Will we get interviews from programs we don't signal? (anesthesia residency)
Started by Wobbler12345
This is going to be program, specialty, and individual applicant stats dependent. You might be “more likely” to get an interview at a program you’ve signaled, but that doesn’t mean you definitely will. If 90% of applicants send a signal to XYZ top program, the program will not be able to interview every single applicant in that scenario.
But other programs might not get as many signals, and will need to interview applicants who did not signal them.
But other programs might not get as many signals, and will need to interview applicants who did not signal them.
I’ve talked to a program director for anesthesia who said their program won’t interview applicants who doesn’t signal them. They also said at the program directors meeting that many others PDs will do the same. On the other hand a different PD I spoke to stated they plan to interview applicants even if they don’t get signaled. So it’s very program and specialty specific. No clear answer.
What I believe is that all top programs will use signals to reduce the number of applications to a manageable amount. They will have plenty of qualified applicants within that pool to choose from. On the other hand, lower tier programs/community programs will likely not rely heavily on signals because the good applicants won’t be sending signals to their programs. So they will believe they can match better applicants than solely selecting those who signal their program who may otherwise be below average applicants
