Too late to interview?

[PAN627]

after waiting 2 weeks for the IM dept to extend an invitation, I was finally able to book a dual interview for currently my #1 choice for Jan 5th 2010. I have interviews on Nov 6, Dec,1,2,6. I was wondering if Jan 5th is too late for a program that is my number 1 choice, and if I should change it to Dec, or does it not matter? I wanted to go through a few interviews before going to my top choice.

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[cookymonster]

Since the match is not a rolling admissions process like med school, I don't think it matters. If anything, I think they're more likely to remember you when it's time to make rank lists if you make a good impression on a later interview.

I think the only downside of interviewing that late is that burnout may set in if you schedule too many interviews beforehand.

 

[willow18]

There are multiple old threads on this topic. The only research that's been done on this that I'm aware of (in EM), showed no correlation between match rates and interview date.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

There is no such thing as too late. We have matched people from the first and last interview days. You cannot "lose" by interviewing later. And honestly, Jan 5 isn;t that late -- many programs interview into the end of Jan and some into mid Feb.

This assumes you are going through the match. If you are an IMG/DO/Prev grad and trying to get a spot outside the match, then earlier might be better. But Jan 5 is still probably fine in that case too.