"Interviews conducted last year for first year positions"

[Green912]

I was looking through FREIDA and came across this statistic for a variety of programs. Some had 100+ interviews per position many from 60-80. I think the Cleveland Clinic had around 120. Does this number mean anything in a practical sense when applying to residency positions? Does it give an accurate picture to how competitive the site is or is there something else going on with this number?

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[VolatileAgent]

i don't think you read this correctly.

most programs don't interview 100+ candidates per position. they interview around 10-12 candidates for each position. for example, last year my program interviewed about 150-160 for 14 spots. we didn't rank everyone we interviewed and, due to the fact that it was a pretty competitive year, actually didn't even get very far down our rank list (supposedly, we got 6 of our top 10 choices).

there's no way we would interview 1,400 candidates. we didn't even get that many applications (ie. we only got about 650-700 apps).

 

[Green912]

Thanks. I took a look at FREIDA again. Yeah, those were the total number of interviews.

 

[deleted50478]

Thanks. I took a look at FREIDA again. Yeah, those were the total number of interviews.

Those numbers are completely made up though, in many cases at least. At most of the locations I visited, they interview way more applicants than they claimed on Freida.

 

[smgilles]

Those numbers are completely made up though, in many cases at least. At most of the locations I visited, they interview way more applicants than they claimed on Freida.

Exactly, when I rotated at the Cleveland Clinic they told me they interview approx 400 applicants for 30 positions. 300 for the 20 in July and around 100 for the Jan spots. They also told me that they normally have sent all interview invites out by 3rd week of sept...so if you application is in after 3rd week sept. you essentially would not be offered an interview....could be blowing smoke though?

 

[VolatileAgent]

i doubt this because not everyone invited will ultimately attend the interview. people sometimes use programs as 'back-ups' in case they don't get invited elsewhere. the interview date is far in the future, and when they suddenly are faced with going on the 11th or 12th interview once they've been to the programs they already are most interested in, they cancel. the result is that the invitation pool gets a little deeper.

since i've been in this game (and having seen it from both sides), the magic number all around seems to be 10: the program has to interview 10 people per spot to ensure they get enough to fill the program, and the candidate has to interview/rank about 10 programs to ensure they get a spot.

can i back that up with hard numbers? no. just my broad observation and asking a lot of questions.