Official 2018-2019 Anesthesiology Residency Application Thread

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RedPhys said:
Judging from previous years, it seems to me for us lower stats applicants, November and even into December, (some) interviews can trickle in
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I’ve heard this as well. Hoping you’re right!
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chromuffin said:
I’ve heard this as well. Hoping you’re right!
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I mean, I just had a friend text me they hope an interview they're cancelling trickles down to me? T_T Evidently, (some of) the better applicants are beginning to experience interview fatigue and discard some of the lower programs they applied
 
chromuffin said:
I’ve heard this as well. Hoping you’re right!
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I hope so, I've been sitting at 5 for 3 weeks now. I have classmates applying with me who have 14-20 anesthesia invites, it's hard to stay hopeful, I barely even check my email anymore haha. But I have 2 invites to places I really love so I'm just focused on killing those interviews and making myself undeniable to those programs.
 
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RedPhys said:
Judging from previous years, it seems to me for us lower stats applicants, November and even into December, (some) interviews can trickle in
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I hope this is true for imgs as well. I have a hard time judging where I’m at because I expect less success than an amg but unsure of how much less success starts to make me an unsuccessful img.
 
Good friend got 3 offers in January. Matched at one of them
 
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I was at an interview today. And 3 of the residents matched there and they had their interviews in late December. They said after Christmas so I’m guessing like what 28th 29th? Regardless, I’m just trying to give everybody out there positive vibes to keep your heads up. I know there’s a lot of lurkers here that don’t comment because you know everybody and student Dr. network is hostile which is not true . To the people posting about freaking out I understand your frustration. I’m getting nothing but radio silence from programs that are well within my range but somehow I’m getting reach program ivs. Let the process take its course.


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Hey guys, i'm an IMG with 222-241-First Pass, one publication in an american pain journal. So far i have only 1 interview in an advanced program. Any tips on what to do?? do LOI actually help???

Also, is it possible to match in an advanced program and then secure a TY in SOAP??
 
JOAOMANTOAN said:
Hey guys, i'm an IMG with 222-241-First Pass, one publication in an american pain journal. So far i have only 1 interview in an advanced program. Any tips on what to do?? do LOI actually help???

Also, is it possible to match in an advanced program and then secure a TY in SOAP??
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First question is where did you and how many applications you do ?


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JOAOMANTOAN said:
Hey guys, i'm an IMG with 222-241-First Pass, one publication in an american pain journal. So far i have only 1 interview in an advanced program. Any tips on what to do?? do LOI actually help???

Also, is it possible to match in an advanced program and then secure a TY in SOAP??
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Yeah it’s possible to match into a TY in SOAP. But many TYs are competitive since all other surgical subspecialties apply. They also get applicants from everyone else that matched advanced but not an intern year. And a good bit of TYs only accept applicants with an advance match.

You need to be open to prelim IM and prelim surgery.
 
JOAOMANTOAN said:
Hey guys, i'm an IMG with 222-241-First Pass, one publication in an american pain journal. So far i have only 1 interview in an advanced program. Any tips on what to do?? do LOI actually help???

Also, is it possible to match in an advanced program and then secure a TY in SOAP??
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Honest answer is I don't think at TY is very possible for an IMG. I'm a 245 US MD and I haven't heard back from any TY's. They are probably going to all the derm kids

I am applying to IM Prelims and Surgical if I have to
 
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docbsb2015 said:
Alright guys how many days is too many to miss while on an away? About to start an away at my number 1. However, spots became available for my 3rd interview during this ~3 week rotation so that would put me at 3-5 missed days. Roughly a day missed each week.... which I'm starting to think is a bit much...
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I’m on an away for November starting next week and will be taking five days total (including an interview with the school in question). They don’t seem to mind at all since November is peak interview season and well, priorities. Five days is my limit though—I wouldn’t schedule anymore than that for myself.
As a side note, I offered to work extra days on weekends or take late call to make up for it (which they did not take me up on).
 
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Dr.Jekyll75 said:
I was at an interview today. And 3 of the residents matched there and they had their interviews in late December. They said after Christmas so I’m guessing like what 28th 29th? Regardless, I’m just trying to give everybody out there positive vibes to keep your heads up. I know there’s a lot of lurkers here that don’t comment because you know everybody and student Dr. network is hostile which is not true . To the people posting about freaking out I understand your frustration. I’m getting nothing but radio silence from programs that are well within my range but somehow I’m getting reach program ivs. Let the process take its course.


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The actual interview date doesn’t mean anything. They may have scheduled their interviews the week after Christmas for convenience because they had the days off. When I was a 4th year medical student, I took the month of January off and scheduled all my interviews then. But the interview invites all came much earlier.
 
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BMC11 said:
I’m on an away for November starting next week and will be taking five days total (including an interview with the school in question). They don’t seem to mind at all since November is peak interview season and well, priorities. Five days is my limit though—I wouldn’t schedule anymore than that for myself.
As a side note, I offered to work extra days on weekends or take late call to make up for it (which they did not take me up on).
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Similar situation except I have six total days of including the interview at the institution. They said if I did anymore I would have to write a paper on a subject I’m interested in. You guys make it sound like they expect so much from students. They really don’t our job is literally not to get in the way and occasionally be helpful. Besides maybe pushing phenylephrine once in a while when I see the blood pressure dip below 100 don’t do anything. Especially in my institution because we get a lot of difficult intubation‘s


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Looking like a slow week based on the excel spreadsheet. Anyone have luck on LOI responses? Just sent some out this week
 
Got my 6th GAS interview today. I haven't gotten any prelim internal interviews so I applied to 36 more and this time included about 20 prelim surgery. Does anyone know which is more competitive prelim internal or surgery ? Should get a couple more interviews from my rotations coming up but worried about no prelim interviews
 
Inygma said:
Looking like a slow week based on the excel spreadsheet. Anyone have luck on LOI responses? Just sent some out this week
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I sent out a few for places I was seriously interested in last week and netted interviews at 4 out of 5 within a day or two of the emails. It’s worth doing while the spots are still there if you really really want to go somewhere.
 
Bossentan said:
Got my 6th GAS interview today. I haven't gotten any prelim internal interviews so I applied to 36 more and this time included about 20 prelim surgery. Does anyone know which is more competitive prelim internal or surgery ? Should get a couple more interviews from my rotations coming up but worried about no prelim interviews
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Prelim IM is way more competitive than surgery. My dry spell is killing me but good to know II are still going out.
 
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BMC11 said:
I sent out a few for places I was seriously interested in last week and netted interviews at 4 out of 5 within a day or two of the emails. It’s worth doing while the spots are still there if you really really want to go somewhere.
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Recently sent 5 ( 3 in state) no love


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Anyone have info on Drexel’s program? Got an invite and I’d love to check out Philly, just couldn’t find much inside info on here. Any residents out there care to comment? Good experience? Work horse program?
 
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quincyfuturemd said:
Same. I’m just pretending they are all really busy and I’ll get some pleasant thanksgiving (or even Christmas) surprises. You never know
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At this point I’m just one invite away from getting tan. That’s all I really want. I just want to match play with my dog play video games and be at Jim bro. Is that too much to ask in one life?


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Dr.Jekyll75 said:
At this point I’m just one invite away from getting tan. That’s all I really want. I just want to match play with my dog play video games and be at Jim bro. Is that too much to ask in one life?


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My img status keeps me paranoid. Probably no fun and games until post match for me
 
Inygma said:
Red Dead tomorrow?!
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No, that and call of duty are for Xmas. I am playing my way through assassin creed origins and rainbow six siege. I literally used the speech to text function at the gym for this post and the other one so I see all the misspellings. Maybe I’m too foreign for Siri to understand me


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Propofol_Plug said:
Thoughts on post interview emails/communications??
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I hand write letters, just because. I would say a brief email would be acceptable. I also think no communication isn’t a big deal. It is personal - goes without saying, though if they say don’t send letters/email, don’t do it.
 
Str8Ripon said:
I hand write letters, just because. I would say a brief email would be acceptable. I also think no communication isn’t a big deal. It is personal - goes without saying, though if they say don’t send letters/email, don’t do it.
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So far out of my interviews both have said do not send paper letters


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Dr.Jekyll75 said:
So far out of my interviews both have said do not send paper letters


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I love when they do that. I’m a bit of a masochist so I do it - but honestly it is time consuming and will end up in the trash (that’s where I put any thank you notes I got from rotating students last year - not that they weren’t appreciated). But, I know it also isn’t uncommon for the letters to end up in your ‘file’ if you do send them, that keeps me writing.
 
Anyone have any information on Mount Sinai St. Luke's and how it is as a program? Don't know too much about it was just curious how it stacks up compared to other NYC programs
 
At an interview yesterday and an applicant told us that he/she has 20 IIs, 1/3 are for TY/prelim programs. The rest of us can't fathom going to that many and the applicant also thought that is an exhausting (and very expensive) few months with a high chance of canceling at least a handful of IIs in the next few weeks.
 
I can tell you all that my PD and chair have been very forthcoming that thank you letters and "you're my #1” communications hardly even get looked at, are not remembered, and will not affect your rank in any way.
 
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Got the question, "In a world where you couldn't do anything remotely related to healthcare, what would you do (or try to do) as a career?" What are they trying to get at here? I ended up answering honestly like the little kid in me and described why I wanted to be in the NHL. Just a little curious if anyone else had this experience yet
 
GoHawksGo2019 said:
Got the question, "In a world where you couldn't do anything remotely related to healthcare, what would you do (or try to do) as a career?" What are they trying to get at here? I ended up answering honestly like the little kid in me and described why I wanted to be in the NHL. Just a little curious if anyone else had this experience yet
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I’ve gotten that as well. At my last one I got asked if I think there is such a thing as a winning culture in certain sports franchises lol. Didn’t see that coming.
 
docbsb2015 said:
I’ve gotten that as well. At my last one I got asked if I think there is such a thing as a winning culture in certain sports franchises lol. Didn’t see that coming.
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As a Browns fan I would have to say historically, no
 
abolt18 said:
I can tell you all that my PD and chair have been very forthcoming that thank you letters and "you're my #1” communications hardly even get looked at, are not remembered, and will not affect your rank in any way.
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Good info though: 1. There are cases in which this helps; 2. I’ve never heard a story where this hurts; 3. It gives us a small albeit fleeting sense of control in a process in which we have none.
 
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MightBeACylon439 said:
Good info though: 1. There are cases in which this helps; 2. I’ve never heard a story where this hurts; 3. It gives us a small albeit fleeting sense of control in a process in which we have none.
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Indeed they also said it doesn't hurt, unless of course you tell a bunch of programs you're ranking them #1.
 
Could this be the year that a step 1 of 235 is not sufficient for a mid tier program? With all the new med schools, especially DO schools, graduating record numbers of med students Anesthesiology may get more competitive at the mid and lower tier levels. Hundreds of new DO applicants looking to match into Anesthesiology with competitive Step scores. Sure, the number of spots went up but how about the number of applicants?

The top tier is still the top tier with steps consistently in the 242-245 plus range for most successful applicants. Top 10-15 programs are likely over 245 for a realistic match.

The real struggle is in the mid range where the flood of new applicants may create a tough match environment pushing some applicants into the lower tier programs.

This is all speculation but I've always known the massive increase in med student graduation will at some point put a big strain on the residency training programs. Is this the year we see that for Anesthesiology?

I'm definitely expecting many more qualified DO students to match at mid tier programs.
 
GASLife said:
So just to make myself feel better I looked at the NRMP data again. My thoughts for those of us who don't have a ton if interviews is, programs are all courting the top few hundred applicants (I don't know maybe 200-500 people), but they will soon realize that you can't fill 1800 anesthesiology spots with the same 500 people, so they'll all eventually come to their senses and start inviting us, slightly less impressive but still awesome and amazing applicants. And these super amazing applicants can't possibly go on 30 interviews so they'll cancel half of those and we will all have an abundance of interviews eventually. Maybe this is true, maybe it's the half bottle of wine I just drank, but the data really does make me feel better. Take a look if you need a little reassurance.

http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Charting-Outcomes-in-the-Match-2018-Seniors.pdf
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I think the number of applicants per spot is up due to the massive increase in med student enrollment. At this point, we don't know the full impact of the large number of DOs trying to match mid tier Anesthesiology programs. I do agree with the post above that many programs will realize they need solid,run of the mill MD/DO med students to fill their programs. But, has the bar been raised and if so, by how much?
 
nm825 said:
That preliminary ERAS data is concerning. ~200 more US gas applicants; an increase of 3.1 applications/applicant; and a increase of 80 more applications/program. All the biggest increases in a cursory glance at the ~10 years of data in the set.
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Didn't they increase the number of spots as well? Based on your post Anesthesia is a bit more competitive than last year but the massive increase in raw applications per applicant is likely slowing the process down. Programs are going through so many more applications and potentially extending interviews to the same group of people excluding the bottom 1/3 of applicants. Perhaps, this may lead to more unfilled spots after match day. Programs should "wise up" and interview plus rank even more applicants as a response to this ramp up in applications. This holds true for Lower mid tier and bottom tier programs as they need to factor this in much more than top tier programs
 
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Eagles6389 said:
It looks like a combination of anesthesiology being more competitive this year, and the merger increasing the number of applications now in the ACGME pool.

Looking at the increase in psychiatry last year (1691 to 1973 in 2018), anesthesiology has a jump this year of 1802 to 2058 in 2019. That’s not as large as the psychiatry jump last year, but it’s in the ballpark.

The “good” news is that anesthesiology had an increase of around 170 US applicants from 2017 to 2018, yet the 2018 NRMP matching results were still favorable, even having programs that didn’t fill. So I think it will be a tougher match this year but not to the point to where we are this year’s version of the “2018 psychiatry uptick”
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Nice post but it is speculation at this point. The quality of the applicant may have gone up as well due to increased interest from DO students. The increase in positions should help keep the overall match data (successful match) similar to last year but that's just conjecture. The programs themselves need to take all this data into account and interview plus rank more applicants ( mid and lower tier programs).
 
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BLADEMDA said:
Nice post but it is speculation at this point. The quality of the applicant may have gone up as well due to increased interest from DO students. The increase in positions should help keep the overall match data (successful match) similar to last year but that's just conjecture. The programs themselves need to take all this data into account and interview plus rank more applicants ( mid and lower tier programs).
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maybe im naive (more than likely) but arent DOs forced into the ACGME now that most programs are ACGME accredited and those that aren't , DO students aren't touching. The merger over all opened the floodgates for us BONE WIZARDS because we dont wanna risk matching AOA then having the program close during our training. You are right on the increasing number of students overall, but if there was NO merger, i dont think the number or applicants would be this high. Lets not forget, a lot of DERM, ENT, ORTHO, PLASTICS, IR applicants also apply gas as a back up....
 
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