Competitive applicant for IM in couples match, how many programs?

[tfom08]

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I'm applying to IM as part of a couples match (wife is doing EM). My application is strong on paper (260+ on Step 1 & 2, all 3rd year honors, AOA, unranked state school) and I have one month off for interviews.

We have this list of about 50-60 programs we are thinking about applying to based on advice from match advisors at school, and I'm wondering how many places I need to apply to in order to fill up 25 interviews to give us the best chance of matching together. I know IM isn't super competitive, so will I probably get interviews everywhere I apply except for MGH/Hopkins/UCSF type places (or can it be kind of hit or miss even at the mid-range places)? Basically, I'm wondering if in the cities that have multiple programs like Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, should I just apply to 2-3 instead of 5-6 and be safe to get 2-3 interviews in each? We have a long list because my wife's app isn't as competitive for EM and we want to make sure we end up together, but I don't want apply to all the programs she does and end up spending a bunch of money and getting 55 interviews or something stupid like that. I'd really appreciate any input, especially if anyone else has a similar experience with the couples match.

 

[Ariee]

Hi,

I can't answer all of your questions as I'm not qualified enough, but did want to tell you that during my advising session, we were told that the stronger applicant will pull up the weaker applicant in the couples match...take it with a grain of salt, make what you can out of it.

I also think your baord scores are awesome and your wife and you should not have much problems getting into some mid/higher-tiered place together.

So thats my non-evidence based answer, I'm going to invite our seniors which much more experience to put in their wise & experienced answers...

Hope that helped,
A

 

[gutonc]

I would say that you should start with about 30 which will cost you about $300. Once interviews start coming in for both of you, see how you're doing and which, if either, of you needs to add programs. Honestly, the application is the cheapest part of the process so you can't really overdo it. Better to have 50 invites than 15 in this setting.

 

[tfom08]

Well I got it down to 40. My basic goals are to be able to match to at least one program in Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, and Chicago and then just as many other places as possible. Do you think the amount of programs in the big cities are sufficient? I was wondering if I should add a couple more like Tufts in boston, Lenox Hill or Maimonides in NYC, Drexel or Temple in Philly, and Rush or Loyola in Chicago. But it seemed like I would have pretty good chances at BID, SUNY Brooklyn, Thomas Jefferson, and UIC in each of those cities. Anyway, any advice would be appreciated, and any other residencies in the big cities that are good mid range programs I would love to hear. There are so many IM programs in these cities I felt like I had no idea which ones to pick except the ones I had heard of before. Thanks!

Boston
MGH
BWH
BIDMC

NYC
NYU
Columbia
Sinai
SUNY Brooklyn

Philadelphia
UPenn
Thomas Jefferson

Chicago
Northwestern
UChicago
UIC

Baltimore/DC
GWU
Gtown
Hopkins
Hopkins Bayview

 

[Medikit]

Apply to a lot of places. At some programs only one of you will get an interview. And it may be true for cities as well, for instance you may get 5 in one city while she gets none. Of the programs you both get interviews it's highly likely that only one of you will like the program. Of the programs you both like it's more likely to NOT match than to match (3 possible not-match scenarios out of four). This creates a dwindling pool of programs that work for both of you.