Since this is all hypothetical anyway, what if it's written into next year's NRMP Match agreement that programs certify that they haven't held in-person interviews and applicants certify that they haven't attended any?
That would be an enormous change. And we don't even know what the world / travel will look like in the fall. Perhaps some locations will be able to have in person interviews. Or perhaps some locations will be able to host students who can travel locally to their programs.
I think it's likely that most, if not all, interviews will be virtual. But I don't see why we need to force it. Will look really silly if COVID has faded away by then - I doubt that, but it's possible.
What a great reminder of how impotent we are as med students than having PDs flout a potential national guidance to limit in person interviews. If a PD says "**** you, show up", med students are going to fall in line, good conscience be damned.
Wait, what? No one is flouting anything. As you said, it's a "potential" guidance. So let's wait and see. If we still have all these travel restrictions, then interviews will be virtual.
In the Peds letter they mentioned couples matching as an exception, so I am praying the same holds true if an application limit gets put in place. Otherwise, I am terrified about what this will mean for my significant other and I
If they make a couple's exception, I expect lots of students will find a "partner", say they are a couple, and then not submit a couple's rank list. If they don't make a couple's exception, it will be a mess for couples.
I hope they allow it for 90. For people with lower stats having a bigger cap is just more important. I can understand an interview max cap but not necessarily an application cap.
An interview cap is an interesting idea. You could track that through ERAS somehow. You would have to make a date where all invites needed to have gone out by though, so people don’t use all their interviews and then get some more desirable invites that they really wanted afterwards.
90 applications is a huge number, that's not a "limit", it's basically what happens now. But I totally get that an application limit puts a real problem on students, deciding which programs are "reasonable" isn't easy.
An interview cap is only helpful if you can really track it. Many programs don't keep track of interviews in ERAS, especially when people cancel. But of all the options discussed so far, it's the most feasible and reasonable. Would be very difficult to build and test software to enforce this by the fall.
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