How many interviews....

[gatormanade]

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Hey guys, I was wondering what is a good number of interviews to have to at least feel confident that you will match? I know nothing is for sure, but I have heard people say as few as 5 and as many as 20 are needed to feel confident.

The program director here says 10 is a good number

 

[mudphudstud]

Mathematically, you need >9....but of course that depends on how well one interviews and how competitive one is....range is probably 5-15 but I think most of us will feel confident with 9-11 minimum

 

[jasper0asb]

Mathematically, you need >9....but of course that depends on how well one interviews and how competitive one is....range is probably 5-15 but I think most of us will feel confident with 9-11 minimum

Just out of curiosity, what are you basing the >9 on?

Anyone have any thoughts on where we're at in the invite process? I'm having a hard time figuring out how many of the programs on the list still have a significant number of spots open and how many will just be offering a few for cancelations. I'd love to just about double my number of offers. Probably too late for that, huh? Sigh..

 

[TheLesPaul]

The idea is if schools interview ~10 people for each spot, attending 10 interviews statistically "ensures" a match.

I feel like all the people at my school applying (and me) feel like we'd like to double our invites, so... I'm sure things will start to move? Right?

 

[gatormanade]

The idea is if schools interview ~10 people for each spot, attending 10 interviews statistically "ensures" a match.

I feel like all the people at my school applying (and me) feel like we'd like to double our invites, so... I'm sure things will start to move? Right?

I feel that schools are offering more than 10 interviews for each spot

I also hope for more interviews, but AAO has essentially made things come to a stand still this week

 

[golfman]

The idea is if schools interview ~10 people for each spot, attending 10 interviews statistically "ensures" a match.

I feel like all the people at my school applying (and me) feel like we'd like to double our invites, so... I'm sure things will start to move? Right?

I've heard that as well, and have seen the NRMP data supporting that for other specialties. I don't fully understand it, though. I mean, if you interview at 10 stellar schools that don't have to go far down their rank list to match, wouldn't your chances of matching be much less than if you interviewed at 10 mid-tier schools who had to go quite far down their rank list to match?

 

[mudphudstud]

On average, each applicant is ranked high enough to match by 4-5 schools. The chances of being ranked that high is approximately 25-50% depending on how many student the school interviews for each spot, how competitive the school is, and how well the student interviews. Therefore, to be safe, one would want to interview at 10-15 schools. And yes, it does help to interview at some "lower first" or "second" tier schools to ensure that you will be ranked high enough.

 

[trahikat]

I feel like all the people at my school applying (and me) feel like we'd like to double our invites, so... I'm sure things will start to move? Right?

Ditto!

 

[gatormanade]

Ditto!

What schools havent sent out invites? I feel like all but maybe 4-5 have already...so are we just relying on people cancelling at this point?

 

[trahikat]

What schools havent sent out invites? I feel like all but maybe 4-5 have already...so are we just relying on people cancelling at this point?

These are schools I know of that have yet to send out invites:
- GW
- Georgetown
- U Maryland
- EVMS
- U Colorado
- Drexel
- Temple
- SUNY Stony Brook
- Albany
- Albert Einstein
- NYU
- Hofstra North Shore - LIJ
- Brown
- LSU Ochsner
- Washington U

I know that's not very many, but one can hope!

 

[jasper0asb]

What schools havent sent out invites? I feel like all but maybe 4-5 have already...so are we just relying on people cancelling at this point?

The other possibility is that some schools are still sending out larger batches of invites. Some of them don't send out all of their invites at once. It's hard to tell from sdn if a invite from a program already on the list was sent with a whole bunch of others, or was a single spot from a cancelation.

The overanalyzing has begun... 🙄

 

[gatormanade]

These are schools I know of that have yet to send out invites:
- GW
- Georgetown
- U Maryland
- EVMS
- U Colorado
- Drexel
- Temple
- SUNY Stony Brook
- Albany
- Albert Einstein
- NYU
- Hofstra North Shore - LIJ
- Brown
- LSU Ochsner
- Washington U

I know that's not very many, but one can hope!

Yikes, that is NOT very many at all...

 

[LasikNotLasix]

There are definitely other schools that have yet to invite. As far as I know, we're still waiting on UCLA, Stanford, Duke, NYEEI, Mt. Sinai. and Wills as well.

 

[trahikat]

There are definitely other schools that have yet to invite. As far as I know, we're still waiting on UCLA, Stanford, Duke, NYEEI, Mt. Sinai. and Wills as well.

Definitely. I should have clarified that my list wasn't comprehensive, just the schools that I'm waiting on...

 

[gatormanade]

Definitely. I should have clarified that my list wasn't comprehensive, just the schools that I'm waiting on...

Another quiet day...and everyone is back from AAO so that isnt holding anyone up I dont think

 

[MstaKing10]

the mathematical probability argument really does not hold much water because there are way too many variables in play. For example if you applied to 100 places and got 10 interviews vs applying to 20 places and getting 10 interviews, the odds are the latter is much more likely to match than the former.

That said, 10-12 does seem like a solid number, but more may be needed depending on how competitive your application is. 15-20 would be overkill but I'm sure some do it.

 

[golfman]

And yes, it does help to interview at some "lower first" or "second" tier schools to ensure that you will be ranked high enough.

So if somebody had 12 interviews at top 20 programs, you would recommend dropping some of those to include mid and low tier programs as well (assuming the person only wants to interview at 12 places)? I'm asking seriously. I wouldn't think so, but including mid and low tier would be safer. But it also seems strange to drop top programs for fear of not matching.

 

[tulip08]

I'm getting the sense from talking to people from other programs that there are a lot more applicants from each school this year. anyone know the statistics of how many applied?

 

[ehseejay]

There are 9 from my school. Normally there are 3-4.

 

[Eggsettera]

about 5 here compared to previous years 3-4

 

[InterviewMe]

I have spoken with people at interviews. It seems like some of the most prestigious schools (which generally place more people in specialties) have more ophtho applicants this year than usual.

Of the schools I am most familiar with, they have 10, 7, and 7, which is up from 7, 5, and 4 in recent years, respectively.

Does that mean there are more applicants? Maybe. But it could just be isolated to those types of schools. Regardless, the number of interviews is going to be the most meaningful thing for predicting your chances.

 

[mudphudstud]

we have 14 instead of 7 (2 campuses combined)

 

[LasikNotLasix]

I guess our school is one of the few that has less than usual... we have 4 instead of the usual 7-9.

 

[Ophtho222]

The UAB rejection email stated, 'this year we received the highest number of applicants ever.'

I know ophtho is the coolest field out there but with the optometry turf wars and Medicare cuts, I'm surprised that ophtho is even more competitive this year. any thoughts?

 

[GuitarHero1]

The UAB rejection email stated, 'this year we received the highest number of applicants ever.'

I know ophtho is the coolest field out there but with the optometry turf wars and Medicare cuts, I'm surprised that ophtho is even more competitive this year. any thoughts?

Medical students may not be as aware of the real economic life of ophthalmologists as they don't see any of it as students or residents. The optometry turf war hasn't exploded yet to cause a real issue to ophthalmologists throughout the entire USA so perhaps it hasn't caused much of a dent otherwise. In reality all specialties are going to suffer from pay cuts.

 

[golfman]

Medical students may not be as aware of the real economic life of ophthalmologists as they don't see any of it as students or residents. The optometry turf war hasn't exploded yet to cause a real issue to ophthalmologists throughout the entire USA so perhaps it hasn't caused much of a dent otherwise. In reality all specialties are going to suffer from pay cuts.

A lot of my fellow students going into Ophtho that I personally know erroneously believe they will be making as much as other ROAD specialties (Derm, rads, anesthesia).