how many interviews

[afteranesthesia]

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How many interviews is everyone planning to go to this year? I know there have been past threads, but what is a good number?

 

[anesthesiafever]

i am thinking of 15. i don't know about ty and prelims though.

 

[XRanger]

12 scheduled so far

 

[MasterYi]

8 is considered the magic number

 

[TUBW25]

I was thinking 14 - 15 with one being a courtesy to my home institution. I am actually curious to know what people think of the "courtesy" interview. On the one hand I feel as if it is the proper thing to do as some of the faculty took the time to write some of my letters of rec. yet on the other I feel as if I am taking away a potential interview spot from another qualified applicant. Any thoughts?

 

[gasblaster]

I was thinking 14 - 15 with one being a courtesy to my home institution. I am actually curious to know what people think of the "courtesy" interview. On the one hand I feel as if it is the proper thing to do as some of the faculty took the time to write some of my letters of rec. yet on the other I feel as if I am taking away a potential interview spot from another qualified applicant. Any thoughts?

It's always nice to be in that sort of "predicament." I had the same thought process last year, not because I didn't like the program, but I just wanted to go somewhere new/different.

I decided to interview there for the reasons you mentioned. I had advisors and LORs from faculty who (not trying to toot my own horn) expressed that they would love to have me as a resident. I think not even interviewing (i.e. excluding even the possibility of matching there) would come off negatively and felt like it is a "courtesy." It's only 1 interview spot so I don't think that it would really affect their ability to match qualified applicants.

 

[scudrunner]

12 for me. Would like to do less but paranoia won't let me.

 

[DAKAZA]

How many TY or prelim interviews is a safe number?

 

[afteranesthesia]

I'm thinking I'll do 13 or 14 Anesthesia interviews and maybe 7 prelim/TY interviews? Is that overkill?

 

[Random Anesthesiologist]

I have 13 anesthesia and 4 Prelim/TY so far.

My bank account won't allow much more if distance is involved.

 

[Infexious]

.

 

[MasterYi]

I have 16 scheduled right now for anesthesia. I wanted to be able to "toss" the bottom 3-4 that I absolutely couldn't see myself at and then rank 10-12. Based on the "charting the outcomes" data, this seems to be the "magic number" to assure a match.

if you are going to "toss them" let the programs know for the rest of us applicants

 

[Infexious]

.

 

[MasterYi]

Obviously there is no way to know if you "could not see yourself at a program" without going on the interview. If I like all 16 then I will rank 16. It is only logical to have more than 10-12 scheduled so that in a worse case scenario you do not have to rank a program you hated. You can still rank the "magic number" and have the opportunity to be more selective on who you rank. This seems to be the policy that most posters here on SDN follow so I do not see the reasoning in your comment insinuating I cancel some of them.

yea i mean you earned em definitely, just saying if you arent gonna rank them after the interviews let the programs know (whenever you decide) and they will give some of us lower tier applicants a shot 😀

 

[foley12]

Obviously there is no way to know if you "could not see yourself at a program" without going on the interview. If I like all 16 then I will rank 16. It is only logical to have more than 10-12 scheduled so that in a worse case scenario you do not have to rank a program you hated. You can still rank the "magic number" and have the opportunity to be more selective on who you rank. This seems to be the policy that most posters here on SDN follow so I do not see the reasoning in your comment insinuating I cancel some of them.

I dont understand why you would not rank every program at which you interview. Surely a program cant be that bad that you would rather go unmatched then be there. And if you end up matching at number 16 you obviously were not that great of a candidate to begin with and you will just have to settle for what you can get.

 

[TeamZissou]

I dont understand why you would not rank every program at which you interview. Surely a program cant be that bad that you would rather go unmatched then be there. And if you end up matching at number 16 you obviously were not that great of a candidate to begin with and you will just have to settle for what you can get.

For the people I know who didn't rank programs it was a combination of the program and location they decided they couldn't handle.

 

[medstudent87]

I have 13 anesthesia interviews (mix of advanced and categorical). My advisor says that's "good", but more would be "great". I was under the impression that this was plenty...am I wrong?

I got a few interviews that I didn't even bother scheduling since I thought I had enough and they weren't great programs...

 

[briton]

I dont understand why you would not rank every program at which you interview. Surely a program cant be that bad that you would rather go unmatched then be there. And if you end up matching at number 16 you obviously were not that great of a candidate to begin with and you will just have to settle for what you can get.

Can't imagine a bad candidate getting 16 interviews to begin with.