Number of Interviews Programs Give

[peerie]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Does anyone have any idea why some programs will interview 100+ people and then another program will interview say, 50? Both are for let's say 6 positions.

Does the amount of interviews given indicate anything? Like more competitive or less? I can't say that I see a difference since some super competitive programs will give 50 and then other equally competitive programs will give 125. This seems to also be true for weaker programs, some 100+ and others 50. 😕

I was just wondering, thought I would ask if anyone has any thoughts on this.

 

[Law2Doc]

Does anyone have any idea why some programs will interview 100+ people and then another program will interview say, 50? Both are for let's say 6 positions.

Does the amount of interviews given indicate anything? Like more competitive or less? I can't say that I see a difference since some super competitive programs will give 50 and then other equally competitive programs will give 125. This seems to also be true for weaker programs, some 100+ and others 50. 😕

I was just wondering, thought I would ask if anyone has any thoughts on this.

Programs interview enough people to be comfortable that they will fill. This is largely based on match history, and notions/feedback of how competitive they are. A top program in a specialty can interview relatively few people and still be confident they will get most of their top ranks. A prelim IM or surgery program in an undesirable part of the country by contrast, can interview 500 people and still be at risk of going into the scramble. The wrinkle in this is that some of the weaker non-specialty programs also use the prematch to fill some spots, so what seems like 6 spots out the outset, may end up being 3 spots by the time they actually rank.