How many places will you interview?

[TexasPhysician]

I was wondering how many interviews us current applicants will be/should be going on? I know it is early, but estimating......up to how many interviews will you all attend?

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[trophyhusband]

I was wondering how many interviews us current applicants will be/should be going on? I know it is early, but estimating......up to how many interviews will you all attend?

My wife will be interviewing at 12-15 programs. This is per the recommendations of the Dean of Students and the Psychiatry Program Director of her home school.

 

[whopper]

Do it like you did for college. Have some safeties, shoot for some programs that may be just a little beyond your reach, and some on par with your CV.

I said before that anything more than 7-8 is a decent amount. However I would increase it since things have become more competitive. Try for at least 10.

You won't have a clue your first 1-2 interviews. BY the 3-4th interview you have an idea of what to ask for, and what to expect.

 

[cookymonster]

Do it like you did for college. Have some safeties, shoot for some programs that may be just a little beyond your reach, and some on par with your CV.

I said before that anything more than 7-8 is a decent amount. However I would increase it since things have become more competitive. Try for at least 10.

You won't have a clue your first 1-2 interviews. BY the 3-4th interview you have an idea of what to ask for, and what to expect.

Wish I'd read this before scheduling Wash U. first...

I'll probably end up at 15, maybe as high as 20 if programs offer dates that fit my schedule. Since the match ends up having a huge impact for the next four years (and likely beyond), I'd rather spend extra time and money on the process now than find myself in a program that isn't the best fit.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I haven't decided yet but agree that more is probably better. 15 is probably an upper limit of feasible, though.

 

[whopper]

I do recall someone doing about 8 and thinking that number was too small. Master of Monkeys mentioned in another thread he did 11 and that was too many. So of course the right magic number is going to vary per person.

Personally I think 15-20 is way overkill, but that's the way I'd look at it for me.

I interviewed at about 8 places for fellowship, and by the time I did my 5th, I was wondering why I subjected myself to the horror of the process. (fellowship is different, its way less competitive). I already got into 2 programs I wanted, and had some very terrible travel stories...such as not being able to connect to the next flight, then being told by the airline to sleep in a motel they'd pay for with a complete stranger while waiting 4 hrs to get to the motel that was only 3 miles away, waiting in line for 2 hrs with all the other people that missed their connecting flight, and only getting about 3-4 hrs of sleep because I kept wondering who the heck the guy was I was with in the room.

By the time I hit my 6th, I knew I was going overboard. I knew the other programs couldn't offer what the top 2 offered, but did them anyway.

Worst interview I had was I had to go to a prison to be interviewed by the psychiatrist there, and then the guy was on vacation. Then the program told me to go to be interviewed at the hospital and there were 2 hospitals by the same exact name so I didn't know which one was the right one. I called to confirm, and they told me to go to the wrong one. Then the next day (2 day interview), they told me to park in a garage, and the parking attendant would be waiting for me and park my car. I get to the garage and the attendant has no idea what I'm talking about and says I can't park there. So I spend 40 minutes finding parking (the parking situation there was crazy), and I was 15 minutes late for the interview, and now the interviewer won't talk to me at all which bugged me because I knew the guy still had about 30 minutes left in his schedule interview me.

I spent a few hundred on that plane ticket to that interview, another few hundred on the hotel room and renting a car, and the more I learned about the program, the more I was not liking it. One of the attendings there even told me he didn't think much of it.

My point is, there is a point where its overkill and not worth the trouble. BY the time I finished my entire interview process, I was physically drained, and since I was chief there was a heck of a lot to worry about when I came back to work. I locked onto the program I wanted to be at, and chose to be by interview #2. I needed a few more just to make sure, but the last 3 were not needed. I would've saved about $1500, a lot of stress, and hours had I cancelled them.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Yeah, I think I'd definitely hit a burnout point somewhere if I went on too many interviews. So far, though, I'm excited about all the interviews I've gotten and don't want to cancel any. I guess I'm going to have to start thinking about which programs I haven't heard from that excite me a little less.

 

[cookymonster]

I do recall someone doing about 8 and thinking that number was too small. Master of Monkeys mentioned in another thread he did 11 and that was too many. So of course the right magic number is going to vary per person.

Personally I think 15-20 is way overkill, but that's the way I'd look at it for me.

I interviewed at about 8 places for fellowship, and by the time I did my 5th, I was wondering why I subjected myself to the horror of the process. (fellowship is different, its way less competitive). I already got into 2 programs I wanted, and had some very terrible travel stories...such as not being able to connect to the next flight, then being told by the airline to sleep in a motel they'd pay for with a complete stranger while waiting 4 hrs to get to the motel that was only 3 miles away, waiting in line for 2 hrs with all the other people that missed their connecting flight, and only getting about 3-4 hrs of sleep because I kept wondering who the heck the guy was I was with in the room.

By the time I hit my 6th, I knew I was going overboard. I knew the other programs couldn't offer what the top 2 offered, but did them anyway.

Worst interview I had was I had to go to a prison to be interviewed by the psychiatrist there, and then the guy was on vacation. Then the program told me to go to be interviewed at the hospital and there were 2 hospitals by the same exact name so I didn't know which one was the right one. I called to confirm, and they told me to go to the wrong one. Then the next day (2 day interview), they told me to park in a garage, and the parking attendant would be waiting for me and park my car. I get to the garage and the attendant has no idea what I'm talking about and says I can't park there. So I spend 40 minutes finding parking (the parking situation there was crazy), and I was 15 minutes late for the interview, and now the interviewer won't talk to me at all which bugged me because I knew the guy still had about 30 minutes left in his schedule interview me.

I spent a few hundred on that plane ticket to that interview, another few hundred on the hotel room and renting a car, and the more I learned about the program, the more I was not liking it. One of the attendings there even told me he didn't think much of it.

My point is, there is a point where its overkill and not worth the trouble. BY the time I finished my entire interview process, I was physically drained, and since I was chief there was a heck of a lot to worry about when I came back to work. I locked onto the program I wanted to be at, and chose to be by interview #2. I needed a few more just to make sure, but the last 3 were not needed. I would've saved about $1500, a lot of stress, and hours had I cancelled them.

Air travel is just horrific, but I'm trying to plan things out such that I only have to take 1 or 2 plane flights to get to all those interviews. I have one to St. Louis next month that I'm already freaking out about (especially because it's AirTran), but there's not much I can do about it other than hope for the best.

I'm trying to drive to the rest in massive loops around the eastern half of the country. It will likely translate into lots of lonely hours on the interstate, but I'd rather deal with that than the cost/hassle of air travel and retain the freedom of taking my own vehicle.

My assumption is I can handle 3 a week (possibly 4 if the programs are really close to each other). I won't really know until the process gets underway.

I'm also currently excited for my interview invites with a couple of exceptions. I may call to cancel those next week. I'm getting a lot more invites than I anticipated, which adds further chaos to all the planning.

 

[whopper]

I'm also currently excited for my interview invites with a couple of exceptions. I may call to cancel those next week. I'm getting a lot more invites than I anticipated, which adds further chaos to all the planning.

You're going to have to balance the safety aspect of applying to more programs vs the effectiveness factor. If you have plenty of interview offers (more than 12 IMHO--and that's an opinion not based on an exact science), and you have interviews to places you're not so hot about, I'd cancel some of the places you're not so hot about. I'd leave room for at least 3-4 safeties.

Since there are hundreds of people who read these posts, and I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea who may be an outlier, I'm saying this as a generality. If for any reason you have reason to believe you're not safe in getting into a program that's based on a valid reason, and not anxiety, you might want to err more on the safe side. Of course if there was something seriously wrong in that situation, you would figure the person wouldn't get too many interviews.

You may be fortunate enough to have people during your interview give you honest evaluations of where you stand to get into their program. If that's the case, it'll give you something to base how many interviews will be a safe amount.

 

[Sneezing]

I applied to 30. Interviews started rolling in pretty fast. I have 12 scheduled right now. A mix of solid programs and 'safety' programs. I don't want to stretch myself thin or risk angering preceptors by taking so many days off during the rotation that I actually just withdrew from several programs. I would have liked to seen them all, but there really isn't that much time.

Ultimately, I'm capping out at 14 and at the very most 15 and no more! My opinion from looking at stats is as soon as you hit 10 you're golden. I got my 10 so the remaining few open spots in my schedule are reserved for the ones I want the most.

 

[Scorcher31]

Wow sneezing you must be one heck of a strong applicant to have 12 interviews scheduled already. Is it not as early in the process as I thought it was? I have two interviews scheduled and two other programs contacted me letting me know that I will be contacted in the near future with an interview request. Don't the majority of interview requests happen in Oct/NoV? Hope I'm not worse off than I thought. I applied to 28 locations, 8 of which I don't expect to hear back from.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Wow sneezing you must be one heck of a strong applicant to have 12 interviews scheduled already. Is it not as early in the process as I thought it was? I have two interviews scheduled and two other programs contacted me letting me know that I will be contacted in the near future with an interview request. Don't the majority of interview requests happen in Oct/NoV? Hope I'm not worse off than I thought. I applied to 28 locations, 8 of which I don't expect to hear back from.

You know, it really depends on where you apply. Some programs notify you almost as soon as you apply, and some take a long time. Most likely you just applied to a lot of programs that are on the slower end.

 

[Scorcher31]

Hmm that's possible. I applied strictly to the northeast (Pa/Jersey on northward) for family reasons. It does seem like some of the western and midwest states were getting out their interviews much earlier based on what other people had been saying around here. Thanks Dr. Bagel that does make me a feel a bit less anxious.

Texas Physician I'm planning on 8-10. I feel guilty taking off more than 2/3 days a rotation for interviews, I'm hoping the rotation attendings are understanding because they had to go through this too.

 

[Sneezing]

Don't read too much into it, I'm sure your application is just fine. I'm not a superstar by any means. I applied to programs I liked by location and other things specific to what I wanted. I'm not terribly interested in playing the rat race of applying to programs solely bases on percieved competiveness of a name. In other words, my list has minimal 'reaches' because many of the locations are places I just wouldn't want to live. I would also agree with the midwest comment. I have had most of my activity from that region.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

a lot of places reflexively invite based on step 1, or so it would seem. I seriously doubt that anyone had time to read my entire app within a day or 2. The bulk of mine came by the end of sept...and the rest trickled in in october

 

[Messerschmitts]

As many as I can cram into my schedule, but realistically probably no more than 15.

 

[Psychelle]

It depends on where I get invites... If I get most of my top choices, I will probably not go to some of my more random safety places. But if I don't get my first choices, you can bet I will be flying around the northeast trying to figure out how to drive in the snow. I'm not applying to any programs in the south other than my own school's, so it's going to be a lot of travel regardless. Have no idea how I'm going to afford this but at least I'll have an income at the end of it all! *crosses fingers and toes*

I think my interviews will be one of the stronger parts of my application so I'm hoping to get enough invites that I feel comfortable with my final match list.