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Thursday, January 7, 2010

Applying for away rotations???

My husband is starting to think about away rotations. He is leaning strongly on OB/GYN. He is under the impression that they are not really that important due to other students telling him this. I’m under the impression that you should do a lot of them. He is thinking of applying to 3 of them. Can you give us any insight on this? And how do you begin? Eric has contacted the schools via email. Is there a process to this madness? There should really be a book about this that informs the students. Eric did get a email from his advisor saying that they were looking at a date to have a meeting with the 3rd years and that it would be pushed up 2 weeks from last year, giving the 3rd year 4 weeks to apply. We would like to start this process now but are not sure how to go about it. Can you help or at least guide us a little. Thanks a bunch.

6 Comments:

Mrs. Dawkter said...: They may not be necessary for OB-GYN, because I think there is more of a shortage in that specialty (as opposed to say ortho where there are TONS of candidates and it is ridiculous competitive), but it would probably be beneficial to your husband if there is somewhere in particular you'd like to end up or if his test scores weren't as good as he'd like. I'd recommend applying to places that you'd like to end up because it gets a foot in the door and can be an advantage as long as he does well there. My husband got interview offers from all 3 of the places he did away rotations at, and he may not have gotten 2 of them if he had not rotated there (he goes to a less prestigious school.) With that being said away rotations are vigorous and less cushy than staying at home, not to mention they will be difficult on you (to be apart), so he may not want to do 3.
We looked online and found info about the programs, but most of them did not have info posted until March. I think we applied in March, April and May to each of the 3 programs. On their websites it will be called "visiting students."
Feel free to email me with any questions. marriedtoamedicalstudent (at) gmail (dot) com.
Good luck!; January 7, 2010 at 2:38 PM
MW said...: Ditto Marissa.

I think 3 is plenty for OBGYN. Go to the school's websites, and see what information they have. Look for terms like "Visiting Clerkship" or "Visiting Students".

I think people who request away rotations early generally get them, so don't apply to more than you want to go to unless you get rejected from one.

Also, recognize the difference between a realistic reach program and a total out of the ballpark reach program. I know in ortho, there were a number of people who rotated at Harvard who didn't get an interview. I mean, it's Harvard. You have to be realistic. Those people probably would have been better off rotating at the next tier down - programs that would be just out of their reach had they not rotated there, but that month extra pushes them over in the possible category. Does that make sense?

I tend to be overly analytical...

Anyway, best of luck!; January 7, 2010 at 3:02 PM
Kim said...: My husband did 3 away rotations at places that he would have liked to apply for residency positions. For him it really helped out that he rotated there as a third year student b/c when he was invited for a residency interview they already knew him, how he worked, and how he meshed with the program. He did very well at these sites and we'll most likely end up at one of these places for residency. It's also beneficial for him to see if he actually likes the program, to see how the residents work together and if he would even want to be a part of it (instead applying there for residency, getting in, and totally hating the place).

I know for my husband all of the applying had to be done through the school. He had a specific advisor that coordinated all the rotations for third year. He gave her his choices for dates and places and she had to contact the programs- he was not allowed to set them up himself. This meeting they have planned for your husbands class should hopefully answer a lot of questions for you guys.

Good Luck!; January 7, 2010 at 5:20 PM
Marv Loucks said...: Along with what everyone else said, there are some schools that have a max number of away rotations that you can do (at least to have it count towards curriculum). For my husband, he had 11 months to complete 8 rotations, but only a max of 3 of them could be in the same field. He may want to make sure his school doesn't have any specific restrictions.
To second what others have said, I would recommend doing the rotations, even if it is just for you to get to know the program. One of the away rotations he did showed him that he really kind of disliked the progarm he was at. It also taught him a lot about what he wanted in a program. the away rotations usually count as your elective, so remember that if you want to get to know specifically the program at your school, it may be wise to use one of the elective in the field you want. that would still leave most likely 2 other programs you can look at. Good Luck! 4th year has been great, hectic, but great!; January 8, 2010 at 1:43 AM
Marv Loucks said...: Oh, I forgot to mention that the AAMC has simplified applying for a lot of programs and you apply online. You can find info about visiting student programs here: http://services.aamc.org/eec/students/
and this is the application service.

http://www.aamc.org/programs/vsas/; January 8, 2010 at 1:45 AM
Behrmans said...: Thanks ladies. This information has been very helpful!!!; January 9, 2010 at 8:06 AM

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Thursday, January 7, 2010

Applying for away rotations???

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