Which month to take off for interviews?

[DrWuStar]

When do most psych residencies have interviews? I'm trying to figure out my 4th year schedule. Is December the best month to block off for interviews? If it makes a difference, I would be looking at Chicago and NYC programs.

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[strangeglove]

Interviews start in November and go until the beginning of February. Essentially, it doesn't matter when you interview. So, go with whatever's convenient for you. If you're interviewing in only a couple of cities, then it might be good to take a couple of weeks off and stay in that city for while you're interviewing at all the programs there (this will also save you money on airfare). Most programs will get back to you soon after ERAS is submitted, and interview dates are first-come, first-served. Sometimes, interview dates are quickly filled up, which means that you could be out of luck at a that program even if you are a stellar candidate because you waited to schedule an interview. So, submit your ERAS application as early as possible and schedule your interview dates as soon as you hear from a program. That will ensure that you will get the dates you want. Also, some programs initially only offer early dates to applicants who reply quickly. If you are interested in interviewing later, you can ask them to schedule a later date and they will usually accomodate you. There are a few programs, however, that are done interviewing by December (e.g. Iowa). Good luck!

 

[Dredbolt]

If you have the time to take a whole month off, December is a good choice. This is basically what I did this past interview season, and it worked out well, allowing me also to take some vacation and Step 2 prep time in the midst of my interviews. Be advised that, because of the holidays, many programs have a truncated month of interviews in December. Thus, you may only have 3 usable weeks within which to schedule visits in that month. So you may need to be flexible, to accommodate some possible spillover interviews in the months of November or January. And pace yourself, lest you burn out, which may happen anyways, because it happens to almost everyone.

 

[Neurotica]

It depends on which programs you'll be applying to, but December is probably the safest month overall. i had to use mine in January, and it got a bit difficult fitting everything in because there were a number of programs that stopped interviewing about mid-January.

 

[atsai3]

When do most psych residencies have interviews? I'm trying to figure out my 4th year schedule. Is December the best month to block off for interviews? If it makes a difference, I would be looking at Chicago and NYC programs.

Totally depends. If you have specific programs in mind, just give the residency coordinators a call and ask them what their dates were for this year's interviewing cycle.

I turned in my ERAS on the first day possible, started getting interviews about 7-10 days later. Booked all of my interviews starting in November and was done by mid-December.

-AT.

 

[JMD]

I went on an interview spree during December, then just 1 in January. I actually scheduled the programs I was only questionably interested in for January and ended up canceling most of them. I just felt more comfortable getting the interviews out of the way early, but I am sure you could use January as an interview month if you wanted to.

 

[Milo]

I agree with the December recommendation. As long as it is early December. In my program the late December holidays are times where many residents and attendings try to be as scarce as possible.

Although, if you look better on paper than in person late December could be the time for you. You could potentially minimize face time with future colleagues and attendings. This might result in idealization of your 315 on Step II, without a large group recalling and devaluing the excessive flatulence throughout the group luncheon.

 

[Chewbacca Jung]

On caveat about December, however, is that it is perhaps the most expensive month in which to travel. especially towards christmas. If you only have a month, I suggest trying to straddle november and december (last two weeks of nov, first two of Dec).
I did 5/9 of my interviews in the second week of november, 2 during early december and the last two during the middle to late december. The last ones in december were frighteningly expensive.

On most of the november one's, I was one of the first people to interview. And chances are I have a greater chance of being remembered than interviewing in the hoard of december. You could also go in January to get that remembering effect (social-psychology phenomenon) -- but you also have to deal with interviewer fatigue. If you go in january you'd have to do significantly less of that corresponding game of -- sending them emails and letters that say "yes I'm still interested in you, please keep remembering me". You run out of things to talk about very quickly. Though if you are interested in research and there are certain people you want to contact you have plenty of time to communicate with them if you interview in november (people take you more seriously after you've interviewed there).

Anyway, in summary of my rambling:

I think that december is the most convenient for most, but the most expensive, and you feel like part of the cattle.

November and January you have better chance of them remembering you. November you have a chance to correspond more. January you don't have to correspond as much.

Whatever month you choose, get a non-black/grey suit. I tried brown, and got a lot of good comments. My other suit was Navy (with cool pinstripes)-- not as many comments, but still breaking the mold. Though, do be your self. good luck

 

[josehernandez94]

I'm sure this has already been posted and I'm sincerely sorry if it has (I did look and read through several other threads), but I have a couple questions:

Generally, how many programs do people apply to? I'll probably be applying mainly in the northeast and also probably almost exclusively to places with child fellowships. I know that the programs in the northeast are reallyt competitive, but I also would like to limit the number of places I apply to, if possible.

How many interviews do people take?

 

[gardilimo]

I took January off and did a big chunk of my interviews then. as mentioned, many people are off on vacation in december and i found the amount of days to interview was much more limited than in january. i also like to see as many faculty, residents and staff as possible so i found that in january, after the new year, that most people are back in the grind. as said before, i found it cheaper and easier to travel. i didnt have to race to find a seat on a flight or have trouble finding a good rate on a hotel room, etc. and you are closer to the february deadline and it seems that if you decide on your favorite(s) while there or shortly thereafter, you can let them know, they will remember you and take you more seriously since it is the END of interview season. i think it worked out for me. i also found i could remember the programs better going in january then the few i did before then. the only problem is scheduling second looks in a short period of time but they tend to let you second look till mid february so it should provide you with enuf time. it did for me!

 

[atsai3]

I'm sure this has already been posted and I'm sincerely sorry if it has (I did look and read through several other threads), but I have a couple questions:

Generally, how many programs do people apply to? I'll probably be applying mainly in the northeast and also probably almost exclusively to places with child fellowships. I know that the programs in the northeast are reallyt competitive, but I also would like to limit the number of places I apply to, if possible.

How many interviews do people take?

The optimal number is, basically enough so that you feel comfortable that you will match to a program that you like. "Average number of interviews per applicant" is a number that often gets bandied about, and I think 12 is about high-normal, but that number should be flatly uninteresting to you -- what you are interested in is the number of interviews you should attend. That number is highly applicant-specific, and any suggested estimate put forth by a SDN'er in the absence of more detailed data about your specific application should be regarded as suspect. You would probably do better to ask your student dean (the one who writes your Dean's Letter) and your home psych program director -- or any of your attendings if they have gone through residency training fairly recently -- about how many programs you should apply to. If your student dean is organized, s/he should at the very least be able to provide you with some relevant statistics (eg., # interviews attended for past 5 years of students who matched vs. didn't match, match vs. didn't match according to USMLE Step 1 score, etc).

-AT.

 

[josehernandez94]

The optimal number is, basically enough so that you feel comfortable that you will match to a program that you like. "Average number of interviews per applicant" is a number that often gets bandied about, and I think 12 is about high-normal, but that number should be flatly uninteresting to you -- what you are interested in is the number of interviews you should attend. That number is highly applicant-specific, and any suggested estimate put forth by a SDN'er in the absence of more detailed data about your specific application should be regarded as suspect. You would probably do better to ask your student dean (the one who writes your Dean's Letter) and your home psych program director -- or any of your attendings if they have gone through residency training fairly recently -- about how many programs you should apply to. If your student dean is organized, s/he should at the very least be able to provide you with some relevant statistics (eg., # interviews attended for past 5 years of students who matched vs. didn't match, match vs. didn't match according to USMLE Step 1 score, etc).

-AT.

Awesome, thanks for all of the helpful information. I really appreciate it.