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I thought it would make us all feel better if we saw that there's many other people in the same situation. Not everyone has 15+ interviews except me like I thought!
# of Interview Invites
- Thread starter AR1776
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You should redo the poll and give us some more options. There are a lot of choices above 13, for instance several people who have 25 plus interviews.
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I have no idea.....can you change the title of the graph or the original post? That might work.
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Nope, maybe a moderator can help us.
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Go to edit post, and there will be an option that says "go advanced." Once you click on that, you have access to change the title of your post.
I just noticed there seems to be a lot more lurkers on the EM forum than I thought...
I just noticed there seems to be a lot more lurkers on the EM forum than I thought...
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for those looking at people with a lot of interviews and thinking 'what the heck are they going to do with all those...' never fear... I can't speak for everyone but I am going through the list at the end of this week with my couples match partner and we are going to cancel back down to a manageable number.
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right, but I can't change to poll options. I guess it doesn't matter though. 13 interviews is about all anyone can physically do, so if you have more than 13 - good for you and you're set! I guess the poll was designed to see how many people out there are still looking for more.
And for the rest of ya all - start voting!
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Those of you with few interviews, bear this in mind. Most of the people you interview with will have 10-15 interviews. So the chances of them actually "stealing your spot" are pretty low. So don't worry if you only get 5 or 6.
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The number needed to match is 8 I believe. anything less makes it more tenuous!
Arthur
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only 1 EM interview so far (kern), 3 rejections (ucsd, highland, new mexico). I applied to 15 west coast programs (harbor, oliveview, loma linda, usc, oshu, uci, vegas, ucsf-fresno), now i'm scared i might get more rejections ahead. Am i screwed? Should I add more programs?
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From what I've heard.. 5 interviews are enough! Although most go for 8-10 just to be on the safe side and explore the different programs. It really depends on how much money/time you want to waste. If you are sure about the demographics of where you want to practice than dont waste too much money.
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If kern invited you than you have a good chance of getting IV at Loma linda.. If you get 4 IVs then you are OK.
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If you heard 5, you're listening to the wrong people. 7.5 is the actual number, rounded to 8 - 8 is not "to be on the safe side".
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Agree with Apollyon - if you check out the NRMP report on the 2006 match, you will see that you do not hit 100% match in EM until you rank 10 programs. I am couples matching so we are being double safe and ranking more like 12-14, but if I were applying alone, I certainly would not feel comfortable ranking less than 8-10 unless I knew I was an extremely competitive candidate.
as a side note, one of the conclusions of the NRMP report was that students are dumb about not ranking enough places, and that medical school advisors need to do better on getting out the word that people must rank more to avoid scrambling. Not ranking enough places is obviously the #1 reason for having to scramble, and after spending this much money, do you even want to take a tiny chance of having to scramble? It's worth it - rank at least 9 or 10, everyone, please, and we won't have to feel bad for you when you're scrambling in March.
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Well, I disagree slightly. Your med school will ALWAYS rank you high (unless you applied to Neurosurgery or Dermatology). So usually in IM or EM, you have one spot in your bag unless your PD/chair doesnt like you.
Rest depends mainly on your personal preferences. I would say 10 is overkill if you are a good candidate with above average scores/rotations. In your case, I think you are getting a bit paranoid. Dont worry about it, you'll do fine. Even if one of you is not a good candidate, its highly likely that you'll match within your top 5 choices.
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Once again, you're talking about anecdote, and the facts don't agree with you. What you think is NOT supported by the numbers.
Telling someone that 5 is enough and that 10 is overkill is foolish, because it's not true, and where are you when the person ranks 5 and doesn't match?
D
deleted109597
Yeah, Onco is kind of out there with his "facts." Of course, he is going on more IM interviews than EM, and we all know how much more competitive IM is. So everyone else, take it with a grain of salt. Or 10.
Rest assured that I will be going on as many as I can fit in (probably 10-15), and as of now, have 11. Haven't heard from 18, same boat the Sweet Tea is in. Come on bolus effect.
Rest assured that I will be going on as many as I can fit in (probably 10-15), and as of now, have 11. Haven't heard from 18, same boat the Sweet Tea is in. Come on bolus effect.
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Well, I think I might be a better candidate than you guys 😉 😀
I like the IM program at my school and have a good chance of matching there. I know for sure I wont be travelling to the south, midwest or central. I might take one flight to the west coast and interview at 2-3 programs there if schedule permits.
I like the IM program at my school and have a good chance of matching there. I know for sure I wont be travelling to the south, midwest or central. I might take one flight to the west coast and interview at 2-3 programs there if schedule permits.
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*climbs in the boat w/IbnSina, helps paddle*
I'm going on as many interviews as I can...right now, I have 10 interviews, 1 rejection, and the 17 other programs I applied to seem to have taken a vow of silence. I would love to rank at least 10 programs, but right now I've scheduled every interview I've been offered.
Onco, matching in IM and matching in EM are two very different games. If I wanted to do straight IM, I would not have applied to 28 programs and would have saved a lot of money. I know that my home EM program does not always rank applicants from my school highly; there are just too many of us interested in EM to all end up in the same program. I think it's good for our EM program, but it makes applying a wee bit more stressful. However, I do know that almost everyone from my school who wanted to do IM here were able to stay. It's just a different game.
I'm going on as many interviews as I can...right now, I have 10 interviews, 1 rejection, and the 17 other programs I applied to seem to have taken a vow of silence. I would love to rank at least 10 programs, but right now I've scheduled every interview I've been offered.
Onco, matching in IM and matching in EM are two very different games. If I wanted to do straight IM, I would not have applied to 28 programs and would have saved a lot of money. I know that my home EM program does not always rank applicants from my school highly; there are just too many of us interested in EM to all end up in the same program. I think it's good for our EM program, but it makes applying a wee bit more stressful. However, I do know that almost everyone from my school who wanted to do IM here were able to stay. It's just a different game.
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If you only applied to West Coast programs, then the answer is yes, you might have to scramble. Didn't anyone advise you about back-up programs?
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Applying unwisely is the most common mistake that applicants make. You need to have a strong and *realistic* understanding of your competitiveness. And just like med school, you should probably apply to a few 'dream/ubercompetitive' programs, 6-8 for which you are competitive and a few 'back up' programs. Do not make the fatal error of assuming that 'back up' equals crappy. Things like location can be a factor that makes it a back up.
If you are applying in a highly competitive area, ahem- like cali-, you need to probably speak with your advisor, get a very strong feeling for your true competitiveness and consider adding some more.
SweetTea, etc-
Do not worry about the 'silence'. Remember, many programs don't even really begin slogging through all the applications until the Dean's Letter is in. So that means that are now starting to send out letters. There is usually a mid-november bolus.
For others, if you have programs you are really interested in, haven't heard from, in another week or two, get on the horn and give them a call. As people start to scramble around cancelling interviews etc, spots will open up. Often PD's will not start going back through all the apps. If your name is on their mind because you called/email, you are more likely to grab up one of those spots.
And be really nice to the program coordinator. Every year there are stories in my department (and probably others) who basically got their app canned because they were total jerks on the phone.
If you are applying in a highly competitive area, ahem- like cali-, you need to probably speak with your advisor, get a very strong feeling for your true competitiveness and consider adding some more.
SweetTea, etc-
Do not worry about the 'silence'. Remember, many programs don't even really begin slogging through all the applications until the Dean's Letter is in. So that means that are now starting to send out letters. There is usually a mid-november bolus.
For others, if you have programs you are really interested in, haven't heard from, in another week or two, get on the horn and give them a call. As people start to scramble around cancelling interviews etc, spots will open up. Often PD's will not start going back through all the apps. If your name is on their mind because you called/email, you are more likely to grab up one of those spots.
And be really nice to the program coordinator. Every year there are stories in my department (and probably others) who basically got their app canned because they were total jerks on the phone.
D
deleted109597
Chill out guys.. take Lexapro..you'll be fine
We are chill. That's why we are doing EM. We are just documenting fact that the information out there says that if you only go to 5 programs, you have a much higher chance of not matching. And a 5% chance is still too high to send the patient home on something that means not doing a job for another year.
And not all of us have home programs either.
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Gotta love the evidence-based applying (EBA)
The best advice I've heard so far was "rank every program that you would rather go to than work at McDonalds" (as in if you don't rank them and don't match you will be working at McDonalds!
D
deleted65604
I totally agree with you. I thought I was a pretty good applicant. Great board scores, good grades, good evals and LORs, from a State school. However, I don't interview well. I applied to 32 programs, interviewed at 13 programs, ranked 12 and matched at #9. So, the moral of my story...I think you are better off playing it safe and saving you a lot of stress in the end.
It's true about the whole we're "EM folks" in regard to freaking out...I mean, I have less stress when I see a critical patient crumping than this whole application thing. Sounds like everyone here is a good candidate and if we rank enough programs even if we have 8 interviews total, things will be fine (not to mention who can complain when you get free food at awesome restaurants and even free hotel stays during interviewing...life's good🙂). I'll reserve my freaking out and ranting for Saturday college football😀 .
