Interview Stats 2011, How many apps? How many invites? etc

Chins up fellas. Chances are that up to this point that some applicants have multiple offers for the same day. As has been discussed on other threads there are certain dates that are more popular than others. People will be starting to cancel interviews with different programs for various reasons and some spots will start to free up and more invites will begin to roll out.
B4B

So how many of your multiple offers have you cancelled in order to allow others to use those slots?

I have canceled with programs as better offers(IMO) have come in that overlap days with programs I have already scheduled. I'm in this to secure myself the best (again IMO) residency position possible not to screw others out of invites; if that is what you are implying. Thanks. Good luck to you.

B4B

Hopefully everyone else will do the same.

Each year there seems to be some mention of this whole concept of last minute interview cancellation to screw other people... Maybe I'm just not smart/nefarious enough to understand the purpose of such a move... but what would be the point? I would think that you would want other applicants to interview at more places where you yourself have no intention of interviewing... thereby increasing the chances that they will match there, and not where you want to be. Granted, I haven't given this a whole lot of thought, but what am I missing?

That said, if anyone wants to cancel their UVa, Iowa, or CMC interview and drop my name in the same email, that would be kickass

At least one program I'm interviewing at has let students know in writing that cancellations must be done within 3 weeks, or they will notify the student's medical school dean.

I have canceled with programs as better offers(IMO) have come in that overlap days with programs I have already scheduled. I'm in this to secure myself the best (again IMO) residency position possible not to screw others out of invites; if that is what you are implying. Thanks. Good luck to you.

B4B[/quote]

That's good to hear, just an inquisitive thought.

I wonder what people deem as an adequate number of interviews. (By no means is the following meant to single out Bone4Brains.) I worked with a resident who limited himself to 10. His reasoning was that if you had to go down that far on your rank list you probably weren't getting in anywhere. At first I thought this was quite the ballsy move and wouldn't have considered it myself, but the more I think about it the more I agree with him. We all look at "charting the outcomes" and see the great correlation with possibility of matching if one has 10+ interviews, but as a friend pointed out, the correlation isn't that the 10+ interviews grant you some greater advantage, but those who are given that many offers are generally good applicants.

One piece of information I would like to see made available is a breakdown of how far down people go on their rank lists. How many people match to numbers 10, 11, 12...? What good does it do me to interview at a place where I really don't have much intention of ranking anywhere but last? Sure, there's the off chance I'll really like it, but chances are that I won't. I think this is probably especially true if one is balking due to geographical preferences, whatever thay may be. Now I'm mostly just "thinking outloud" because I'm starting to get a little fed up waiting for my remaining programs(most of which are the ones I'd really love to have a chance at) and need to release some nervous energy. What are your thoughts?

I have canceled with programs as better offers(IMO) have come in that overlap days with programs I have already scheduled. I'm in this to secure myself the best (again IMO) residency position possible not to screw others out of invites; if that is what you are implying. Thanks. Good luck to you.

B4B

That's good to hear, just an inquisitive thought.

I wonder what people deem as an adequate number of interviews. (By no means is the following meant to single out Bone4Brains.) I worked with a resident who limited himself to 10. His reasoning was that if you had to go down that far on your rank list you probably weren't getting in anywhere. At first I thought this was quite the ballsy move and wouldn't have considered it myself, but the more I think about it the more I agree with him. We all look at "charting the outcomes" and see the great correlation with possibility of matching if one has 10+ interviews, but as a friend pointed out, the correlation isn't that the 10+ interviews grant you some greater advantage, but those who are given that many offers are generally good applicants.

One piece of information I would like to see made available is a breakdown of how far down people go on their rank lists. How many people match to numbers 10, 11, 12...? What good does it do me to interview at a place where I really don't have much intention of ranking anywhere but last? Sure, there's the off chance I'll really like it, but chances are that I won't. I think this is probably especially true if one is balking due to geographical preferences, whatever thay may be. Now I'm mostly just "thinking outloud" because I'm starting to get a little fed up waiting for my remaining programs(most of which are the ones I'd really love to have a chance at) and need to release some nervous energy. What are your thoughts?

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Rule of thumb (rough): For each interview, consider an 11% chance you'll match. Statistically speaking, the NRMP has shown that over 50% of those w 5 interviews match, and inevitably those w 9+ interviews match.

Beyond 10, it is said you are simply wasting your time and money flying out to places you probably won't reach on your rank list, and their time as well (unless of course you make horrible impressions in person, in which case statistically all bets are off).

Yeah but I could have interviewed at 10 places and there are still 5 places left that I'm scheduled to interview at all which are solid and may be the top 5 on my final rank-list. With that said you shouldn't stop at 10 interviews [barring the statistics reasoning] if you think that your other upcoming interviews may be places you would rank high.

Interesting thoughts. I especially like the concept that your # of interviews are more so an indicator of how competitive an applicant you are rather than your chances of matching. From looking at the charting outcomes chart: