Dreaming of interviews

It sure would be nice if this were interview season and not waiting season. I have heard that some program directors will sit down with a pile of applications and sort them into 3 piles - definately interview, maybe interview and don't interview. Just for fun I tried to do that with the programs based on the info I have now (which isn't very much.) That is not an easy task. There are a lot of things to consider - for instance, would it be a waste of time to go to an interview at school x because its so competative and there is only 1 spot? Would I really want to live in X, even for 2 or 3 years? Is this program going to fold when I am there, essentially wasting a year or two of my life? Oh well. Those are decisions I don't have to make at least for another few months.

I remember when I was applying for general surgery. When the first interview offer came I was so keyed up that I went, even though it was a program that my advisor wanted more than I did. I'll probably do the same again this year :P I just hope the first news that I get is an interview offer and not a rejection. I am sure there will be plenty of rejections, and those aren't so bad if you already have an interview or two under your belt.

From my perspective I am much more likely to go invest time and money in an interview if I can find out a little about a program beforehand. I can't figure out why some of these places have such crappy websites. Who knows, maybe some of these places will send out information packages.