How many prelim interviews necessary?

[gregoryhouse]

I'm wondering how many prelim interviews are necessary. I currently have 8 but really wanting to narrow it down to 6. 2 of them are transitional programs and 6 of them are prelim medicine programs

I'm curious how many prelim interviews people are doing this year and how many people who matched ophtho previously did in the years before.

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[eyeFone]

Anecdotes from others that loosely apply to your questions about turning down ophtho and prelim interviews are so variable that they're not worth hearing.

I know I have a prelim spot at my home program, so I'm only attending two other interviews. Others thought that they had a guaranteed spot last year, it fell through, and they had to scramble. That means I could be making a huge mistake. In my situation, I feel secure.

My buddy last year interviewed at 10 and matched at his first choice and interview. He feels like he wasted money on nine interviews.

None of us know all of the variables that contribute to your situation, so you're going to have to make some decisions.

 

[gregoryhouse]

I have a guaranteed prelim surgery spot at my home program but I'm hoping that will be an absolute last resort. Im not worried I will need to scramble but I still don't want to end up in prelim surgery.

 

[ojoseco]

TYs and good/cush prelim med programs can be competitive--i think 5 is a reasonable number


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[CarpetWindow7]

I'm doing 6 in total. 3 TY's and 3 medicine. One medicine is home program, which should be a lock worst case scenario

 

[Equality]

I recommend waiting until you match and interviewing at the institution program where you match. Many ophthalmology programs are a part of a large institution that also have internal medicine/TY/Surgery, and most programs like having prelim interns from ophthalmology.

Speaking from experience.

 

[AQ888]

3 TY and 1 Prelim

 

[Super66]

Dear future readers. You need to tailor this number to your own personal situation, statistics, and what you personally want in a prelim/TY, especially the where it is you want to be. If your medical school is in a state with 15 local prelim programs, you're AOA, personable, and you want to stick around there, then fine, do 3-4 interviews. If that's not you, I'd say 8-10 is a better bet. I know people who matched in the middle or end of their list or not at all. Perhaps they weren't SDN superstars, but they were impressive enough to match in their respective competitive categorical fields. Again, I think location plays a big role in this and only you know where you're from and where you want to be.

Of course, you can always SOAP and almost certainly match somewhere if you're a good ophtho candidate. It just might not be to your liking though. Also, I would be very cautious of "guarantees." As someone wise once said, there's no guarantees in life. Especially in the match.