How many programs did you apply to?

[Messerschmitts]

Just curious how many programs people around here applied to. I applied to 35, mainly because I want to match back to California. Others?

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[Sneezing]

30
I am starting to think it might have been over kill though. California is all yours, no competition from this applicant. That is one miserable state I intentionally decided not to apply to.

 

[notdeadyet]

California is all yours, no competition from this applicant. That is one miserable state I intentionally decided not to apply to.

Oh God please let this be a trend... I'd give my eyetooth for another Loma Prieta size quake to stir the coffee and keep out the competition...

 

[cookymonster]

No competition here either. Nevertheless, I applied to 29 psych programs. Probably overkill, but I re-evaluated my selection criteria after I submitted my original application and added 12 programs last week. I'm trying to find a way to schedule all the interviews so I can take my car in a big circle around the country east of the Mississippi. It's a tough thing to coordinate when I don't know where I'll get interview offers, what days they'll offer interviews, and which programs take priority if I get more invites than I have time for.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

23 mainly west of me, including Cali, with some random midwest and east coast programs thrown in. Probably overkill, but I don't know. The prospect of not matching seems pretty horrible, so I'd like to avoid that, even though I know the odds are slim.

 

[Messerschmitts]

Oh God please let this be a trend... I'd give my eyetooth for another Loma Prieta size quake to stir the coffee and keep out the competition...

Amen to that, brother! Let's spread bad rumours about California so that other applicants will think the state sucks. Gods, I can't stand another snowy Midwest winter. For that matter I can't stand another humid mosquito-filled Midwest summer.

 

[Messerschmitts]

30
I am starting to think it might have been over kill though. California is all yours, no competition from this applicant. That is one miserable state I intentionally decided not to apply to.

Where are you hoping to go then, if I may ask?

 

[gdbaby]

I applied to 21 schools. Most are one each coast, 4 in the middle.

 

[Sneezing]

Where are you hoping to go then, if I may ask?

North of Cali and West of the Mississippi someplace. Bonus points for further North and West I can get. Granted I do have some East of the river.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I've got 21 programs myself.

I agree with above poster about not wanting to be anywhere near California. No thank you

 

[whopper]

Let's spread bad rumours about California so that other applicants will think the state sucks

California is going bankrupt. They are going to make residents work for free and there will no longer be ACGME protections for residents. Governor Schwarzenegger announced that any resident that can't work 100 hrs a week without pay is a girly man.

Just the other day, I went to sleep in my Californian condo, an earthquake hit, my condo then burned down because of that forest fire and then some pinko liberal, left coast, environmentalist do gooder called me a nazi because I don't support his global warming, vegetarian, polygymist agenda. He told me the only way he'd be my friend is if I became his boyfriend, and if I don't, I'm closed minded. He told me that the President is his boy and is going the make the entire country like this, but since California is already like that, its going to be the place where it all starts, and then will spread to the rest of the country.

In and Out burger sucks. Its overrated.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

California is going bankrupt. They are going to make residents work for free and there will no longer be ACGME protections for residents. Governor Schwarzenegger announced that any resident that can't work 100 hrs a week without pay is a girly man.

Just the other day, I went to sleep in my Californian condo, an earthquake hit, my condo then burned down because of that forest fire and then some pinko liberal, left coast, environmentalist do gooder called me a nazi because I don't support his global warming, vegetarian, polygymist agenda. He told me the only way he'd be my friend is if I became his boyfriend, and if I don't, I'm closed minded. He told me that the President is his boy and is going the make the entire country like this, but since California is already like that, its going to be the place where it all starts, and then will spread to the rest of the country.

In and Out burger sucks. Its overrated.

You forgot the part about them releasing all the felons...

 

[notdeadyet]

California is going bankrupt. They are going to make residents work for free and there will no longer be ACGME protections for residents. Governor Schwarzenegger announced that any resident that can't work 100 hrs a week without pay is a girly man.

Just the other day, I went to sleep in my Californian condo, an earthquake hit, my condo then burned down because of that forest fire and then some pinko liberal, left coast, environmentalist do gooder called me a nazi because I don't support his global warming, vegetarian, polygymist agenda. He told me the only way he'd be my friend is if I became his boyfriend, and if I don't, I'm closed minded. He told me that the President is his boy and is going the make the entire country like this, but since California is already like that, its going to be the place where it all starts, and then will spread to the rest of the country.

In and Out burger sucks. Its overrated.

Excellent post, Komrade...

 

[Sneezing]

I'm hijacking the serious and non-serious california bashing for a moment. Have any of you ever wondered the impact of SDN on applications? I mean, folks who read this forum are probably thinking after last years decline in scramble positions, mixed with a few personal scramble horror stories, are likely to apply more broadly. I know I did. So I'm just thinking out loud, how many of the applicants for the 1000 some odd positions read SDN, and what impact this site has on this year's cylce?

 

[TexasPhysician]

I'm hijacking the serious and non-serious california bashing for a moment. Have any of you ever wondered the impact of SDN on applications? I mean, folks who read this forum are probably thinking after last years decline in scramble positions, mixed with a few personal scramble horror stories, are likely to apply more broadly. I know I did. So I'm just thinking out loud, how many of the applicants for the 1000 some odd positions read SDN, and what impact this site has on this year's cylce?

I'm not sure....but if it helps any, I am already withdrawing my app from some programs.

 

[whopper]

The threads mention how many users clicked to read them. I do think it has some impact. For example during interviews or conversations with other applicants while I was chief, some mentioned things mentioned in the forums. I asked them "do you check out the forums at SDN?" and I'd usually get a reply "yes, that's where I found this out."

A friend of mine is an attending at a program where she has residents in NYC. They were mentioning my username, and that was the same nickname I went by through college. She asked me "are you the same whopper on SDN?" and I told her yes. She mentioned some of the residents and medstudents were talking about me, and formulated some type of rumor that I'm a swinger and the David Hasslehoff pic was really me. (I guess they're too young to remember Knight Rider).

So I do think it has some impact. I wouldn't think its an overwhelming impact, but enough to maybe sway maybe at least a few dozen people to a few hundred people.

I think I know where you're getting at. Maybe because of these forums, you'll have a large upsurge of applicants? That could be the case, but if its due to the same number of people applying, but those same people are applying to more programs, its still the same number of people trying to get in. That'll favor the people who apply to more programs.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I'm hijacking the serious and non-serious california bashing for a moment. Have any of you ever wondered the impact of SDN on applications? I mean, folks who read this forum are probably thinking after last years decline in scramble positions, mixed with a few personal scramble horror stories, are likely to apply more broadly. I know I did. So I'm just thinking out loud, how many of the applicants for the 1000 some odd positions read SDN, and what impact this site has on this year's cylce?

Interesting question. The other thing is that those of us influenced by SDN bring out perceptions to our non-SDN using peers and maybe have some effect on their application pattern. And lots more people read SDN than actually post, especially when they're applying for anything.

I'm sure I'm applying to more programs in part because of the horror stories here last year. I think there were 3 users who didn't match and couldn't scramble into a psych program. Of course, they all have reasons for not matching that I don't have, but it still makes me nervous.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

The anti-California talk sounds exactly like stuff my mom tells me. I'm still applying, though. Sorry Californians. But some of us are from horrible places that no one wants to move to and where people stay just out of complacency or a sense of family obligation -- would you stay here or try to look for greener pastures?

 

[notdeadyet]

The anti-California talk sounds exactly like stuff my mom tells me. I'm still applying, though. Sorry Californians. But some of us are from horrible places that no one wants to move to and where people stay just out of complacency or a sense of family obligation -- would you stay here or try to look for greener pastures?

Kidding aside, all are welcome. California is great because of all the immigrants, not in spite of.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

I applied to 20. rejected by MGH. Still waiting to hear back from UCSF and Columbia...3 months into my intern y ear.

Went to 11 I think? Which was too many, IMO.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Kidding aside, all are welcome. California is great because of all the immigrants, not in spite of.

Very true, and I'm sympathetic to the people who couldn't stay in California for med school but want to go back. I started this process just wanting to go back to Oregon, but now I'm getting excited about other locations, too.

And come to think of it, the lack of immigrants is probably a big drawback of where I live now. When your state is full of people who have been there their whole lives, it's probably full of people who are inherently scared of change.

 

[Sneezing]

I bashed CA because I have been there. The $ of living, the culture, the attitudes of people, the crime, the smog, the transportation, the poorly run state goverment that is approaching IL levels all contribute to its misery. Not to mention the growing sentiment of TX flare for being 'amazing'. Plus, their prison system is the largest in the country. The prison workers have such a strong union they are running the government bankrupt. Hence, they now are faced with the task of releasing 40,000 prisoners because they are running way beyond capacity. That is a recipe for psychiatric turmoil right there. We all know that the prison system has become the new defacto mental health system/asylum with the deinstitutionalization movement. Kicking 40,000 people out of the klink will make for a psychiatric resident nightmare IMO.

 

[notdeadyet]

Very true, and I'm sympathetic to the people who couldn't stay in California for med school but want to go back. I started this process just wanting to go back to Oregon, but now I'm getting excited about other locations, too.

Very cool. The nice thing about home is that it'll always be there. Nothing wrong with the spreading of wings and horizons for a while.

And come to think of it, the lack of immigrants is probably a big drawback of where I live now. When your state is full of people who have been there their whole lives, it's probably full of people who are inherently scared of change.

Yeah, it's hard to breed open-mindedness in a homogeneous culture.

 

[notdeadyet]

I bashed CA because I have been there. The $ of living, the culture, the attitudes of people, the crime, the smog, the transportation,

To be honest, if you think of California as having any particular cost of living, culture, attitude, crime, environment, or transportation, you probably weren't here very long. Humboldt County has so little in common with Orange County, they might as well be different countries.

the poorly run state goverment that is approaching IL levels

We're largely victims of ourselves. California voters have a LOT more control than most of the country and we've passed some very poorly thought out propositions. Ugh.

We all know that the prison system has become the new defacto mental health system/asylum with the deinstitutionalization movement. Kicking 40,000 people out of the klink will make for a psychiatric resident nightmare IMO.

But best-of-breed training for potential forensic psychiatrists...

 

[wolfvgang22]

I'm an IMG, applied to 84 last year. Yeah, overkill, I know, but it works for me.
Got 34 invites, which seemed random in the type of program(top research programs, middle of the road clinical programs, lower tier programs).
Got first choice in match, got 4 prematch offers.
I think the NRMP charts and graphs are helpful in deciding how many to apply to for both IMGs and US grads.
Hope that's helpful to somebody, would have been helpful to me last year.

 

[strawberryfield]

I applied to 20, rejected from 1, interview invites from 4 so far. All over the map, midwest mostly. I plan on going to maybe 6-8 interviews. Too many? eh, we'll see.

 

[Psychelle]

That's interesting that you got an actual rejection Strawberry. Do most programs notify you if they aren't considering you further, or do they just kinda leave you hanging? I guess I'd rather a straight up rejection cause at least then you know and can focus on your other choices.

 

[wolfvgang22]

most leave you hanging. i think that's ok.

i actually preferred silence to the few rejections i got last year.
they never had any good feedback in the rejection form letter. so what does a rejection do for you, or them, anyway? make them feel cool because they can afford to reject several solid applicants?
answer: rejections in ERAS accomplish nothing for the applicant- if you don't get invites, you can't rank places, and so you scramble.

what if a program rejects you and then doesn't fill, and you end up applying to them in the scramble? saw it happen last year to some folks.
Awkward.