No interview invites yet - should I send letters of interest and panic?

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uhmocksuhsillen

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Title says it all...
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uhmocksuhsillen said:
Title says it all...
Click to expand...

If you're trolling, 2/10

If you're serious, you may legit need some anxiolytics. It's been 2 days, chill.

For reference. I didn't get my first ii until around the 25th, then I got 5 more that week. Chances are you app hasn't even been seen yet. If you're at this place a month from now you can start panicking, but definitely not now.
 
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out of all my friends in my class, the only ones that have gotten interviews this early have been in FM. One 2 interviews saturday morning, and the other got his first last night. FM gets absolutely wrecked every year with a bazillion applications, and many likely starting looking through apps within hours of ERAS opening up. Psych on the other hand....you won't catch them dead going to work on a weekend when it could easily wait until monday haha
 
What’s a ii that the first poster referenced?
 
The earliest I would send a letter is late October/early November.

Relax! They literally just went out...
 
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Lunzio said:
The earliest I would send a letter is late October/early November.

Relax! They literally just went out...
Click to expand...

I agree overall, but October 15 would be my trigger point.
 
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People have real issues lol
 
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Letters are weak sauce, fly out to the program tomorrow and show up at the PD's office unannounced unshowered and looking mildly manic explaining why you would be such an amazing fit for their program.
 
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Is it bad I sort of identify with OP?

I was told I was a competitive applicant, yet I haven’t received any invites yet. I seriously think I, as well as my advisors, are underestimating the competition this year. Should I add more schools? Im starting to believe my list is way too top heavy even though my advisors said it wasn’t.

Interview invites have already gone out for schools I have applied to.
 
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Anyone know if it's too late to add schools at this point?
 
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Years ago as a new attending I used to spend more time on the forum than I do now. A few people PM'd me freaking out asking me for special help and a review on their situation. So I started dialogues with some of them, even told a few of them to call my personal cell phone number.

Except for about 3 of them all of them were worried-well BS where they were making something out of nothing. "I have 15 interviews. I'm so scared I'm not going to get in." "What makes you think you're not going to get in?" "I only have 15 interviews!"
 
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kewlboy88 said:
Is it bad I sort of identify with OP?

I was told I was a competitive applicant, yet I haven’t received any invites yet. I seriously think I, as well as my advisors, are underestimating the competition this year. Should I add more schools? Im starting to believe my list is way too top heavy even though my advisors said it wasn’t.

Interview invites have already gone out for schools I have applied to.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? It hasn’t been a week dude interviews keep coming out for the next 2 months. Relax....
 
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Merely said:
Are you serious? It hasn’t been a week dude interviews keep coming out for the next 2 months. Relax....
Click to expand...

So if you see a school u applied already sent out interviews, you may still get one from that program weeks or months from now? Or do they send them all in one burst typically?
 
yanks26dmb said:
So if you see a school u applied already sent out interviews, you may still get one from that program weeks or months from now? Or do they send them all in one burst typically?
Click to expand...

You may still get one
 
Merely said:
Are you serious? It hasn’t been a week dude interviews keep coming out for the next 2 months. Relax....
Click to expand...


What I'm trying to say is that I don't think I'm as competitive as I was originally told I was. Even with 240s, top 25 med school, plenty of psych research and extracurriculars (15 pubs/posters), the excel spreadsheet shows that there are plenty of people with those credentials who are applying to all the same places I am.

So, I'm thinking I need to broaden my range because I truly want to be a psychiatrist, regardless of whether I'm at a prestigious place or not.
 
Most of the top programs seem to wait until October (post-MSPE) to offer interviews. With your stats, you should be looking at a lot of interviews. Gotta be a little patient, my friend.

Look at the list of 2017-2018 interview dates on the spreadsheet to get a better idea of when invites go out.
 
please do not panic! it is still very early. I only got 2-3 in september and got most of my invites in october after the dean's letter went in. take a deep breath! things will work out everyone :)
 
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kewlboy88 said:
What I'm trying to say is that I don't think I'm as competitive as I was originally told I was. Even with 240s, top 25 med school, plenty of psych research and extracurriculars (15 pubs/posters), the excel spreadsheet shows that there are plenty of people with those credentials who are applying to all the same places I am.

So, I'm thinking I need to broaden my range because I truly want to be a psychiatrist, regardless of whether I'm at a prestigious place or not.
Click to expand...

It's literally been TWO DAYS. September 15th was on a weekend, and PDs are lifting through literally >1000 applications. It took a week before I heard anything from anyone. To address your above concerns, "plenty of people" with your credentials is what- 10 people? 20? Of a very very self selected group who are comfortable posting their stats to an anonymous internet archive

Everyone on this forum please apply a little self CBT and take the advice of people who have gone before you and the number of administrators (including actual program directors who have literally posted on this and other threads telling people not to worry). This is the worst part of the process, and you'll feel much better once the damn breaks and invites start rolling in. That voice in your head telling you to panic is not arising from high emotions and cognitive distortions. Go for a run, go meditate, go spend time with friends or significant others, or go have a beer. Or all of the above. And for the love of God please do not apply to 20 more programs two days into this process and make our PDs lives even worse than they already are.








(Of course it goes without saying that if you don't show up to every interview you get with caviar and a bottle of 30 year Speyside for all the PDs and PCs then you will never match, but we'll talk about that later)
 
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In all seriousness, if we see a program has already sent out a bunch of interviews and we didn't get one, can we safely assume we won't be getting an interview at that program?

Or is it possible programs will send out waves of interviews weeks (months?) later?
 
yanks26dmb said:
In all seriousness, if we see a program has already sent out a bunch of interviews and we didn't get one, can we safely assume we won't be getting an interview at that program?

Or is it possible programs will send out waves of interviews weeks (months?) later?
Click to expand...

I look forward to the day you can chill.

I suspect that there will be waves and I'm not talking waves just after 2 days of the cycle have passed...
 
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How much of a disadvantage would I be at if I sent in some more apps right now? 4-5 days post opening day...not sure how much of a difference this will make.
 
uhmocksuhsillen said:
How much of a disadvantage would I be at if I sent in some more apps right now? 4-5 days post opening day...not sure how much of a difference this will make.
Click to expand...

How many have you already sent? Did you apply broadly? Or did you apply to just coastal programs?

I can't imagine how sending more now, in the first week, is anything but advantageous. But it depends...
 
Psychotic said:
How many have you already sent? Did you apply broadly? Or did you apply to just coastal programs?

I can't imagine how sending more now, in the first week, is anything but advantageous. But it depends...
Click to expand...

Sent 65 apps. Mostly costal, southeast, Texas.
 
Evidence Based said:
65 seems like way too many already unless you have one or more glaring red flags.
Click to expand...

No red flags. Solid app, but I'm a DO and I keep hearing (over the last few years) how competitive psych is getting. I went ahead and applied to 40 more....did I over do it? Probably. But at the end of the day, why take a risk?
 
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I searched "interview invitation" in my gmail and this is what I found (a couple of cycles ago):

9/18
9/25
9/28
10/1
10/2
10/8
10/14
10/22
11/3 (sent geographic LOI ~Oct 20)

It ended up being almost in order of competitiveness (least first, most last). I think I might have missed a couple of places but that's overall representative.

Also, I happened upon an email I sent to the chief resident of my home program (who I knew personally) when I saw two rounds of invites from my home program on SDN. She didn't seem to think we had even sent invites at that point. Would take SDN with a grain of salt, or at least assume that there are plenty of invites to come after the initial reports.
 
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100? Wow.

If you have any kind of success in getting interview invites, you will have the problem of dealing with all of them - scheduling, canceling, etc. I know - a "good" problem to have, from the prospective of a nervous applicant in mid September - but there is a lot of stress in this process, and it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

I applied to around 25 programs, got something like 18 or 19 invites, and ended up attending about 12 interviews. Looking back on it, I overextended myself on the interviews, most of them involved air travel, thus $$$ - 8 or 9 interviews, tops, would have sufficed. And in retrospect, I over applied, too; 15 to 20 would have been more than enough. And the one thing I remember about all of it is the handling of invites that come in over a 2 month period, thus you are constantly evaluating whether or not to go to interviews, moving them around, canceling them, and wanting to be professional about all of it, not canceling anything last minute. There were a couple of programs I kind of jerked around - set a date, moved it to a later date, and ultimately canceled. With 100, you may get covered up with invites you really don't want to bother with, but initially you will schedule them, out of anxiety. Just deal with these programs professionally and ethically, not always the easiest thing to do in the fog of war that is coming your way.

Good luck.
 
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Hello, first time poster. I do not know if this is the place to put this, but I will throw it out anyway. I have applied to 30+ programs and have not received any invites. My Step 1 and 2CK are >245, upper half of my class at an M.D. school, but CS is a fail. I am currently waiting to retake as soon as a date opens up. Should I be worried since I have not even gotten a nibble?
 
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Evidence Based said:
It's literally been TWO DAYS. September 15th was on a weekend, and PDs are lifting through literally >1000 applications. It took a week before I heard anything from anyone. To address your above concerns, "plenty of people" with your credentials is what- 10 people? 20? Of a very very self selected group who are comfortable posting their stats to an anonymous internet archive

Everyone on this forum please apply a little self CBT and take the advice of people who have gone before you and the number of administrators (including actual program directors who have literally posted on this and other threads telling people not to worry). This is the worst part of the process, and you'll feel much better once the damn breaks and invites start rolling in. That voice in your head telling you to panic is not arising from high emotions and cognitive distortions. Go for a run, go meditate, go spend time with friends or significant others, or go have a beer. Or all of the above. And for the love of God please do not apply to 20 more programs two days into this process and make our PDs lives even worse than they already are.








(Of course it goes without saying that if you don't show up to every interview you get with caviar and a bottle of 30 year Speyside for all the PDs and PCs then you will never match, but we'll talk about that later)
Click to expand...


So, I just want to say I definitely appreciate you trying to put things in perceptive and your advice. I just think it's hard from my perspective when you see other people getting interviews at the school you applied to even when my advisors were like "oh you will definitely get interviews at most of the programs you applied to. Please don't apply to anymore you're just going to waste your money and time." Like, did they overestimate me? Did I screw up something in my application?

It's been a full week now and still no nibbles, even though I know some of the schools on my list have been sending out invites. I will continue to practice your evidence-based (get it?) practices to take my mind off of applications for another week. But if by October 1st rolls around and i still have no interviews, i will definitely start panicking that something is severely wrong with my application.
 
I assume the first week is a lot of local applications being processed and interviews send out to the cream of the crop applications.

I do wish that I had at least gotten something this week, but I suspect next week will be significantly more active.


Sent from my iPad using SDN mobile
 
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Does anyone know if they only give the first round of invites to US seniors?
 
there doesnt seem to be much rhyme or reason to who got invited to interview this week. looking at the spreadsheet, people with step 1 scores in the lower range have gotten more interviews than the people scoring 250+. People with Honors in psych and 10+ publications/posters have no interview offers. The first week is a random week and things will probably start to even out in the next 21 days.
 
really_realistic said:
there doesnt seem to be much rhyme or reason to who got invited to interview this week. looking at the spreadsheet, people with step 1 scores in the lower range have gotten more interviews than the people scoring 250+. People with Honors in psych and 10+ publications/posters have no interview offers. The first week is a random week and things will probably start to even out in the next 21 days.
Click to expand...

This can be because these people (high steps, pubs) are applying to top tier programs which tend to wait for MSPE to be released. I received a couple of messages from these places saying they won't start sending invites until October. Oh, and I don't have 10+ pubs or step 1 of 270 but hey, you only live once so I applied anyway. Take my $26, ERAS!
The three interviews I got this week were either local to my school, to the place where I lived before med school, or a state I did a sub-I in. One is mid-tier and two low-tier (as far as I can tell, since I'm not really sure how to assess it).

Either way, I'm sure the next two weeks will be more active with invites. Patience is a virtue. And now let me go back to checking my email every five minutes.
 
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really_realistic said:
there doesnt seem to be much rhyme or reason to who got invited to interview this week. looking at the spreadsheet, people with step 1 scores in the lower range have gotten more interviews than the people scoring 250+. People with Honors in psych and 10+ publications/posters have no interview offers. The first week is a random week and things will probably start to even out in the next 21 days.
Click to expand...

Considering that, in general, PD's like interviewing people/spending money and resources on applicants that have a higher likelihood of attending their institution, my theory is many programs who have started interviewing are extending interviews to those with target scores in their geographic area. Many "top tier" programs have not started interviewing yet and I suspect those applicants with higher scores, etc. will be receiving more invites as the cycle moves forward. At least, I hope, lol...
 
PlasticBag said:
This can be because these people (high steps, pubs) are applying to top tier programs which tend to wait for MSPE to be released. I received a couple of messages from these places saying they won't start sending invites until October. Oh, and I don't have 10+ pubs or step 1 of 270 but hey, you only live once so I applied anyway. Take my $26, ERAS!
The three interviews I got this week were either local to my school, to the place where I lived before med school, or a state I did a sub-I in. One is mid-tier and two low-tier (as far as I can tell, since I'm not really sure how to assess it).

Either way, I'm sure the next two weeks will be more active with invites. Patience is a virtue. And now let me go back to checking my email every five minutes.
Click to expand...

FWIW, i got a couple interviews on the opposite side of the country today..no ties whatsoever.
 
kewlboy88 said:
So, I just want to say I definitely appreciate you trying to put things in perceptive and your advice. I just think it's hard from my perspective when you see other people getting interviews at the school you applied to even when my advisors were like "oh you will definitely get interviews at most of the programs you applied to. Please don't apply to anymore you're just going to waste your money and time." Like, did they overestimate me? Did I screw up something in my application?

It's been a full week now and still no nibbles, even though I know some of the schools on my list have been sending out invites. I will continue to practice your evidence-based (get it?) practices to take my mind off of applications for another week. But if by October 1st rolls around and i still have no interviews, i will definitely start panicking that something is severely wrong with my application.
Click to expand...

For sure! I definitely felt all those things last year, and I'm trying to put things in perspective from the other side of the chasm. Everyone has those feelings, and the imposter syndrome is super real. A tiny minority of programs have sent out interviews yet, and those programs have only sent out a small fraction of their interviews they'll eventually offer. At this point last year I had zero interviews. I got a total of 10 and matched at my #1, so even though you're all probably super anxious and feel like you're going to vomit most of the day every day, just realize your feelings will be changing soon!

In the meantime, definitely take my "evidence based" recommendations and go get a beer (or other food/beverage of your choice) on this Friday afternoon ;).
 
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Does receiving suplemental applications mean that you’ve made it past the “first cut” at those programs, or are they usually sent to all applicants?
 
Evidence Based said:
It's literally been TWO DAYS. September 15th was on a weekend, and PDs are lifting through literally >1000 applications. It took a week before I heard anything from anyone. To address your above concerns, "plenty of people" with your credentials is what- 10 people? 20? Of a very very self selected group who are comfortable posting their stats to an anonymous internet archive

Everyone on this forum please apply a little self CBT and take the advice of people who have gone before you and the number of administrators (including actual program directors who have literally posted on this and other threads telling people not to worry). This is the worst part of the process, and you'll feel much better once the damn breaks and invites start rolling in. That voice in your head telling you to panic is not arising from high emotions and cognitive distortions. Go for a run, go meditate, go spend time with friends or significant others, or go have a beer. Or all of the above. And for the love of God please do not apply to 20 more programs two days into this process and make our PDs lives even worse than they already are.








(Of course it goes without saying that if you don't show up to every interview you get with caviar and a bottle of 30 year Speyside for all the PDs and PCs then you will never match, but we'll talk about that later)
Click to expand...

Bring the speyside.

Lets party.
 
i agree that letters to a program are by and large useless. But i do know for a fact that it once landed me an interview i otherwise would not have received. I know this because I asked the PD directly during my interview and the PD confirmed my hypothesis.
 
Despite what I said above some people (of course) are on shaky ground and worry is understandable, just that most people here fretting about it are over-worrying.

But let's talk about the people who truly are on shaky ground. First-radical acceptance. Worry has a positive function of getting you to get off your butt and do something, but this is based on evolutionary traits when we were living in the wild. A predator is chasing you? Fear helps you run or fight. In this case it's not the better thing. Think things through.

And bear in mind that if you bother the program too much you're going to look worse. While I was a professor if the program coordinator or director ever told me of a worried-well applicant that just kept on pestering them guess what?

Toss their application into the shredder.

Why? Cause we already got way more applicants than we need and ones that pestered us were ticking us off.

If you want to communicate with the program further do so politely and non-intrusively. A common behavior I saw among these people was to treat the program coordinator like he/she didn't matter cause the person wasn't a physician. WRONG. Heck in many programs the coordinator does more with the application process than the director.

Here's an example of an applicant over-communicating with a program.
 
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