Told to apply to 75 programs: thoughts?

[alohakaoha]

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[vistaril]

That seems insane.....I'd ask other people(like pd and assistant pd at your program) what they think about this.

Also, her advice is *****ic in the sense that an applicant who needs to apply to 75 programs would never not rank 10 programs they interview at.

You don't seem to have any red flags....the lack of any As is a bit weird and the step 1 score is low, but you are an allopathic amg and improved on step 2. And no apparent red flags. Don't see any reason you shouldn't be considered a typical middle of the road applicant and apply as such.

 

[GoSpursGo]

That seems like "CYA" advice from the residency application coordinator. Telling EVERYONE to apply to 50 is asinine; there are surely highly competitive people in your class who do not need anything near that amount, but I suppose that gives them something to fall back on where they can say "I told you so" or whatever if someone fails to match. But people think you're crazy if you apply to many more than 20 in peds.

If you want to be safe, then you could apply to 25-30 with a good range of community programs, but as soon as you get anywhere in the ballpark of 10-15 interviews you're going to be fine. I will echo the advice of the above poster that you should touch base with your actual PD and see what they have to say, as they are likely in a better spot to comment than this general residency application coordinator.

 

[Stitch]

I agree that's an insane amount of programs to apply to. And I'd even argue that by applying to that many places, you are wasting both their time and yours given you can't possibly interview that many. As mentioned by others, my general advice is to find focus on fewer programs that have a spread of competitiveness. Maybe some reach programs, but also some smaller community programs (which are mostly excellent btw) that will be more likely to interview or match you. Don't limit your geographical location if possible because there are some great programs in surprising places.

 

[mvenus929]

are you at a school that hasn't graduated anyone yet? If so, I can understand the amount of paranoia your PD seems to express, but you shouldn't need to apply to that many to end up somewhere. Just get a solid mix of community programs and not top tier academic programs and you should be able to match somewhere. If you aren't getting a lot of interview offers within the first month, you might want to add some more programs.

 

[alohakaoha]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. I've received similar responses from the chiefs. They even said 20 was an excessive amount. I'm just hoping for good letters from my peds heme/onc elective and my clerkship. The current sentiment from the people who went into pediatrics are:
1) that our residency coordinator doesn't really know much about pediatrics program
2) most of them applied to 30, one applied to 59
3) they all said that was a lot.