To do or not do more interviews?????

[Induc(junc)tion]

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Hello all. It has been a while since I have posted. Anyhow, I am getting the feeling of burnout, and was wondering if I should do any more interviews. In reality, the only reason I am asking this is because I am so afraid of not matching somewhere, and the thought of that scenario keeps the drive going. I have interviewed at 15 places so far. I have found my top 3, although I have no idea where I stand with them.

I am so scared of not matching because of the very competitive nature of the specialty now, and the fact that I am an osteopathic applicant. Also, I interviewed at some pretty competitive programs in competitive cities. Brief stats: great clinical and preclinical grades, good letters (albeit from no one well known or from powerhouse programs), USMLE step 1 240ish, COMLEX 690ish. I think I interview allright. I mean, I dont go out of my way to sell myself, but I act like myself, friendly, courteous and polite, etc. With all of this said, do you think I will be safe????????????

I really dont feel like I have any energy left. I am so nervous for match day.

 

[amyl]

i think you will be fine as your stats are great but i am still an m3 so maybe those with more experience will have better info. congrats on rocking the boards -- i am sure you will do fine -- good luck on match day

 

[Green912]

I think you're in fine shape. With those scores you'll get plenty of attention as long as your interviews go well enough. One thing to consider is how many of those 15 places do you not plan on ranking. I know when I first started interviewing I figured I'd rank each place but finished knowing there were 2-3 I'd be leaving off my list. For what it's worth my USMLE & COMLEX scores were solid enough, but not to your level, and I'm comfortable interviweing at 13 programs.

 

[me454555]

Dude, if they interviewed you they want you. You're past the point of really needing to worry about how competitive you are. Look at the past match stats. If you rank 15 programs I'm sure you'll have >98% chance of matching. Interview @ places that might crack your top 5, if not, F'it. FWIW, I only got 11 invites and I'm prolly gonna cancel 1 and hopefully not rank another. I'm a DO too

 

[ketafol]

Do any of you have your step 2 results submitted to programs? I have similar stats, but I am wondering if my lack of taking step 2 before rank lists are due will hurt me in the end?

 

[Green912]

I'm not sure if it's mattered but I had my step-2 score in around the 2nd-3rd week of September.

 

[smgilles]

Do any of you have your step 2 results submitted to programs? I have similar stats, but I am wondering if my lack of taking step 2 before rank lists are due will hurt me in the end?

I too like Green912 had my step 2 score results(USMLE & COMLEX) done by the time I submitted my application in early September. Although, I agree with the others that if you are getting/gotten interviews and had a decent step I they are going to assume you would be smart enough to do well on step 2 and won't hold it against you.

 

[niceguydoc]

I'm also a DO, I have 10 invitations, plan on going to all of em, and intend on ranking all 10, for fear of not matching (i'd rather be unhappy at my 10th choice, then not match at all, or have to scramble - the ultimate goal afterall is becoming an anesthesiologist) But then again, my credentials are not stellar. 570 on comlex 1, did not take the usmle's, class rank of 15/150. did not submit my app till 10/1 and it wasn't completed (waiting for one letter to come through!) till nov 1. I'll be psyched to match at my top 1-2, happy to match at 3-6. its a tough year, i've come across a lot of well qualified applicants on the interview trail. as mentioned previously, based on stats, you should match successfully with 10 interviews or so

 

[SexPanther]

I can't believe that you went on 15 interviews! I would kill myself. I'm only doing 8 with the plan on ranking all of them. I've turned down some really good places b/c I just couldn't see myself there for the next 4 years (wife has a lot of pull on this one).

As DOs in this competitive year, I think we are all a little paranoid. Ultimately, if you're getting interviews the programs are interested. I know its tough, but let's all breathe a little bit and trust in our performance to this point.

Good luck to everybody.

 

[chips]

I can't believe that you went on 15 interviews! I would kill myself. I'm only doing 8 with the plan on ranking all of them.

wow. i've already gone on 11 and plan on going to 4 more. i guess i'm also excessively risk adverse.

 

[SexPanther]

wow. i've already gone on 11 and plan on going to 4 more. i guess i'm also excessively risk adverse.

Maybe I'm an idiot and should've done more.

 

[Flycatcher]

I mean, if you were, you'd be IdiotPanther rather than SexPanther, right? 😉

I'm not a DO, so if you decide I'm pretty much using my sphincter ani externus to talk rather than my mouth... er, typing fingers, I can't really argue. But I will say that many MD applicants I've met on the Residency Quest have also gone ape with 15+ interviews, and I think that for any applicant, once you're past 10, the returns (not to mention your bank account) surely have diminished to almost nil (For the record, I'll be maxing out at 6, unless another pity-view comes my way).

Given the investment of time, energy, resources, and money that a residency program and faculty must put into each applicant, I just can't imagine that they would bring in many people to interview that the program wasn't rather interested in matching already. Especially in a more competitive year, why would they waste their time, money, etc. by interviewing scrubs? I would think this is especially true with programs that provide dinner and even accomodations the night before. Those expenses really must add up over time. So, unless you acted like a total mutant at most of your interviews, somebody (probably several sombodies) will rank you.

Granted, I'm in the same boat as you, and not in the DO boat with some, so I can't act like I'm wise about this. But unless you have yet to interview at somewhere that you think could crack your top 3 list, I say it's time to get your cancel on.

Happy New Year and best luck to all of us with the Residency Quest. 🙂

 

[Green912]

I mean, if you were, you'd be IdiotPanther rather than SexPanther, right? 😉

I'm not a DO, so if you decide I'm pretty much using my sphincter ani externus to talk rather than my mouth... er, typing fingers, I can't really argue. But I will say that many MD applicants I've met on the Residency Quest have also gone ape with 15+ interviews, and I think that for any applicant, once you're past 10, the returns (not to mention your bank account) surely have diminished to almost nil (For the record, I'll be maxing out at 6, unless another pity-view comes my way).

Given the investment of time, energy, resources, and money that a residency program and faculty must put into each applicant, I just can't imagine that they would bring in many people to interview that the program wasn't rather interested in matching already. Especially in a more competitive year, why would they waste their time, money, etc. by interviewing scrubs? I would think this is especially true with programs that provide dinner and even accomodations the night before. Those expenses really must add up over time. So, unless you acted like a total mutant at most of your interviews, somebody (probably several sombodies) will rank you.

Granted, I'm in the same boat as you, and not in the DO boat with some, so I can't act like I'm wise about this. But unless you have yet to interview at somewhere that you think could crack your top 3 list, I say it's time to get your cancel on.

Happy New Year and best luck to all of us with the Residency Quest. 🙂

a nice reasonable post.

 

[me454555]

I mean, if you were, you'd be IdiotPanther rather than SexPanther, right? 😉

I'm not a DO, so if you decide I'm pretty much using my sphincter ani externus to talk rather than my mouth... er, typing fingers, I can't really argue. But I will say that many MD applicants I've met on the Residency Quest have also gone ape with 15+ interviews, and I think that for any applicant, once you're past 10, the returns (not to mention your bank account) surely have diminished to almost nil (For the record, I'll be maxing out at 6, unless another pity-view comes my way).

Given the investment of time, energy, resources, and money that a residency program and faculty must put into each applicant, I just can't imagine that they would bring in many people to interview that the program wasn't rather interested in matching already. Especially in a more competitive year, why would they waste their time, money, etc. by interviewing scrubs? I would think this is especially true with programs that provide dinner and even accomodations the night before. Those expenses really must add up over time. So, unless you acted like a total mutant at most of your interviews, somebody (probably several sombodies) will rank you.

Granted, I'm in the same boat as you, and not in the DO boat with some, so I can't act like I'm wise about this. But unless you have yet to interview at somewhere that you think could crack your top 3 list, I say it's time to get your cancel on.

Happy New Year and best luck to all of us with the Residency Quest. 🙂

This post should be stickied and added to the FAQ under how many interviews is enough. This topic seems to come up every 6 months

 

[ketafol]

I guess you can get paranoid easily when you hear stories of people matching at thier 10th or 11th choices as I have.

 

[chips]

...especially if your "10th choice" is still a reach school, as mine is.

 

[amyl]

how low have you guys heard of someone ranking programs and not matching? Have you ever heard of someone ranking like 15 programs and still not matching?

 

[smgilles]

I guess you can get paranoid easily when you hear stories of people matching at thier 10th or 11th choices as I have.

I talked to someone from last year who matched at his #13 (last on his rank list), and he had great COMLEX scores I/II (650+). He did not take the USMLE so I am hoping that was part of the problem. Also, maybe he didn't interview very well; either way it makes me quite nervous too.

 

[DreamLover]

how low have you guys heard of someone ranking programs and not matching? Have you ever heard of someone ranking like 15 programs and still not matching?

Sure I've heared of plenty of people not matchig but I have no idea how many programs they ranked....I doubt it was 15 or even near there (unless they were that bad of a candidate and even 15 places was not enough...no one can ever say never) I'd think though that you'd have to be in pretty rocky shape to not match at one of 15--but if you were that bad of an applicant you probably wouldn't of had 15 or more invites in the first place...IMO

 

[amyl]

I talked to someone from last year who matched at his #13 (last on his rank list), and he had great COMLEX scores I/II (650+). He did not take the USMLE so I am hoping that was part of the problem. Also, maybe he didn't interview very well; either way it makes me quite nervous too.

wow! thanks for adding to my anxiety
begining to think anes is over my head🙁

 

[SexPanther]

wow! thanks for adding to my anxiety
begining to think anes is over my head🙁

I cannot stress the importance, if you are applying to allopathic residencies, to take the USMLE and do well on it. This has been mentioned often to me on the interview trail, esp. at the more competitive, well-known institutions.

Allow the selection committees to compare apples to apples as opposed to trying to figure out what the hell the COMLEX score means. None of them are going to use that horrible conversion formula published in the JAOA a couple of months ago.

Good luck everyone!

 

[Flycatcher]

But whenever I hear those stories, I wonder what I'm not hearing about their Residency Quest. Frankly, the very few people I've known who matched awfully in most fields, including gas(~10th choice or lower or not at all with rank lists of at least 5) really didn't surprise me with their lack of success. Harsh, but true. Two of them were such mutants they could barely hide it in a 5-minute chat, so I can't imagine they interviewed well. One of them was an arrogant prick in a way that may be tolerable from a physcian but was "premature" for a med student. The fourth refused to rank or even apply to any "safety" programs (and she considered Beth Israel a safety choice for Internal Medicine). I didn't accompany them on their interviews, but pretty much no one else was shocked by their Match Day disapppointments. Based on SexPanther's comments, the person in smgilles' story also made a significant (and evidently known and often advised against) mistake.

Can't speak for anyone else, but I feel that I can assess my performance pretty objectively after an interview day. Sure it's just a guess, but as intelligent adults (which any MD/DO student should be), I feel we should be able to trust our impressions of what we thought about our interviews and what the interviewers felt about us, just like we learn to trust our impressions of patients as we progress trough med school. Maybe if I felt more of my interviews were shaky (and a couple certainly were), I'd be more worried about my list of 6, but I believe I made enough favorable impressions that I'll rank at a program of somebody's choice. 😉

I just can't see why, in this competitive year, residency programs would waste interview spots, faculty time, and three-course dinners on many applicants they were blase about. I suspect that the dearth of pity-views being handed out (at least, based on the current slowness of the Offical Interview Thread) is because programs this year have seen enough good people not to worry about filling.

Anesthesiology, however more competitive it may be this year, still isn't anything like Derm, Rad Onc, or Plastics, where you'll take your 23rd choice on Match Day and be happy. Indeed, I've been impressed how even top tier places like Penn and Hopkins have been very accepting of DOs and applicants from non-A list MD schools. That might change in the future, but I don't believe it has already.

PS: Green and me45, thanks for the compliments on my post. 🙂

 

[me454555]

...especially if your "10th choice" is still a reach school, as mine is.

Your 10th choice is never a reach. In case you haven't figured it out, your a competitive applicant and no school is out of reach. Don't worry abou the name. Don't forget that more schools = diminishing returns. If you can't match @ 10, why would 15 be any different. Don't sweat it so much an enjoy the match

 

[chips]

Your 10th choice is never a reach. In case you haven't figured it out, your a competitive applicant and no school is out of reach. Don't worry abou the name. Don't forget that more schools = diminishing returns. If you can't match @ 10, why would 15 be any different. Don't sweat it so much an enjoy the match

🙂