Long time reader, 1st time poster...

[radswannabe]

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Hey guys, I've been reading sdn for a long time now and I appreciate all the great advice people give out here, so i have a question, and no flames please, this is my first post.
So I'm interested in radiology and I have good stats, step 1 256, AOA, nearly all honors in all classes, so my question is not about if i will match somewhere...I'm wondering more about how many programs to apply to realistically, how many upper level programs, and which programs would be considered more "safety" schools, although I know that there aren't really any safety programs in rads.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[ears]

Obviously, those are good stats, and you'll certainly match well, unless you're a total goober and can't fake being normal for three hours at a time.

As for how many... My impression is that people shooting for the "top" programs applied to about 30 places, adding some "merely excellent" university programs to round out their application pool. If you're worried, apply to more. If you're confident, apply to fewer.

The big issue is, how many interviews can you go to and still preserve your sanity? Don't forget you'll also need to interview for an internship. I think people shooting for the top programs aimed for 10-15 interviews, and tried to spread them out between "top" and "merely excellent". (Don't forget, these university programs tend to be larger programs than the community programs, so an interview at one gives you a shot at more spots.)

FWIW, I matched this last cycle. I also had very good numbers, and I wanted to go to one of the big-name places. I applied to 20 programs, was offered 13 interviews, went to 10 of them, and matched at my first choice.

BTW, you definitely need to talk to an advisor about this stuff. For one thing, you can't count on good information here or on AM, and for another, you need to bond with your advisor. If you have a good one, they'll love talking about this stuff with you.