Neuro Interview Timeline Question

[ArtVandalay4]

I am starting my fourth year in the next couple of weeks and am trying to get my schedule together for fall/winter of this year which will be interview season for me. I have about 3 full weeks I can take off and a rotation of four weeks that I hope my preceptor will let me use for time off if interviews arise. According to the AAN website Neurology programs interview anywhere from October - late January. I was curious when most people interviewed during this time frame? I would like to take these weeks off during a time that gives me the best chance to interview. Looking at this years invite thread some people were starting as early as late September, but the thread kind of drops off after that. Any advice would be great.

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[HarveyCushing]

This will obviously depend on the individual programs, but from what I have been told Nov-Dec-Jan are the busiest months for interviews minus the time around the holidays. I think most programs start in October. Will also depend how spread out you would like your interviews to be, how many you plan on going to...etc.

 

[ArtVandalay4]

This will obviously depend on the individual programs, but from what I have been told Nov-Dec-Jan are the busiest months for interviews minus the time around the holidays. I think most programs start in October. Will also depend how spread out you would like your interviews to be, how many you plan on going to...etc.

Yeah this all makes sense. My main concern is do they favor before the first of the year vs. after January. I know some specialties rarely interview into January while others it is commonplace.

 

[HarveyCushing]

I have noticed several programs have their interview dates/schedule listed on their website. If not for 2012 you can see what happened last year in 2011 to give yourself an idea.

 

[typhoonegator]

From my experience, once programs have set their interview schedule, they hold off on any further ranking of applicants until after all the interviews are done. This is not really a fairness issue as much as it is an efficiency issue. Why continue to rank applicants until all the facts are in?

There are people interviewed early in the cycle that look great early on, then get bumped down as the interview season wears on. And there are dark horses that no one really expects anything from, then suddenly are ranked to match after a late interview.

That said, interview early. It's just better to get things out of the way.