Programs?

[Pril]

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People on this forum usually answer the question "what are my chances of geting in if I have ...?" with you will get in if you apply to "enough" programs! so what is the number of programs one should apply to if preoccupied about their chances of getting in?

 

[Vince]

Same answers that have probably been given before....

Apply broadly to as many as you can afford. Depends on how competitive you think you are....Don't be too picky with apps...make sure you apply to top-tier, middle-tier, and lower-tier programs so that you have backups.

Do your research to see where others in your school in previous years have gone......

 

[Pril]

Vince,
I was palnning to apply to 50 prorgrams, 20 middle tier, 25 lower tier, 5 upper tier, is that broad enough or should I apply to more?

 

[Vince]

I don't know. Depends on your stats...only YOU know your application. And it probably also depends on the main region(s) you are applying.

I'd say if you have good board scores...good Med school...good research or extracurriculurs and good LOR's, then you are fine with 50.

If you are a D.O., then you need to apply to more.

Just my $0.02. I don't know you nor your application so you are the best judge.

 

[hans19]

I don't know. Depends on your stats...only YOU know your application. And it probably also depends on the main region(s) you are applying.

I'd say if you have good board scores...good Med school...good research or extracurriculurs and good LOR's, then you are fine with 50.

If you are a D.O., then you need to apply to more.

Just my $0.02. I don't know you nor your application so you are the best judge.

If you are supercompetitive (AOA + High boards) then 50 is more than enough. If you know your class ranking and you are less than 50th percentile OR you are a D.O. or an IMG, than it would be safer to apply to as many as you can afford.

Consider this hypothetical situation... Lets say you end up not matching and you are stuck with only an internship spot. You're stuck with the mess of applying all over again. In that situation you'll be playing the miserable 'what if?' game: If I had gotten 3 more interviews, would I have matched? Would you rather spend an extra couple of grand now, and maximize your chance of matching, or spend an extra grand the second time around, during your intern ship when you have less time to interview? Less time to interview ~ Smaller # of interviews ~ less chance of matching. Whats a couple of grand extra to a future radiology attending? Furthermore, should you have to reapply, you won't have time between June of your internship and September 1st to improve your resume or do research.

I am not trying to scare you, but my philosophy is that its better to be safer than sorry. As was said before, only YOU know your stats, so plan accordingly. No one knows exactly what combination of stats, letters, extracurrics it takes to get ranked highly, and not too many people know the match algorithim. The only thing you can do is maximize your probability of a match.

Good luck!

 

[Vince]

If it helps.

D.O. student...nothing spectacular about my boards. Top 20% of my class. A's in all clerkships. I had really really really good LOR's, which helped tremendously. Very minimal research(no publications) but lots of extracurriculars in medical school and prior that I think looked good.

Applied to 70 programs....7 interviews...matched at my #1 where I did an away elective.

As a side note...I applied to different regions and was shocked at the places that I got interviews....so I think its tough to predict where you'll get one. I applied mainly in the West, Northwest, Midwest, South and a few in the Northeast just for grins(although I knew I really didn't want to be out there).

Like I said...backups.

 

[trouta]

A common number that I have seen thrown around is 30 for the number of programs to apply to.

People going into rads are over applying. 50 is probably way too many if you have decent stats. Over applying messes things up for everyone.