Interview numbers

[DrIng]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Does anyone know roughly how many interviews it is necessary to do to have a reasonable chance of matching? I know it's not possilbe to say for sure but if you're a reasonable candidate would 5 be enough or 10 or even 20 better (i know tha'ts excessive) I guess the other question is what the correlation between number of programs applied to and interivews granted tends to be? Thanks for any info.

 

[Big Lebowski]

Depends on the programs you are applying to. In general, psychiatry is an easy match, and most programs are fairly easy to match into if you are a decent student. I know plenty of people who applied and interviewed at just one program and matched there. I also know people who applied and interviewed at several and didn't match. If you're going for top tier programs and just planning on applying to 2 or 3, you may want a back-up plan/program. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry too much about it...

 

[DrIng]

The reason I ask is that I'm a foreign citizen and an FMG and my board scores suck. (I passed both Step 1 & 2 doing them one day after the other with only about 6 weeks preparation because I was trying to make it into last years match but it was not to be... and so now although I got the exams out of the way quickly my scores are bare passes...) The reason I ask is that even to interview will cost me several thousand dollars in flights so I want to make sure I've got a reasonable chance of matching form that. Thanks

 

[Big Lebowski]

Oh, I wasn't aware of your status. To be honest, I'm not really sure, so I wouldn't want to be misquoted. I believe the ERAS website, however, provides some statistics that might be helpful from past years. I think the site has the number of USMG and FMG applicants, the average number of programs applied, and the percent filled by each. May help guide you a bit. Of course, as I said before, a lot is going to depend on which programs you apply to. Some programs do have minimum USMLE scores for FMGs in order to be granted an interview. So, you may want to search the programs' websites.

Good luck....