for residency interviews, problem to be incommunicado in oct?

[hopefulent]

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For an M4 applying this cycle, is it problematic to have only intermittent access to email (2 days/week) for the month of October? I have a great opportunity to do something internationally that month, but don't want to lose out on interview offers. How quickly do you need to respond to secure an interview spot after offered one?

 

[ZagDoc]

Depends on the program. There are many programs these days that send out more offers than interview slots. Also, since ENT programs also only interview on a handful of days, many programs' interview dates conflict with each other. So a lot of the time, people are trying to nab up one of the 10 interview slots on a given day, and everyone seems to want the same days. What I'm trying to say is... the process feels insanely competitive for some reason.

Worst case scenario: I was scrubbed on a case and didn't get the interview invite email until 2 hours after it was sent. When I called, all the interview slots were already full. I also remember another where I was in clinic and responded to an invite email after 30 minutes and got my third choice for interview date (which I had to cancel since I had another interview that day). Note I'm talking in minutes and hours here and not days. Not all are this crazy, but most seemed to have a time crunch.

I also got the majority of my offers in October FWIW.

So yes, it does matter, even though it seems silly. I think its being driven by all the smartphones out there these days because if you talk to the older residents their experience was much different than people the last 2 years or so. I hate to tell you to not go on an international trip, because fourth year is a great time for those sort of things - but you worked hard to get to this point and it would seem silly to put yourself at a disadvantage like that. Save the travel for after you match.

 

[Schnozberries]

I agree with Zag. Like his experience, the majority of my offers were in October. I will add that I did receive a few in Nov, and then some late offers from waitlists in Dec and Jan, but the vast majority were in Oct. Additionally, his explanation of the ridiculousness regarding minutes and hours making a difference in obtaining an interview are unfortunately true as well. I missed 1 offer because I responded after 30 mins instead of 29, or 28 or whatever the magic # was that day. For another program, I responded within 20 mins and got my 4th choice for interview day. The bottom line is that this is a competitive specialty with a homogeneously well-qualified group of applicants, and therefore some programs are happy to fill interview spots with whomever responds the fastest once they've initially filtered applicants. Not everyone does this, but it's difficult to know which programs do, and it'd be a shame if one of your top choices misses out on the chance to interview you because you can't get to your email. I hope this confirmed some of Zag's points, and good luck during this year's cycle.

 

[Vix]

Do interview offers start rolling in at the beginning or end of October? Also, is there any way to determine the available interview days before you "get the call/e-mail"?

Thanks for all your insight.

 

[Schnozberries]

As far as my October offers went, they were all toward the end of month (10/20 - 1, 10/25 - 2, 10/26 - 2, 10/27 - 1). I would caution you not to put too much stock or anxiety into early offers, because I received 8 more in the follwing 3 months (it just happened that Oct was heaviest). I'm not sure if there is any historical consistency among programs, but a few will list future interview dates on their websites. If you haven't taken a look already, some of the archived posts on otomatch.com offer this type of information. Again, good luck to all.