Couples match

[thorg12]

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I tried to find a thread about this. I know i read one a while back but couldnt find it.
I'm an MS3 that is going to be couples matching next year. My SO is a strong canidate and is going into peds. I think im also a relatively competiitive canidate for EM. Im just interested in how many program i need to interview at 15, 20, 25? i know the magic number for matching is like 10-15 but what about couples matching? We also want to stay in the NY, NJ, philly area, maybe pittsburgh, DC, baltimore. is this possible or do we have to expand our cities?
My main question is how many programs should we each be interviewing at? Anyone that has gone through this or is going through its input would be great! Or if there is a thread about this already, just point me in its direction.
-thorg

 

[cairn]

Check FREIDA or the SAEM website to see how many programs are in your geographical area.
If you are both strong candidates, I think interviewing at 15 is fine since you are including some cities with multiple programs. You may have to apply to 20-25 to get those interviews.
Prepare to be frustrated: many peds programs send out invites early (like september), but many EM programs wait until the Deans letter in early november.
(from a student not couples matching but commiserating with friends who are)

 

[Chief58]

My wife and I are couples matching Peds for her and EM for me. We applied to about 25 programs, scheduled about 14 interviews, and ended up actually going on 10 interviews. That might seem like a low number, but you have to consider a large number of factors.

1) How competitive are you? From the information you posted, it sounds like you'd be a fairly competitive applicant.

2) How competitive is your couples matcher? For us, we knew that pediatrics was not very competitive, so we didn't worry as much here. If your SO is truly very competitive, you should be in very good shape here.

3) Where do you want to go? You listed a range of places with a range of competitiveness levels, location-wise. "Less-competitive" programs in a place like NY and Philly may end up being much more competitive than a top academic program somewhere else, simply because people want to live in those cities.

4) What kind of money do you have for travel? Going on interviews together is a great idea to save money, but it is extremely difficult to coordinate. My wife got most of her interviews early, most of mine came around Dean's Letter submission time. As a result, even though we had about 5 open weeks to schedule, we could only go on 3 of 10 interviews together. Even then, some of those trips required more than one night of hotel stay. Ten separate interviews to the places you mentioned could easily cost you between $4000 and $8000 combined as a couple, depending on how much flying/driving you will be doing and what kinds of hotels you'll be staying in.

5) How many interviews do you really want to go on? When you start, going on 15-20 interviews might sound like fun. Once you get to interview 8 or 9, you might find yourself starting to hate living out of a suitcase. We did and cancelled about 4 interviews a piece. Its fun at first, but can get old fast.

6) Most important, are you willing to make your list a good mix of competitiveness levels? If you want to populate your top 10 with great programs, then you'll need to go on more interviews. If, like us, you can pick programs of a varied level of competitiveness that you could be happy with, you can really cut your interview list down. The top 5 of our list is made up of fairly competitive to moderately competitive programs. The next 2-3 are mid-range to lesser competitive programs. Our bottom two are basically safety programs we know we can match to. Did this mean we cut out a few more competitive interviews for a less-competitive place? Sure we did, but being married and starting a life together meant that we didn't want to spend an arm and a leg traveling all over the country to satisfy our med student ambition.

Ultimately, from what you posted, it seems like your situation is similar to ours. You guys may even be more competitive than us. I think you'd probably be fine with 10-15 interviews as long as you interview well and give yourself a mix of competitiveness levels.

If you want, PM me, and I'll let you know how things work out after the match in March. If we get our number one or two, which we suspect we will based on "good vibes," then we'll be ecstatic.

 

[thorg12]

thanks so much for all the help, its nice to hear from peoples own experiences.

 

[deleted109597]

Just be prepared to be very, very sad. I'm not saying you will be, but there is a higher chance of failure with the couples match than the singles match, no matter what everyone out there says at conferences.
So, at the end of your ROL, since EM is more competitive than Peds, I would argue that you put the you match, they don't things next, followed by the they match, you don't. One scramble is hard. Couples scramble is impossible.

 

[EveMD]

Did the couples match work out for you? And if you don't mind me asking, did you both rank far down the list or your top 3 choices (given you ranked only 10 programs)?

 

[cinapism]

heyo

just wanted to drop a note since I was in your situation earlier this year. My SO and I both good applicants (both with boards >230 and she had published research in peds).

we applied to ~24 schools and I got ~15 interviews (she got all of hers). I went to 10 interviews and we ranked 8 programs.

We got our top choice and it wasn't very stressful. The hardest part as one of the earlier posts said, is that peds interviews early and EM later so she didn't know how to schedule her interviews when I hadnt heard back from programs yet. She will probably end up going on some unnecessary interviews.

The other frustrating part was that we didnt look in cities with >1 EM program. This will be easier with your interested area because of the multiple EM and peds programs so you can rank them in different combos.

Honestly, I didnt think it was too bad except for the final deciding of the list but it worked out great 🙂

 

[RunnerND]

Felt the need to chime in with a few thoughts. I recently matched with my SO who ironically is also going into peds (seems to be a pattern?). We were fortunate to match at one of our top choices. We applied to roughly 30 schools, got 13 interviews and ranked 11. The frustrating part of our experience was when one of us was offered an interview at one program while the other program did not. This happened for several of our "favorites" during the application process.

My advice is similar to other posters, consider your own competitiveness when applying to programs. Try to cash in on cities with multiple programs for each specialty. It will allow more flexibility on your rank list. Best of luck!!

 

[Arcan57]

I would definitely echo the multiple programs in the same city if geography is at all a concern. Also, it sounds economical to try and schedule interviews together. Don't. If you wait until you both have most of your interview acceptances, most of the spots will have already been taken. Expect it to be more expensive, time-consuming, and relationship stressing then you initially think it will. Then if things work out you can be pleasantly suprised.