Interview preparation guide
Deciding which interviews to accept: residency interview preparation guide
AAMC's scheduling guidance warns against accepting every invitation and choosing later, a behaviour it names interview hoarding. Your yes starts a chain of events affecting you, other applicants, the program and your school, so the decision to accept deserves the same care as the interview itself.
How to prepare
- 1
Count the cost to yourself first
The AAMC guide's first implication is yours: every accepted interview adds to your interview schedule and your academic schedule. An acceptance is a commitment of preparation time, travel and rotation leave, not a free option.
- 2
See the slot through other eyes
The guide spells out the ripple effects. Accepting a slot you are uninterested in holds or wastes a slot another applicant could have filled. Real people at the program act on your yes, even when you only ever see a scheduling tool. And programs attribute your behaviour, good or bad, to your medical school, which affects how they treat your school's applicants in future cycles.
- 3
Decide with genuine intent, then act fast when it changes
The guide's frame is that understanding the ripple effect of a yes helps you make better decisions. Accept interviews you genuinely intend to attend, and the moment a program drops below that line, release the slot promptly using the professional cancellation route so another applicant can take it.
A practical exercise
Genuine intention to attend: [yes/no]. Effect on my academic schedule: [..]. Slot released promptly if interest drops: [yes/no].
This is an editorial exercise to adapt to your own interview, not a script or a program requirement.
What the source guidance supports
AAMC's scheduling guidance warns against accepting every invitation and choosing later, a behaviour it names interview hoarding. Your yes starts a chain of events affecting you, other applicants, the program and your school, so the decision to accept deserves the same care as the interview itself.
The exercises and checklists are editorial applications of the cited guidance, not required program procedures or predictions of interview outcomes. Formats and policies vary by program, so follow your actual invitation and school guidance.
Mistakes to avoid
- Treating acceptances as free options to be trimmed later; the hoarding pattern is what the AAMC guide warns against by name.
- Holding a slot you have already ruled out because releasing it feels awkward.
- Forgetting that coordinator-visible behaviour follows your school's name as well as yours.
Check your preparation
- Do I genuinely intend to attend this interview if I accept it?
- Have I weighed the effect on my schedule, other applicants, the program and my school?
- If my interest has ended, have I released the slot promptly and professionally?
Questions for your practice review
- Do I genuinely intend to attend this interview?
- What does accepting cost my academic schedule and preparation time?
- Whose slot am I holding if I accept without intent to attend?
Common questions
Is it wrong to accept before I am sure?
Some uncertainty is normal, and AAMC's guidance accepts that you may not feel ready to dismiss a program until after interviewing there. The line it draws is accumulating acceptances you never intend to use, not honest indecision.
Does hoarding really affect other applicants?
That is the AAMC guide's own reasoning: an accepted slot you will not use is a slot another applicant could have filled, and programs overbook less reliably as a result. Our blog post on interview hoarding covers the season-wide effects.
Is this current for the 2027 ERAS season?
AAMC publishes this interview preparation guide as current guidance for applicants interviewing in the 2027 ERAS season. Program formats and policies change year to year, so confirm the details with each program that invites you.
Related guides
Sources
This page is general editorial guidance based on the sources above. It is not a prediction of any program's questions or a statement of its current policies.