How many interview offers do you have for psychiatry at this point?

[twospadz]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

If you don't feel comfortable posting, its fine. Just please don't criticize this thread. I will start off by saying I have 5 at this point and I am at a MD school in the US. I applied to 29 programs. Also state whether you are a MD, DO, or IMG. This helps to clarify your situation.

 

[Seroquel]

I applied to 20 schools and have 4 interviews so far. I decided to add 11 more schools yesterday. I'm at a MD school as well.

 

[drkamikaze]

..

 

[twospadz]

I applied to 20 schools and have 4 interviews so far. I decided to add 11 more schools yesterday. I'm at a MD school as well.

I actually was going to apply to 23 schools but people around me kept telling me to apply to more. So I applied to 29. Wish I hadn't. Advisor wanted me to apply in the 30s. That's when I said no way. Its still early in the cycle though.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

So you over-apply because everyone else is over-applying, adding more applications to the stacks that programs have to screen in order to offer interviews, thereby delaying further their ability to offer interviews (many of which are still 3-4 months away), causing others to panic that they aren't getting interviews, thereby prodding them to send out more applications...

 

[Seroquel]

Well, my school scared us into applying for more psych programs after we had some people not match last year. These were individuals without red flags who did not apply to enough programs.. so idk.

 

[sazerac]

So you over-apply because everyone else is over-applying, adding more applications to the stacks that programs have to screen in order to offer interviews, thereby delaying further their ability to offer interviews (many of which are still 3-4 months away), causing others to panic that they aren't getting interviews, thereby prodding them to send out more applications...

It is quite the vicious cycle, and so unnecessary. Internal Medicine did an analysis recently:

http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(16)30439-9/fulltext?rss=yes

Conclusions
"Over the past several years, the internal medicine community has seen a steady increase in the number of applications each student submits for the Match. This increase appears to be driven by an unsubstantiated perception that the Match has become more competitive and that there are an insufficient number of spots for qualified applicants. This steady increase creates cost to the applicants and the residency programs without changing any individual applicant's likelihood of a successful Match. Our community must work to prevent an ongoing escalation in these applications and to reverse the current unsustainable situation."

 

[drkamikaze]

.meow.

 

[3lefts]

I'm curious if anyone who took a LOA or otherwise has red or yellow flags is getting interview love pre-dean's letter?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[sazerac]

I'm curious if anyone who took a LOA or otherwise has red or yellow flags is getting interview love pre-dean's letter?

I have more than one yellow flag, including taking five years to finish a 4 year MD school (and it wasn't for "research" 😉), and I have gotten interview invites in September.

 

[splik]

It is quite the vicious cycle, and so unnecessary. Internal Medicine did an analysis recently:

http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(16)30439-9/fulltext?rss=yes

Conclusions
"Over the past several years, the internal medicine community has seen a steady increase in the number of applications each student submits for the Match. This increase appears to be driven by an unsubstantiated perception that the Match has become more competitive and that there are an insufficient number of spots for qualified applicants. This steady increase creates cost to the applicants and the residency programs without changing any individual applicant's likelihood of a successful Match. Our community must work to prevent an ongoing escalation in these applications and to reverse the current unsustainable situation."

well the AAMC (a corrupt organization that has repeatedly lied to congress to further their own interests) is one of the stakeholders who benefits by the swelling of the coffers from students overapplying.

 

[psychhopefull2016]

I initially applied to 16, panicked early and added 2 more, was offered interviews at a few places, unpanicked, and withdrew from 2 again

 

[DrTBone]

Im a DO who took a loa when I had my son last year and I have three invites. Just stay positive!!!

 

[hypoman]

I'm a DO. Send out 10 apps. Up to 4 interviews right now and attended 1 already at my top choice. I'll probably just do one more interview and end it there.

 

[metches]

IMG perspective. 78 programs. 4 Rejections. 0 Interviews. Need visa. 234 step 1, 235 step 2, cs pass, and 226 step 3 (all first time).

 

[twospadz]

I'm a DO. Send out 10 apps. Up to 4 interviews right now and attended 1 already at my top choice. I'll probably just do one more interview and end it there.

You applied to AOA or ACGME programs?

 

[serimeri]

I'm a DO. Send out 10 apps. Up to 4 interviews right now and attended 1 already at my top choice. I'll probably just do one more interview and end it there.

I would advise you to attend more interviews if you mean ACGME.

 

[sazerac]

It's hard to follow the rule of 1/3's if you only go on 2 interviews!

 

[Postictal Raiden]

I'm a DO. Send out 10 apps. Up to 4 interviews right now and attended 1 already at my top choice. I'll probably just do one more interview and end it there.

I don't care how awesome your application is, attending only two interviews is a very very risky move.

 

[hypoman]

I don't care how awesome your application is, attending only two interviews is a very very risky move.

To serimeri too: thanks for the input and advice ya'll. I am applying only allopathic. It is very risky I agree however this particular program is in my hometown. After rotating there multiple times I got a pretty substantial "wink wink" from them as they heavily target local people because there's no psychiatrists in the area. Risky nonetheless, but I'm going for it.

 

[scruffy821]

To serimeri too: thanks for the input and advice ya'll. I am applying only allopathic. It is very risky I agree however this particular program is in my hometown. After rotating there multiple times I got a pretty substantial "wink wink" from them as they heavily target local people because there's no psychiatrists in the area. Risky nonetheless, but I'm going for it.

I'd be careful...judging from these forums there are plenty of applicants who get "wink wink"s from programs who end up getting burned. The benefits of not doing a few more interviews are greaaatly outweighed by the potential risks.

 

[clausewitz2]

Can I get 20 on hypoman being the first poster of next year's "Didn't match, what should I do" thread?

 

[splik]

To serimeri too: thanks for the input and advice ya'll. I am applying only allopathic. It is very risky I agree however this particular program is in my hometown. After rotating there multiple times I got a pretty substantial "wink wink" from them as they heavily target local people because there's no psychiatrists in the area. Risky nonetheless, but I'm going for it.

"wink wink" is worthless. they could have had something in their eye. get it in writing. it is perfectly legitimate for them to give you a written statement that they will rank you in their top x even if they are through the match. It's only a match violation for them to ask you how highly they will rank you etc. If they haven't even said that they are going to rank you to match and just had dust in their eye, that's even more worthless and could mean they're just not that into you as you seem to think. It is also perfectly legitimate for you to mention that you don't plan to rank any other programs but two. if they have any decency and aren't hella interested in you then they should tell you to rank more places. this is something for an in person or telephone convo. In fact, some programs rank applicants they know are a sure thing LOWER.

 

[Devpsi]

To serimeri too: thanks for the input and advice ya'll. I am applying only allopathic. It is very risky I agree however this particular program is in my hometown. After rotating there multiple times I got a pretty substantial "wink wink" from them as they heavily target local people because there's no psychiatrists in the area. Risky nonetheless, but I'm going for it.

I got four very strong, verbal winks from programs. I ended up matching at the fourth wink down on my list. Granted, I am very happy with where I ended up, but from my informal study, 75% of winks are pure schlock.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

I ended up matching at the highest program on my list that DIDN'T wink. Number 4.

 

[sazerac]

The only thing you can count on from a wink is that S2-S4 are still intact. Everything else is pure conjecture.

 

[hypoman]

Can I get 20 on hypoman being the first poster of next year's "Didn't match, what should I do" thread?

Lool thanks for the support buddy. Honestly if I didn't match I'd still rather take a year off than have to live several hours from my hometown for the next 4-5 years. I'm pretty confident in this so I'm just going to run for it. Thanks for everyone's input and best of luck ya'll!

 

[raccoon914]

Anyone still have 0 interviews? I applied to tons of programs, and all I have so far is a pile of rejections.

 

[JerryMouse]

I'm from a low/mid-tier southern MD school who is average in terms of scores and grades and have no publications or significant ECs. I applied to 20 programs, mostly in the Northeast and a few in the Midwest. So far, I have 4 interviews from "less competitive" programs and no rejections. Even though I'm worried about not getting more interviews since I'm applying outside of my med school region from a school without much name recognition, I won't be applying to more programs as that will make the over-application problem worse. Let's hope we all get more interviews in the next week or two!

 

[weezynation]

Of course Dean's letters only went out a few days ago, but I guess I had unreal expectations of things picking up immediately after they were distributed. Looking at the interview thread, it seemed there was much more action between 9/15-10/1 than there has been this week, but maybe that's just me. Plus obviously there's only a small percentage of psych applicants who post on SDN. However if things have actually slowed down, I guess I'm just curious if that's normal even though Dean's letters are now out?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Seroquel]

^ Yeah I agree. All of my invites were prior to the mspe coming out. It's been silent all week and I'm wondering why that is. It doesn't really make much sense to me tbh unless there are many more apps than usual and programs are sifting through them.

 

[DrTBone]

Yep my 4 interviews came pretty early. I was expecting it to pick up this week.

 

[thor343]

Yep my 4 interviews came pretty early. I was expecting it to pick up this week.

Ditto, got three right off the bat and silence since..... Strange

 

[JerryMouse]

Another n=1 here, all my invites are also from last week prior to the release of the dean's letter. Probably like what you guys suspect, programs are taking longer to sort through apps because people are gradually applying to more and more programs. In fact, one of my school's deans told me to apply to at least 40 programs, which seems excessive even for an average applicant. Its concerning that psychiatry might become like IM in the next few years, where everyone is applying to at least 30-40 programs.

 

[psychhopefull2016]

I've been withdrawing from some as I've gotten enough interviews so hopefully it shrinks the "to review" pile a little!

 

[sazerac]

The programs that were going to "wait for a Dean's letter" got their wish, and now they are drowning in paragraphs of new information on each applicant. I didn't expect a lot of invites the first few days of October.

 

[surfguy84]

I'm a DO. Send out 10 apps. Up to 4 interviews right now and attended 1 already at my top choice. I'll probably just do one more interview and end it there.

Also a DO, but M2.... is only 4-5 interviews enough to secure a match?

 

[clausewitz2]

Also a DO, but M2.... is only 4-5 interviews enough to secure a match?

Depends entirely on your risk tolerance. Definitely possible, but if you look at Charting Outcomes graphs of contiguous ranks v. chance of matching you are clearly leaving a lot of AUC on the table.

 

[hypoman]

Also a DO, but M2.... is only 4-5 interviews enough to secure a match?

Definitely best to do more I believe. I'm in a situation where it's my hometown and it's a less competitive school. I've done tons of rotations with them and feel pretty confident about it. Risky move nonetheless. Maybe I'm a bit lazy too.

 

[psychhopefull2016]

Also a DO, but M2.... is only 4-5 interviews enough to secure a match?

I'm MD but was told to aim for 10-12 by the program director at my institution

 

[TheFuture_22]

I also haven't gotten many invites since the dean's letter. Things have really slowed down for me as well. It's really odd.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[aberrydulldoc]

I'm an MD who took 2 LOAs. Applied to 36. 1 invite prior to MSPE send-out. 5 total to date.

 

[scruffy821]

Things have slowed down for me too since the MSPEs came out. Glad to hear that many of us are in the same boat! Hopefully things will pick up tomorrow or early next week 🙂

 

[phant0m0o0o]

5 pre-MSPE. 1 post-MSPE. Boy has it slowed down 🙁

 

[grapefruit17]

Since people have contributing so much this interview process I figure I should contribute my two cents as well:

DO student, 4 invites pre-mspe, 2 invites since oct 1.

 

[psychhopefull2016]

As far as actual numbers I am USMD, applied 18, withdrew 2 before they gave anyone on SDN invites, 2 others that had given a couple to SDN people but not me, got 11 pre-MSPE invitations, 3 post MSPE. Withdrew from 2 that gave me offers!

 

[OldPsychDoc]

As the season commences, if you choose to cancel on one of these offers, PLEASE tell the programs as soon as you've decided--preferably a week or more before the scheduled interview.

I'm informed that our openings are basically filled (or soon will be--e.g. we've tendered as many offers as we have slots) and we still have >1200 applications we can't do anything with. 🙁

 

[JerryMouse]

As the season commences, if you choose to cancel on one of these offers, PLEASE tell the programs as soon as you've decided--preferably a week or more before the scheduled interview.

I'm informed that our openings are basically filled (or soon will be--e.g. we've tendered as many offers as we have slots) and we still have >1200 applications we can't do anything with. 🙁

Do you remember if this also happened last year by early October? I really hope that other programs still have some open dates.

 

[Dr. Harambe]

I too over-applied in retrospect, partly due to late night anxiety and partly due to my school (USMD)- which has recently adopted individual meetings to frighten forth years about SOAP and to discuss how many programs to apply to (e.g. psych applicants at my school were told to apply to between 20-30 programs from what I have discussed with classmates). I now have 5 pre-MSPE and 5 post-MSPE invites, and if no more come in I am quite happy with the invites I have received (but I have also not heard from some programs I really wanted to).

 

[Dr. Harambe]

I'm a DO. Send out 10 apps. Up to 4 interviews right now and attended 1 already at my top choice. I'll probably just do one more interview and end it there.

I know it has already been said, but it may be beneficial for you to see what other programs have to offer (esp. with those ranking only 2 programs in psych in 2016 having a >30% (10/32) chance of not matching (http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Charting-Outcomes-US-Allopathic-Seniors-2016.pdf). Going for an interview at more programs won't obligate you to rank those programs (if you do ultimately decide you can't leave the area you are in now), but it will provide you with more flexibility around match time and peace of mind. Also, I would hypothesize that if you don't match at your hometown program this year, the chances of that happening next year are not likely to increase.