are an American MD student applying to IM, 30 is probably enough.

 

[kayaktj]

Fair enough, but if you don't have that stat line how do you determine how many programs to apply to?

 

[bubs19]

I'd say between 45 to 60 is a good number. They've done studies on the diminishing returns of over applying how over a certain point it doesn't help your chances of matching. Not only that, overapplying makes it harder for programs to find applicants they want because they receive so many applications. if everyone just applies to every program, At some point they are forced to screen by board score or other methods just to get to a reasonable number of apps to review