Question for those with multiple Interviews

[Starshope]

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So those of you with more than 10 interview invites. Are actually accepting them all and just holding onto them? Any plans to cancel them or just wait it out? This comes from a guy who is wait listed at a bunch of places and is waiting for you guys to spread the wealth 🙂

 

[supraman23]

I will keep my interviews and go to all of them that I schedule...

 

[TeaKae]

I have declined or cancelled some, and plan on going to the rest that I still have scheduled, unless I happen to go into early labor and have to cancel at the last minute. Hopefully that won't happen, though, I gave myself 2 weeks before my due date with no interviews.

I still feel like I should add more prelim years to my ERAS, but at this point its probably too late and their interview dates will all be filled.

 

[Tromner]

I just hit 11 invites, but it might get up to 12. I'm only hoping to go to about 10 interviews so once my 11th interview is scheduled I'll probably start dropping a couple that I've scheduled, one by one.

 

[Gauss]

schedule them all and cancel them later once you have narrowed down your choices.

 

[Maalik Ashtaar]

So far I have 9 interviews, if I get more than 10 I might start canceling them

 

[RangerBob]

Right now I'm pretty happy with 11 PM&R interviews, though like Tromner I also expect at least one more invite. If I get offered more interviews I suppose I may either decline them, or schedule them in place of another one that I'm not as interested in. My goal was to interview at 10 programs, so 10-12 is probably the max I'd interview at, especially considering all those pre-lim interviews we have to go on as well (though I only applied to pre-lims within driving distance).

 

[Tromner]

Speaking of prelims, do you think 4 interviews is "enough" to match? I have a 5th scheduled that's not so great but I think I will cancel it. I hear that scrambling for an intern year is not so bad, if need be.

 

[RangerBob]

Speaking of prelims, do you think 4 interviews is "enough" to match? I have a 5th scheduled that's not so great but I think I will cancel it. I hear that scrambling for an intern year is not so bad, if need be.

I'd be nervous with 4, but if you're a really competitive applicant it's probably ok, especially if one is at your home institution. Plus, if you're willing to scramble (potentially into a prelim surgery spot), then that changes things as well. I'd prefer not to scramble myself as it would mean living in different spots, which makes things tough for my wife (as far as getting a meaningful job). But if I were single I wouldn't mind spending intern year in, a completely different location than my residency.

 

[reappMD]

So those of you with more than 10 interview invites. Are actually accepting them all and just holding onto them? Any plans to cancel them or just wait it out? This comes from a guy who is wait listed at a bunch of places and is waiting for you guys to spread the wealth 🙂

I have been on the interview trail and some applicants are going on 17+ PM&R interviews!! That is a bit excessive in both time and cost. These applicants are interviewing at top programs so I doubt it will come down to their 17th choice. I think they are taking away precious interview slots for people that actually want to go there and need places to rank.

 

[wavygravy99]

I cancelled Schwab chicago and Georgetown/NRH, so for those people waiting on those programs, u might get a notice.

I have 12 all together, and interviewed at 5 already, but do plan to go to the rest unless i get more offers that i applied to late

 

[MedBronc23]

I do think the number of interviews you go to depends on how you see yourself competitively. Scores, letters, interview strengths. Also what type of program and location.

For example if you really want to stay east coast but not sure how competitive you are, you might have 17+ interviews and keep them all. If you apply and want to incur the cost, you should. This is not about anyone but you. You need to think of your future and your family, not anyone else.

However, if you know that you are not going to interview or rank a program than drop it.

My last piece of advice as an upper level pm&r resident is you probably will rank more programs than you need. I matched at my #1. However, the 11 programs I ranked allowed me to see what all types of programs offered me and gave me piece of mind about your decision.

I feel bad for those who are waiting just to interview, but those of you with many invites worked hard and earned it. I think it's kind of petty to tell people to give up their interviews on a forum such as this because you do not have many or any. Perhaps you should have worked harder to elevate your stock. Kudos to those that did as many excellent applicants have interviewed at my program this year.

 

[reappMD]

I do think the number of interviews you go to depends on how you see yourself competitively. Scores, letters, interview strengths. Also what type of program and location.

For example if you really want to stay east coast but not sure how competitive you are, you might have 17+ interviews and keep them all. If you apply and want to incur the cost, you should. This is not about anyone but you. You need to think of your future and your family, not anyone else.

However, if you know that you are not going to interview or rank a program than drop it.

My last piece of advice as an upper level pm&r resident is you probably will rank more programs than you need. I matched at my #1. However, the 11 programs I ranked allowed me to see what all types of programs offered me and gave me piece of mind about your decision.

I feel bad for those who are waiting just to interview, but those of you with many invites worked hard and earned it. I think it's kind of petty to tell people to give up their interviews on a forum such as this because you do not have many or any. Perhaps you should have worked harder to elevate your stock. Kudos to those that did as many excellent applicants have interviewed at my program this year.

You are making a lot of assumptions. I am not a lazy person waiting for some leftovers. In fact, I have 13 interviews and I am one of the excellent applicants interviewing at your program. I'm just saying if you aren't going to rank a program then it's really a waste of everyone's time if you go. I cancelled a program because I know I wouldn't rank it compared to the other places I am considering.

Also, I went to an interview lately and an applicant didn't show up. I'm sure someone would have loved to take that slot so please be considerate.

 

[emersonkelly]

I will not cancel all the interviews. If it is possible, I will attend all the interviews by scheduling them properly!!

 

[Tromner]

I really appreciated MedBronc23's comment. It expressed a lot of my own thoughts from reading many of the recent posts. I agree that applicants don't have a duty to anyone else in this process and it would be silly to try to anticipate what other applicants would need. It is reasonable that if you aren't going to rank a program or attend an interview, you should tell them early, if only out of common courtesy. But programs interview 5-10 applicants for each spot for a reason and PM&R programs rarely have unmatched spots anymore. It doesn't seem like programs need more interviews.

 

[TeaKae]

Being somebody who is a little insecure about my competitiveness and interviewing charisma, I have found it very difficult to cancel interviews. I am so afraid of not matching! BUT, I've also realized that there are some places I just don't want to live--i.e. big, expensive cities--so I have been starting to cancel a few recently, based on the fact that I can't see myself (and my family) happy in the locations. Really, there are 3-5 programs I think I'd be seriously happy matching at, but I'll probably interview at as many as I can just with the hope matching somewhere. It's hard to find that magic number at which you're comfortable gambling all the hard work you've put in, and I guess it's different for everybody. I just hope we're all happy and have a job in the end!

 

[RangerBob]

I really appreciated MedBronc23's comment. It expressed a lot of my own thoughts from reading many of the recent posts. I agree that applicants don't have a duty to anyone else in this process and it would be silly to try to anticipate what other applicants would need. It is reasonable that if you aren't going to rank a program or attend an interview, you should tell them early, if only out of common courtesy. But programs interview 5-10 applicants for each spot for a reason and PM&R programs rarely have unmatched spots anymore. It doesn't seem like programs need more interviews.

If I'm not mistaken, PM&R doesn't just rarely have unmatched spots, but hasn't actually had an unmatched position for a number of years now. So there's good reason to go on as many interviews as you can afford/tolerate and are willing to go to.

I had originally planned on going to 10 interviews, but since I'm able to afford and schedule at least 12 of the 13 invites I received, I also see no reason to turn down them down. I'm anxious about matching as well (especially as I'm still waiting for CK and CS scores to come in), and the more programs I rank, the better I can ensure I match into PM&R and don't have to scramble into another specialty.

With that said, I will also cancel any future invites from programs I'm not interested in. And I'd like to thank whoever cancelled their interview at one of my top five choices, as I was able to drive down and interview there last minute 🙂

 

[MedBronc23]

1st, are Reapp MD and the original poster the same? Or do you guys have a similar issue with people keeping interviews?

2nd, I hope no lazy people come to my program. I doubt they would get an interview since we seem to do a great job weeding those types of applicants. We typically get the cream of the PM&R crop, if you are in that group Reapp, I look forward to meeting you (although might be hard if you don't divulge your secret student doc identity 🙂 however, I would be cautious how you respond up the chain on these forums. I.e. applicant to resident or resident to staff... As presumably anonymous comments could come back to hurt you in a not so anonymous way.

3rd, I try to make no assumptions. I have strong opinions about our field and strong convictions as well. I apologize for any offense, but I stand by my previous comments to keep as many interviews as makes you feel comfortable and give them up with a gracious response when you know for sure a program and you won't work out.

Remember that you all have one chance to match without scrambling. If the numbers game makes you feel better, more power to you. You earned your interviews.

 

[deleted185747]

back in the day I had about 15 between PM&R and prelim medicine positions. I did about 7 of them before I broke my ankle snowboarding. I made it to 2 more interviews on crutches before I cancelled the rest.

Moral of the story:

Don't break anything you might need- such as your medial malleoli