Number of Residency Positions v/s Number of Residency programs

After boiling down your list of residency programs to the ones that you are eligible, some of you may find that you are eligible to many programs but the amount of money you can spend is strictly limited. In such not-so-uncommon scenarios, thinking of the number of positions one applies to instead of focusing on the number programs has two advantages -

a. higher chance of interview
b. You get a more economical deal ;-)

Of course a lot of you may already know this...but its amusing to note some of us boast about the number of programs applied to without also focusing on the number of total positions in the game...

This is because, there can be a pretty big difference in the number of positions - for example, the Internal Medicine residency program at Creighton University, Nebraska had 25 positions while the University of Buffalo program at Buffalo, NY has 56 first year positions as per 2007 FREIDA data.

So if Rohit applied for 30 programs with a total of 200 positions and Arif applied for 30 programs with a total of 300 positions - who got a better chance for an interview - (credentials considered similar) ? - Yeah...Even though both paid exactly the same amount of Dollars.

The same logic can play its part while applying to programs as 'backups' from other specialties...why not get more 'bang for your buck' ;-)