How is the interview trail?

[Kiki2004]

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Where is everyone? This is the only forum on SDN that hasn't had any activity in over a week! What's going on?

Just wanted to see how everyone's interviews are going so far and what they think about certain programs. Feel free to post your experiences! 😀

I've been on four and they have all gone really well. December is going to be a busy month. Venturing out to the east coast!

Has anyone had any problems with taking too much time off during their rotation for interviews? I will be missing a lot of time in December...I hope it won't be a problem.

Good luck!

 

[Cameron]

It's nice to see some activity in this forum! Following along with Kiki2004's question I have one to add -- when do most programs seem to offer the bulk of their interviews? I'll soon be scheduling my 4th year and am trying to decide if it would be better to take a month off in December or January.

Ok, back to Kiki's questions - Let us know how those interviews are going!

 

[gomezjl]

Hey. I'm new to the forum and am really enjoying it (why didn't I look at this 1st year!) Anyway, I have had 4 peds interviews and will be going on my 5th on Friday. So far, LIJ/North Shore, Nassau University Hospital, Atlantic Health System, Jersey Shore. I have SUNY Stony Brook on Friday. As you can see, I am sticking to the New York area, but in non-urban environments. I have a 5 year old and don't want to be living in the city. Coming up I have Winthrop hospital. My interviews have been very laid back and conversational. I thought this was just for peds, but I've heard the same from people interviewing in very competitive fields and at competitive programs. They are tiring though and having 4 in one week was ridiculous.
I'm not sure about anyone else, but I think it's better to take November/December off for peds. I received all of my interviews right after submitting my application in Septmber, even CHOP. Programs are reluctant to schedule you so far into the season. They want their early spots filled. If you want to reserve one or two interviews for January, make it a place you are very interested in, so you are experienced. I have also heard that interviewers "remember" you better if they see you the end of the season, but I don't think interviewing early has ever been proven to hurt your chances. If you're good, you're good.

 

[Kiki2004]

Glad to see some activity in this forum, too! Thanks for posting! I wish I had scheduled my vacation either in Decmeber or January, but circumstances didn't allow me to. It seems that a lot of my classmates did this, with January being the most popular for reasons that gomezjl mentioned. But I've basically scattered my interviews out. Another option would be to schedule an "easy" rotation (like I am doing right now) so that it's not bad if you take time off (verses doing a sub-I). Hope that helps, Cameron.

gomezjl, I have one interview (for Med-Peds) at Mount Sinai in January and I got two invitations at NY Methodist and Albert Einstein Montefiore (both for categorical peds). I haven't scheduled them yet. Being that you're from the New York area, what do you know about these programs?

I've been on four so far, UC Irvine, USC, University of Nevada (Las Vegas), and UCSF. Everyone is extremely nice and the environment is not intimidating at all (unlike med school interviews!) I feel like half the time the interviewer is asking me if I have any questions for them and the other half they're trying to sell them/the program to me! I seldom feel like I'm put on the spot or asked difficult questions. That could be the nature of Pediatrics, though.

Got an interview at Rush in Chicago and in Arizona (both Med-Peds) and Loma Linda and University of New Mexico (both categorical peds) in a few weeks.

Keep on postin!

 

[BPKurtz]

Hey Cameron, welcome to a fellow Buckeye. I'm a 4th year going into peds. I'd say either December or January for interviewing is fine. I'm doing January -- I think it's a little better because the month is longer, a full four weeks as opposed to the shortened month of December. What gomezjl says is pretty much true, that you find out about most peds interviews pretty early, so scheduling in December wouldn't really be a problem (i.e. by December 1st I had heard definitively about interviews from >90% of the programs).

My interview trail is going fine, so far I've had NYU, LIJ/North Shore, St. Christopher's, Yale, and Children's National (DC). After only 5 I'm already sick of the tours -- all ERs and call rooms look the same! Still, if they didn't show them to us I'd be a little scared. I get a break this month but several coming up in January. But the nice thing about peds is that the interviewers and residents tend to be friendly and benign.

Regarding NYC places -- I've got an interview at Mt. Sinai coming up and I was wondering what people know about graduates from there going into fellowship. The website seems to suggest that they emphasize primary care. I have no problem getting a good foundation in general peds before I go do a fellowship somewhere, but is the idea that graduates are discouraged from pursuing fellowships and/or few do? My familiarity with Mt. Sinai is mostly just hearing academic pediatricians of various speciaties say it's a great program, and I wasn't aware of this primary care focus until I got that vibe from the website. Any perspectives?

Good luck on your interviews everyone!

bpkurtz

 

[docmartin]

Hi guys! Congrats on all your interviews! I have a few questions, if you don't mind. I am a 3rd year trying to plan out my 4th year (I will be doing peds). Reading your posts, it sounds like Dec or Jan are good months to take off or schedule an easy rotation? Which would you recommend? Also, Kiki2004, what do you mean by "categorical" peds? It's good to hear that residency interviews are not as intense as med school interviews! What a relief! Well good luck to you guys and thanks for your replies!

 

[BPKurtz]

Originally posted by docmartin
Reading your posts, it sounds like Dec or Jan are good months to take off or schedule an easy rotation? Which would you recommend? Also, Kiki2004, what do you mean by "categorical" peds?

If you have the capability of scheduling month with no responsibilities (we do at my institution, because it's assumed you'll need it for interviews), I would strongly encourage doing that in Dec or Jan because that allows you to have maximum flexibility to schedule interviews. Of course, if you're like one of my friends who's only interviewing at 3 places, you won't really need a month off. The deal is that certain rotations will get ticked at you for taking time for interviews while others will look the other way up to a point. For instance, I'm taking a radiology elective and they tell us we can take up to 3 days off, which is pretty nice. Anyway, the best way to find out which rotations are good for doing interviews is to talk to the med 4's at your institution.

Not sure, but I think Kiki was using the term categorical peds to contrast with meds/peds programs, since it sounds like she's interviewing at both. Categorical can also mean something else. When you apply to the programs, a few of them (generally a handful of bigger academic ones) will have a couple of choices for people doing pediatrics. They may have separate applications to a "primary care track" and a "categorical track." People who are strongly considering fellowship after residency generally steer away from the primary care track, although you will get primary care experience in any program because much of the curriculum for pediatric residency is spelled out as a requirement for programs to get ACGME accreditation. (In other words, the bulk of the curriculum as far as time on the wards, time in the ER, time in the NICU and PICU, and 1/2 day continuity clinic per week, is basically the same for all programs, the idea being to ensure baseline pediatrics knowledge in residency graduates.) Anyway, a small number of programs also have special tracks you can do as well (research track, pediatric genetics track, or triple board track [psych/child and adolescent psych/peds]). But most programs either have one pediatrics residency program or a choice of primary care and categorical tracks.

bpkurtz

 

[jaydee2004]

I'm so happy to see some activity here.

I've been on 7 interviews so far. I think that I have 12 more to go-I applied to too many programs (I'm cancelling some of them.) I've been to DuPont, Robert Wood, UMDNJ-Newark, Jacobi, UVA, MCV and Downstate. All of the interviews have been very low key and coversational. All of the places really do look the same after awhile and all of the curricula are the same. I'm interviewing in the Northeast primarily. As I go further along, I'm realizing that I really want to stay in the NJ/NYC area. It's really going to come down to location.

I have the last two weeks or Nov., Dec. and January to do interviews. For 6 of those weeks, I'm doing electives that don't require me to me at the hospital. Since I have scheduled so many interviews, it helps to have all of the free time to relax in between them. I also have time to get my other stuff done.

 

[Kiki2004]

docmartin-

BPKurtz pretty much stated perfectly what "categorical peds" is. Since I have applied to med-peds as well I usually make the distinction by saying categorical peds. You'll see this term used in other specialties as well, i.e., medicine, surgery. Of course they use this to distinguish prelim versus categorical...for example, one year (prelim) of medicine before you go into neurology versus three years (categorical) of straight internal medicine. Same goes for Surgery. You can do a prelim year in surgery before you go into plastics or do a categorical program where you do surgery for five years.

There are also some pediatric programs that I applied to that make the distinction. Kinda like BPkurtz mentioned, UCLA has a Community Health and Advocacy Track along with their categorical peds. Albert Einstein in NY has a categorical track and a Social Pediatrics Track. You can apply to one or both.

Hope this helps.

 

[ubiquitous]

Originally posted by Kiki2004
docmartin-

BPKurtz pretty much stated perfectly what "categorical peds" is. Since I have applied to med-peds as well I usually make the distinction by saying categorical peds.

Kiki2004,

When you develop your rank list do you/will you rank according to program or specialty? Do you have to rank all med-peds then rank all categorical peds? Also, have you applied to both specialties at the same programs? Have you had any problems with this from program directors?

Thanks!

 

[BPKurtz]

Originally posted by ubiquitous
Kiki2004,

When you develop your rank list do you/will you rank according to program or specialty? Do you have to rank all med-peds then rank all categorical peds? Also, have you applied to both specialties at the same programs? Have you had any problems with this from program directors?

Thanks!

Kiki can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you make your rank list based on individual programs, and specialty is only a consideration in your own mind. So your rank list could look like 1)X university med-peds, 2)Y university med-peds, 3)Z university categorical peds, 4)Z university social pediatrics, 5)X university peds. Works just the same as normal match list. The match computer should match you by going down your list regardless of specialty. As long as the other specialty you're considering is another regular match in the NRMP and not an early match (like urology or any San Francisco match specialty) ranking should be straightforward based on where you'd most like to be. Of course couples match complicates everything but not more so than usual.


I don't know about applying to both peds and med-peds at the same program, but I do know that people will apply to both categorical peds and primary care peds in the same program, or categorical peds and community health and advocacy peds. It's understood and they usually schedule your interviews so you can do both on the same day.

bpkurtz