Away Rotations and Interviews

[bulldogmed]

If I didn't do any away rotations, would this hurt my chances with military programs? I'm married, and am not too inclined to leave for an entire month or two.

If I did not do an away rotation, but just interviewed during my AT 45 days, would the cost of flying and hotels be reimbursable?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[sonofva]

i think how much it would hurt your chances depends on how attached you are to going to one specific location, and what specialty you are applying for...

 

[Gastrapathy]

Wait, so you are in the military and yet not inclined to leave your spouse "for a month or two."

You will seriously harm your chances at competitive specialties if you choose not to be meaningfully evaluated by anyone at one of the sites. You should be asking whether you have to rotate at all the sites not any of the sites.

Somehow, just from this one post, I'm going to wager that you aren't likely to be happy with your choice.

 

[bulldogmed]

Wait, so you are in the military and yet not inclined to leave your spouse "for a month or two."

You will seriously harm your chances at competitive specialties if you choose not to be meaningfully evaluated by anyone at one of the sites. You should be asking whether you have to rotate at all the sites not any of the sites.

Somehow, just from this one post, I'm going to wager that you aren't likely to be happy with your choice.

Inferring a lot from one post, don't you think? I'm drawing a distinction between voluntarily separating from my spouse, and separating because I deploy.

I'm fine with my choice.

For what it's worth, I'm interested in gen surg.

 

[HighPriest]

It'll probably hurt your chances. Moreso, at least in the Army, it may hurt your chances of staying on past your intern year (unless you completely outshine your co-interns). I hate to say this, because one would like to think the mentality is archaic, but at least where I trained there was some evidence that family first was still considered a weakness by the gen surg staff. I would be happy to elaborate if need be, but due to the nature of the instance it would be better done privately, so feel free to PM me.

 

[sonofva]

Inferring a lot from one post, don't you think? I'm drawing a distinction between voluntarily separating from my spouse, and separating because I deploy.

I'm fine with my choice.

For what it's worth, I'm interested in gen surg.

To be frank, unless you have ridiculously awesome stats and a bunch of pubs you will not match gen surg in the army without rotating at at least one program. And even if you do have those things, not rotating is a big strike against you. If you wanted to match fm/Im and location didn't matter, you'd be fine without rotating.

My question is why you wouldn't want to do adts? It sucks being away from family for a month or two, but it sucks more ending up at a location you hate for potentially 5-6 years as a surgical resident, or a location your wife cannot tolerate/find work.

 

[bulldogmed]

To be frank, unless you have ridiculously awesome stats and a bunch of pubs you will not match gen surg in the army without rotating at at least one program. And even if you do have those things, not rotating is a big strike against you. If you wanted to match fm/Im and location didn't matter, you'd be fine without rotating.

My question is why you wouldn't want to do adts? It sucks being away from family for a month or two, but it sucks more ending up at a location you hate for potentially 5-6 years as a surgical resident, or a location your wife cannot tolerate/find work.

I'm Navy btw. My thinking is that for GS, it's almost 100% GMO tour after intern year, so 5-6 years is actually 1 year at the location.

It's not that I'm not willing to spend time away from my family, I was just wondering if it's necessary to do away rotations for GS. For civilian GS residency, it's actually discouraged.

@Gastrapathy , given that there are people on here that are in the military solely for the free tuition, I can see why you may have responded that way, but I can assure you I'm not one of those people.

 

[Perrotfish]

I'm Navy btw. My thinking is that for GS, it's almost 100% GMO tour after intern year, so 5-6 years is actually 1 year at the location.

It's not that I'm not willing to spend time away from my family, I was just wondering if it's necessary to do away rotations for GS. For civilian GS residency, it's actually discouraged.

@Gastrapathy , given that there are people on here that are in the military solely for the free tuition, I can see why you may have responded that way, but I can assure you I'm not one of those people.

It seems pretty necessary in Navy , I can't imagine that its not necessary in gen surg. Our PDs and Chiefs have always talked about it as a box that competitive medical students very much need to check.

There are also reasons unrelated to the match you might want to do an audition rotation.. I learned a lot about the cultures of the different hospitals by rotating at them, and ended up completely changing the order of my rank list based on what I saw. Also I thought that the military sub-Is were by far my most educational rotations in medical school. The military gives its sub-Is a degree of autonomy and responsibility that's getting rare in the litigious civilian world.

You should definitely schedule your two paid rotations. Strongly consider paying your way for a third rotation.

 

[jabreal00]

If I didn't do any away rotations, would this hurt my chances with military programs? I'm married, and am not too inclined to leave for an entire month or two.

If I did not do an away rotation, but just interviewed during my AT 45 days, would the cost of flying and hotels be reimbursable?

Yes you hurt your chances of matching if you have not done rotation and opt for just a phone interview unless you have ridiculous stats and/or the off chance that there are more slots than applications. You have 2 sponsored ADT rotations as a medical student. It's always advisable to use those for your top two programs. Whatever other electives you can do at your home institution or near where you live. You got to get over the separation anxiety you have. There will be numerous times in the military where you have to be away for your spouse (military/officer training, deployments etc). Most are mandatory some will be optional. But hey, you are the one in charge of your destiny. If you'd rather be separated under involuntary circumstances, and take your chances, don't worry the Navy will oblige you.

 

[bulldogmed]

It seems pretty necessary in Navy , I can't imagine that its not necessary in gen surg. Our PDs and Chiefs have always talked about it as a box that competitive medical students very much need to check.

There are also reasons unrelated to the match you might want to do an audition rotation.. I learned a lot about the cultures of the different hospitals by rotating at them, and ended up completely changing the order of my rank list based on what I saw. Also I thought that the military sub-Is were by far my most educational rotations in medical school. The military gives its sub-Is a degree of autonomy and responsibility that's getting rare in the litigious civilian world.

You should definitely schedule your two paid rotations. Strongly consider paying your way for a third rotation.

Thank you for your very informative and helpful post.