Rank lists are...

…very painful. Please don’t mind my venting/sighing I am second looking a few of my top schools and I feel a little closer to being able to do my list. I don’t know why I am stressed though, as in some ways it’s all out of my hands.
I am ranking 9 of the 11 neurology programs I interviewed at. The top 5 are the ones I am struggling the most with.
Well, off to sleep so I can get up early and head down to Iowa City for my last second look.
Tara

Tara,
I feel your pain… strongly! While I don’t have to put my list together until Feb, I have been trying to figure out a rough idea of how I’d rank places… and I honestly am not sure. I have a few more interviews, but if I had to decide now, I would really have trouble deciding on the top 3 even among those I’ve already been to-- I can only imagine it is going to get worse, since I’m really now starting to get into the places I was most interested in. I was talking to another candidate at the last interview, and we were saying how it will probably end up being the last place that we interview that we rank first, since it seems like each place is so great. I have yet to visit a program I didn’t think I could be happy at-- I’ve just eliminated a few based on liking a few better-- if that makes any sense.
Good luck with the ranking. I’ll be interested to know hoe you decide to rank programs. I hope you enjoy Iowa City. I liked their Internal Med program quite a bit.
Deb

Epidoc,
It’s ironic that you mention Iowa. Iowa is in my top three and I am stuggling to decide how to rank them. The next two programs on the list are close behind. The strengths and weaknesses between them are in different areas and are what is making finalizing my rank list so tough. I did second looks at them to help and it did help to the point that it made me see these differences. My rank list is due by the 17th, but I want to get it in this week (I can fax it).
Of my top five, one was my first interview, one was my third, and one was my sixth. The other two were the second and third last. I interviewed at a total of 11 programs and will rank 9. I completely agree that we become biased towards our later programs. Part of that for me was that later in the interview cycle I understood more about how neurology programs are structured and how they differ as well as what I was looking for in a program.
Good luck with the rest of your interviews and your rank list
Tara

…submitted. Certified. Done. I even went the whole day without futzing with the darn thing. Deadline is now past, and what a relief that is. Nothing for me to do.
Deep breath.
Now the waiting begins.

Epi

Yep, me too. I made a significant change 3 days before the deadline and managed not to touch it again. March 16th sure won’t come fast enough for me!
Jane