How many prelims/TY interviews do I need.

[chocomorsel]

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Hey guys, It may have been asked before, but I couldn't find it on my search. I plan on doing 8-10 anesthesia interviews. Just wondering how many TY/prelim interviews are a good number. Is 5-6 enough? I have 5 lined up, but three of them I really don't want due to location so I'm waiting for more since it's still early. And to tell the truth, I'd prefer to match into a categorical position, so don't want to overdo it with the prelim/TY interviews.
Thanks,
Choco

 

[Ferdie]

I don't know if this is "enough," but I'm drawing the line at 5.

One thing I'm not sure about is this: at some programs, is being ranked in their TY program dependent upon being ranked by their specialty program (gas, derm, or whatever)? If so, then I'm not sure if I can count my Virginia Mason TY iv in the 5 I go on.

 

[gas87]

I've heard that a TY is harder to get than an anesthesia spot. Although, some of the Mass programs didn't fill last year, so I guess it depends on which TYs you are applying for.

 

[mmag]

I've gotten very few interviews for TY spots and I applied to programs that I know have already offered and filled all their interview spots (thanks to SDN). I was talking to a program coordinator and she says that deciding who gets interviews is almost random once the min criteria a program has is met. Mostly it's by who completes the app first but sometimes she'll look at people from the bottom of the alpha bet and sometimes from the top.
I know that small but not insignificant number of anesthesia bound people from my school and another school in town have had to scramble for PGY1 mostly landing in prelim medicine but some in prelim surgery (yikes!). Try to get as many as you can reasonably fit into your schedule.

 

[WhoopDeeDoo]

I don't know what the magic number is, but it does seem to depend on the location and obviously how competitive you are.

I'm only interviewing at intern years in California SOUTH of L.A. It's a competitive area and there aren't very many programs so I'm hoping that 3 transitional pragrams and 2 prelim medicine years are enough for me to match.

Good luck everyone!