How many interviews are people going on? What do you think is a safe number to match.
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# of interviews
- Thread starter HarryGary
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There is no such thing.
two fellows in my hospital, same year are clear example.
One interviewed in 20 programs, went unmatched, worked few years, applied again and now's a fellow.
The other interviewed in 2 places and matched.
You only need one.
two fellows in my hospital, same year are clear example.
One interviewed in 20 programs, went unmatched, worked few years, applied again and now's a fellow.
The other interviewed in 2 places and matched.
You only need one.
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I kind of agree with above. You can do go on 10 or 12 interviews and not match, or 2 or 3 and actually match.
It's not as much like residency match where you'd be "safe" at a certain number.
I think it is important after the interview to pick out your top couple of places that you would have a decent shot to actually get into, and have faculty members call over there on your behalf, and/or call them back and contact them in some way to let them know you are very interested.
It's not as much like residency match where you'd be "safe" at a certain number.
I think it is important after the interview to pick out your top couple of places that you would have a decent shot to actually get into, and have faculty members call over there on your behalf, and/or call them back and contact them in some way to let them know you are very interested.
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One interview... matched. It is a university based program, and not very well known, but it provides excellent clinical experience and excellent load, but not much in terms of academic / research experience. I am extremely happy that I have matched as an IMG, I feel that the chances for IMGs are dwindling in all residencies and fellowships, let alone competitive ones like cards.
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How many interviews are people going on? What do you think is a safe number to match.
In general, the more interviews you go on, the better your chances of matching! This year, most people I talked to on the interview trail seemed to be going on 10-12 interviews. Most programs seem to interview about 10 applicants per fellowship slot.
The problem is that fellowship programs are much smaller than medicine residencies. The average # of fellows per year is probably ~5, with a range from 3-8 being filled in any particular year being the norm for most university programs. Given their size, most medicine residencies have a straightforward process of, "What are your clinical grades and evals like? How good are you letters? How much extra credit for research and intangibles? How were the interviews? -> Give score and then stratify applicants by score." The research and intangibles tend to be a relatively small chunk of the score. For cards, the research and intangibles are an awful lot of the score. Clinical competence is probably 25-50% of the score for cards depending on how academic the program, while it's probably 50-80% of the score for getting a medicine residency.
As such, every year there are more than a few applicants that go on ~10 interviews and don't match because their research and overall pitch didn't excite anyone enough to put them high enough on the rank list to match despite having good enough grades, letters, overall package to get 10 interviews. And, in the other direction, there are always more than a few people who only get a few interviews, but who go into them so hungry to match that they make an extra compelling pitch for how much they want to go to the program, how well they would align with it, write extra long love letters post interview, etc. You also have to remember to throw in a few less competitive interviews just because there does tend to be a crapshoot element at the high-powered academic programs which are generally all getting the same 100 very highly-qualified applicants and can end up narrowing their lists based on very small, subtle gradients of difference.
I do think the follow-up letters and overall level of interest demonstrated matters a lot more for fellowship than for residency. There are too many residency applicants for most programs to keep track of "interest" and use that to tweak candidate rankings, while there are a small enough # of fellows interviewing that most programs do make some adjustments for intense displays of interest. A lot of programs seem to also enjoy being able to say they didn't have to go very far down their rank list to fill.
I'm not sure if there's a "safe" number to go on. I knew I wanted to get back home to Texas for fellowship after doing residency in the frozen north. So I focused mostly in and around Texas, applied to just 12 programs, got 10 invites, and went to 7 interviews. I matched at my #1 ranked place and am very happy!
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I think you should go on at least 10, if you can get them.
I agree w/some of the comments above though. I know someone who matched with just 1 interview, and some people don't match with 12 interviews, though it's pretty unusual.
I agree w/some of the comments above though. I know someone who matched with just 1 interview, and some people don't match with 12 interviews, though it's pretty unusual.
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I think you should go on at least 10, if you can get them.
I agree w/some of the comments above though. I know someone who matched with just 1 interview, and some people don't match with 12 interviews, though it's pretty unusual.
I think it also depends on how high your sights are set and where you are coming from and geographic limitations. If you coming from an average/mid-tier residency and shooting for the moon, it is probably better to go on more than 10. You might be competitive enough to get interviews but never be competitive enough to get ranked to match. If you are coming from a very strong residency and are shooting for the middle of the road, perhaps a handful would be good enough.
I know for me, my program director was a great help in choosing how many and which programs to look for. They'd know the trends of applicants from your program. If your residency has only an occasional cards applicant, unfortunately your program director may not be able to give you a lot of information, but they'd probably be the best person to give tailored advice.
