Early Invitations for Residency Interviews: The Exception or the Norm?

In the application process for Emergency Medicine (EM) residencies, the tacit start date for offering interviews has been November 1, the day the Medical Student Performance Evaluations (MSPEs) are released. We hypothesized that even before November 1, a large number of our applicants had already received "early" invitations to interview this year. We anonymously surveyed our program's EM interviewees with a survey that included two questions: "Did you receive any interview invitations before November 1?" and "Please list the programs that offered you interview invitations before November 1." Of 82 interviewees, 73 completed the survey (89%). Seventy-seven percent of respondents (56/73) were offered an interview before November 1. At least 59 of the 135 (44%) EM residencies send early invitations. The majority of our interviewees did receive early invitations. It cannot be ignored that at least 59 programs offer early invitations. This information has implications both for student advisors and residency programs.