Number of interviews

[DrDre']

Hey all,
Looks like the majority of us applied to WAY too many programs. I am waiting on a few choice spots and then will be canceling a bunch.

I still have not felt like I have received good feedback from attendings or residents on number of interviews to actually go on.

If you are/were trying to match at a moderately competitive program or in the Pacific NW, how many would you go on?

Good luck to all!

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[NoodleIncident]

DrDre,

I'm a fairly competitive applicant trying to match into a moderately to highly competitive program. I've whittled the invites down to 12 interviews for anesthesia and 5 for prelim medicine and feel pretty comfortable about it. If I'm not in the 90-something percentage of applicants that match into one of their top three, then I have another nine programs to fall back on. I'm not applying on the west coast though, so I don't know what the appropriate number for those schools would be. I'm guessing 10-15 interviews if you're heavy on west coast schools. Good luck.

 

[Etomidate]

This is how my advisor broke it down:


Above average applicant: 10 interviews
Average applicant: 10-12 interviews
Below average applicant: 12-15 interviews

This is not including TY/Prelim interviews - he recommended 5-10 of these depending on your strategy and competitiveness.

btw, just to simplify, he used board scores to determine competitiveness. above average applicant >230, average applicant 210-230, below average applicant <210.

From what I hear many students are broke and burnt out after 10 interviews, and that's not including the prelim ones. So those planning on >10 interviews better have a lot of vacation time, stamina, and cash.

 

[aredoubleyou]

I think 10-12 is probably the upper limit everyone talks about, and in actuality its often less cause people just cancel or don't show up near the end of the interview season (from what I hear). If your getting good feedback from a couple programs- no doubt your interest level on going on more interviews drops quickly.

I would also definitely interview at a few places that aren't as competitive as well to increase your chances of matching if things for whatever reason things don't work out. I recall some posts last year from US medical grads not matching with high boards and good grades (according to their post at least!)- who either didn't match cause they were terrible interviewees or maybe cause they only interviewed at the Mass Gens and UCSFs and didn't quite make it to the top of the list. Supposedly it doesn't hurt you to rank super competitive places that you have hardly a chance at as #1 cause the match is set up in the applicants favor (if I truly believe that it actually works out that way is questionable) - but either case you might have a ton of people ranking Mass Gen #1 and they fill using the top 10% of their list.

 

[DrDre']

Thanks for the feedback!

Good luck to all. Wish we could just interview at 3-5 places!