Interview Timing

[Psychopathology]

Congratulations to everyone who has recently matched!

I'm working on my fourth year schedule and have a quick question: how much flexibility do pathology programs offer in arranging interview dates?

From searching the forum, it seems that interviews are being conducted from mid-October to mid-January. That's a wide range and we're told not to schedule anything important during interview season. I'm stuck choosing between a medicine sub-internship that runs into the middle of October and another that begins the first week of January.

Appreciate any advice.

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[ataktos]

I'd go with the subI that finished in October rather than the one starting in January. Depending on where you're anticipating interviewing (as well as the degree of flexibility your school allows in regard to missed days of rotations), it can be tough to try to fit in all the interviews prior to the new year. Additionally, that means you'd be finished with the required subI earlier in the year---something I didn't do but wish I had!
That being said, if you anticipate that you may have difficulty getting LORs/supporting documents submitted in a timely manner, I'd likely reverse that advice so that you can concentrate on ERAS/application stuff instead during September.
Others who just went through this may have different advice.....

 

[b&ierstiefel]

If I were you, I'd opt for the subI in January. The bulk of interviews take place during November and December. January is the tail end of the interview season and some programs have a good idea as to what their ROL is going to look like in early February. That being said, doing a subI during October isn't the end of the world in which case you can do the bulk of your interviews during December and January.

Either won't hurt you but I'm slightly leaning towards advising January as your subI month.

 

[ataktos]

As I anticipated, others may have very different opinions! Definitely not anything remotely resembling the end of the world whichever option you choose...

 

[Psychopathology]

cool, thanks.

 

[Click Here!]

It may also depend on where you're planning to interview geographically. I interviewed in the South mostly in Dec-Jan, with a couple in late Nov. From what I've read on these forums, some places start in Oct, but none that I applied to gave me that option. It seems the Northern programs tend to get started and end sooner than the Southern programs.

Obviously there are more airline weather related delays/cancellations in Boston or Chicago in January than say, Dallas or Atlanta. This could be an explanation. Or maybe Northerners are just more on top of things than those slow, lazy Southerners.

Anyone else see this trend, or am I making it up?

 

[mlw03]

It may also depend on where you're planning to interview geographically. I interviewed in the South mostly in Dec-Jan, with a couple in late Nov. From what I've read on these forums, some places start in Oct, but none that I applied to gave me that option. It seems the Northern programs tend to get started and end sooner than the Southern programs.

Obviously there are more airline weather related delays/cancellations in Boston or Chicago in January than say, Dallas or Atlanta. This could be an explanation. Or maybe Northerners are just more on top of things than those slow, lazy Southerners.

Anyone else see this trend, or am I making it up?

i agree with the above and bierstiefel, and would also recommend the january sub-I. i did 14 intervies, all before Christmas. november and december were by far my heaviest interview months, and i applied mostly in the midwest. i think the weather issues are right on target - the heavy snowstorms come in late jan thru march, so interviews are done before then ideally.

 

[docbiohazard]

Anyone else see this trend, or am I making it up?

I was only able to get two interviews in October, and they were both local programs in Texas, and they were both in the last week or so of October... I turned in my application the first week, too, with one LOR...

i agree with the above and bierstiefel, and would also recommend the january sub-I. i did 14 intervies, all before Christmas. november and december were by far my heaviest interview months, and i applied mostly in the midwest. i think the weather issues are right on target - the heavy snowstorms come in late jan thru march, so interviews are done before then ideally.

I'm going to recommend the October SubI - the OP said it "ran into mid-October" so I'm assuming he means he'd be done by Oct 15th. I think it's a rare program that offers an interview prior to that date. You cool look at the 2008 interview thread if you wanted to figure it out, but most places wouldn't give me dates until Nov 1. I was able to squeeze 13 interviews into the span between last week of october to the week before xmas. 2 more first week of Jan. I don't recommend people do 15 interviews unless they're a sadist, but you can probably get a reasonable number of interviews in between late Oct - xmas. Doing the SubI earlier in the fall will also let you get it out of the way, another bonus.

I'm just glad I had the option of doing a SubI in surg path. No idea how rare that was until I interviewed...

BH

 

[Tiki]

I'm going to recommend the October SubI - the OP said it "ran into mid-October" so I'm assuming he means he'd be done by Oct 15th. I think it's a rare program that offers an interview prior to that date. You cool look at the 2008 interview thread if you wanted to figure it out, but most places wouldn't give me dates until Nov 1. I was able to squeeze 13 interviews into the span between last week of october to the week before xmas. 2 more first week of Jan. I don't recommend people do 15 interviews unless they're a sadist, but you can probably get a reasonable number of interviews in between late Oct - xmas. Doing the SubI earlier in the fall will also let you get it out of the way, another bonus.

BH

I agree with BH. I did my medicine sub i in late September to late October and I was fine with scheduling my interviews. I really started to lose motivation for rotations after my interviews were done, it would have stunk to have to go back and do a sub-i where they actually expect you to work.

 

[docbiohazard]

I agree with BH. I did my medicine sub i in late September to late October and I was fine with scheduling my interviews. I really started to lose motivation for rotations after my interviews were done, it would have stunk to have to go back and do a sub-i where they actually expect you to work.

No kidding. Heck, I had a hard enough time staying motivated for my last two rotations during interview season.

How you know you're "done" with 4th year - when a resident asks you "Could you present this patient?" you realize you haven't seen the patient yet, and you just say "No."

BH

 

[cytoborg]

Congratulations to everyone who has recently matched!

I'm working on my fourth year schedule and have a quick question: how much flexibility do pathology programs offer in arranging interview dates?

From searching the forum, it seems that interviews are being conducted from mid-October to mid-January. That's a wide range and we're told not to schedule anything important during interview season. I'm stuck choosing between a medicine sub-internship that runs into the middle of October and another that begins the first week of January.

Appreciate any advice.

Programs are not all that flexible in scheduling interviews, and one of my top choices on the West Coast couldn't interview me until mid-Jan, on their very last interview date. I think I had 2 or 3 January interviews. October on the other hand was still pretty early and I think my earliest interviews were late October.

That said, I would also favor the Jan. sub-i. The later you do it, the less scrutiny you'll be under and the more they'll look the other way when it's obvious you don't give a damn. And if you have to miss some of your sub-i for interviews, it's not the end of the world (and actually is kind of a bonus, unless you enjoy those 3 am pages for Benadryl). Generally your residents will be pretty understanding, and believe it or not the service will run just fine without you. Even if your resident gets pissed off, they won't have the heart to fail you, and a poor eval will never see the light of day in terms of your residency application.

 

[pathgrrl]

I'm working on my fourth year schedule and have a quick question: how much flexibility do pathology programs offer in arranging interview dates?

I found programs to be very flexible. Obviously I don't represent all applicants, but I think pathology is a "buyer's market". You need to do your best to find the best match for you and this means being very up-front and open with programs about what your goals are. If you have your application in early, you'll get interview offers early, and if you haven't heard from a program, just send the PD an email. If you are a competitive applicant, it should be no problem to get you in.

I'm stuck choosing between a medicine sub-internship that runs into the middle of October and another that begins the first week of January....

I'll echo a few of the other posts that you will *completely* lose your motivation to do a medicine sub-I by January, but maybe it won't matter because your evaluation won't make it onto your application...but you will be miserable. I would often volunteer to go look at blood smears, biopsies, whatever to get me off the floor and into pathology.
I think you should do the October sub-I, but only if you have to do a sub-I to graduate. Otherwise, scrap it! Spend your time polishing your ERAS app instead.