How many interviews are 'enough'?

[peerie]

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I am applying to FM, and have a pretty good sense of what I want in a program. I applied to a good number of programs and have a ton of interviews now. Ok, so that's a good thing except that I am now sort of dreading going on all these interviews. It is really exhausting and I am shocked at how stressful it all is.

I have my top choice coming up soon, plus another top choice and another that I like but I don't know if I can go on the rest. How do you know when to cancel interviews, and if so then how do you do it?

I am really pooped and my brain is fried and I have only had a few interviews so far. What do/did others do? This is really hard work and I am struggling with keeping my stress to a manageable level (whatever that is!).

 

[SLUser11]

I am applying to FM, and have a pretty good sense of what I want in a program. I applied to a good number of programs and have a ton of interviews now. Ok, so that's a good thing except that I am now sort of dreading going on all these interviews. It is really exhausting and I am shocked at how stressful it all is.

I have my top choice coming up soon, plus another top choice and another that I like but I don't know if I can go on the rest. How do you know when to cancel interviews, and if so then how do you do it?

I am really pooped and my brain is fried and I have only had a few interviews so far. What do/did others do? This is really hard work and I am struggling with keeping my stress to a manageable level (whatever that is!).

If you look at the data, An Allopathic US senior has a near 100% chance of matching family medicine if they go on 4 or more interviews. Also, even if you go on 3 or less interviews, you still would have a 95% match rate.

Of course, for FMGs, the odds aren't near as good.


That same set of information shows that a US senior with a Step 1 score less than 180 still has a 93% match rate. If you got 181-190, 98% match rate. It just gets better as you go up from there.


I guess what I'm trying to say is.....don't get too stressed out. You're going to be just fine. It's a buyer's market.

 

[agranulocytosis]

If you look at the data, An Allopathic US senior has a near 100% chance of matching family medicine if they go on 4 or more interviews. Also, even if you go on 3 or less interviews, you still would have a 95% match rate.

Of course, for FMGs, the odds aren't near as good.


That same set of information shows that a US senior with a Step 1 score less than 180 still has a 93% match rate. If you got 181-190, 98% match rate. It just gets better as you go up from there.


I guess what I'm trying to say is.....don't get too stressed out. You're going to be just fine. It's a buyer's market.

How are you inferring the amount of interviews from this data? Are you saying that each contiguous rank consititutes an interview?

 

[SLUser11]

How are you inferring the amount of interviews from this data? Are you saying that each contiguous rank consititutes an interview?

Umm.....yes.

Let me rephrase it so you like it better: You have a near-100% chance of matching if you rank 4 or more places.

 

[agranulocytosis]

Umm.....yes.

Let me rephrase it so you like it better: You have a near-100% chance of matching if you rank 4 or more places.

Thanks. I didn't realize that both are synonymous in the document. Up until your previous post I was under the impression that ranks were just that, and not interviews granted.

 

[DonStracci]

I am in the same situation- I have a ton of FM interviews, but now after a few interviews I'm tiring of process (like the dinners lol). After the interview this week, all of the programs I am interviewing at are ones I am excited about. If I had any more scheduled that I wasn't thrilled about, I think I'd cancel them at this point.
At the same time- I have no rejections at this point, but there's ~6 programs I've not yet heard from. They are quite competitive, probably out of my league in terms of my competitiveness as an applicant. But if I do end up hearing from them, I will go ahead and interview at most of them... great more dinners!😛

 

[Winged Scapula]

Thanks. I didn't realize that both are synonymous in the document. Up until your previous post I was under the impression that ranks were just that, and not interviews granted.

Technically, you do not have to interview at a program to rank it, but practically, almost no one ranks a program they haven't interviewed at because it would be wasted (except in the very rare chance of a program mistakenly ranking someone they received an app from but never interviewed).

Thus, effectively, the number of ranks = minimum number of interviews (ie, you can interview at more, but not necessarily rank all of the programs).

 

[agranulocytosis]

Technically, you do not have to interview at a program to rank it, but practically, almost no one ranks a program they haven't interviewed at because it would be wasted (except in the very rare chance of a program mistakenly ranking someone they received an app from but never interviewed).

Thus, effectively, the number of ranks = minimum number of interviews (ie, you can interview at more, but not necessarily rank all of the programs).

Ah, I see. Now it's all cleared up. I would hate to go on "16+" interviews, however.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

Ah, I see. Now it's all cleared up. I would hate to go on "16+" interviews, however.

Unnecessary in most cases. If you're going derm, ophtho or rad/onc probably in your best interest to go on as many as possible. Same if you're a marginal candidate.

For most specialties I think 5-10 would be sufficient. Lower side if it's a less competitive specialty or you are not interviewing at super prestigious schools, high side for the other case.

 

[Law2Doc]

Unnecessary in most cases. If you're going derm, ophtho or rad/onc probably in your best interest to go on as many as possible. Same if you're a marginal candidate.

For most specialties I think 5-10 would be sufficient. Lower side if it's a less competitive specialty or you are not interviewing at super prestigious schools, high side for the other case.

Well, in the more competitive specialties, some schools are advising that you aren't safe unless you have 10-12 interviews. And that doesn't include the preliminary year programs at which you also will have to interview, seperately. So there will be plenty of folks going into the ROAD specialties and rad/onc who go on 20 interviews.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

we should probably rename it the ROD specialties. Based on NRMP data Anesthesiology really doesn't look any more competitive than IM or Peds.

The only thing that's really any different is match rate for USMGs. 94% for anesthesiology, 97-99% for IM/Peds

 

[Mariah246]

Unnecessary in most cases. If you're going derm, ophtho or rad/onc probably in your best interest to go on as many as possible. Same if you're a marginal candidate.

For most specialties I think 5-10 would be sufficient. Lower side if it's a less competitive specialty or you are not interviewing at super prestigious schools, high side for the other case.

Even in derm, the average matched applicant last year had a contiguous rank list of 8 programs.

So 8 interviews. I would agree >10 is probably a nicer area to reside in.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Even in derm, the average matched applicant last year had a contiguous rank list of 8 programs.

So 8 interviews. I would agree >10 is probably a nicer area to reside in.

Derm is probably not a good comparison.

Most of those applicants are highly self-selected and even then, might not get more than 8 interviews because of the competition and number of available programs. For the rest of us peons, more is probably better.

 

[Blade28]

I went to around 20 interviews.

 

[peerie]

Thanks for all these replies everybody, they are awesome! 👍

I guess this is an ongoing process, and that I will just see how things go as I move along. I have interviews to the places I really want (yea!) and have already had some good interviews and so I may start to cancel some outlyers.

On the other hand, I have already bought the tickets which have super high cancellation fees so maybe I will go. Or, I could just go and spend a day and a night in some city and enjoy the ticket! We shall see -