How many surgery rotations is too many?

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I'm a third year medical student with a USMLE score that is not great- (but above the 200 cutoff) so the plan is to rotate at programs to show that I am a worthwhile consideration...

I was going to try to go to three or four places, obviously not only focusing on gen surg but others like peds, trauma, burn, oncology, etc.

Is this a good idea or will it be looked upon as desperate? Also any thoughts on whether its best to sub-I at my favorite program or rotate more closely to interview period?

Thanks in advance for any help!

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I think there are a number of interview rotation/away sub-I type threads out there so do a search...

In general, IMHO you hurt your education by loading your electives with one discipline, particularly the discipline you will spend 5yrs focused training in....
I'm a third year medical student...
by the way, your status still lists you as pre-med with a join date January 2007... math doesn't exactly add-up:confused:
 
If they graduated from college in spring 2007 and went straight to med school they would be a third year now (class of 2011).
 
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Additionally, if you haven't done so already, you're going to want to check with your institution's requirements. Many (including mine) require that a minimum number of electives be done at the home institution and also limit the number of electives you can do for credit in a specialty or discipline. I suppose its not impossible to schedule that many away electives but I think it could be exceedingly difficult depending on the requirements of your home institution.
 
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I think there are a number of interview rotation/away sub-I type threads out there so do a search...

In general, IMHO you hurt your education by loading your electives with one discipline, particularly the discipline you will spend 5yrs focused training in....
by the way, your status still lists you as pre-med with a join date January 2007... math doesn't exactly add-up:confused:

But would that necessarily hurt the application?
 
depends how it is listed on your transcript to. my nyu away was listed as externship which could have meant many things. my school limited us to16 weeks in 1 department. it also depends if you want letters from the place or just to showcase. letters i would recommend going so that you can ask for a letter by the end of september. just showcasing probably whenever except you don't want to be going on interviews while on your showcase so that eliminates nov dec and jan. i did take straight surgery from june through october which maxed me out then will spend rest of this year on other stuff.
 
But would that necessarily hurt the application?
MAYBE.

I am not a PD....
But, I would consider how well trained a med-school grad will be if their application before me, for a GSurgery slot showed and overload of surgery rotations/electives.

I will also say, if you are coming from ultra high power medical school "x", I want to know you were trained at that school... thus, a transcript showing ~ up to 1/4 of your medical school education and ~1/2 your clinical experiences were obtained through outside rotations.... that would impact my perspective as well.

The most extreme example of this clinical aspect is something like Ross. Great, you got a basic science education on the island and a 220 on USMLE step 1. But what about your actual clinical training???

JAD
 
I'm a third year medical student with a USMLE score that is not great- (but above the 200 cutoff) so the plan is to rotate at programs to show that I am a worthwhile consideration...

I was going to try to go to three or four places, obviously not only focusing on gen surg but others like peds, trauma, burn, oncology, etc.

Is this a good idea or will it be looked upon as desperate? Also any thoughts on whether its best to sub-I at my favorite program or rotate more closely to interview period?

Thanks in advance for any help!

I think there are a number of interview rotation/away sub-I type threads out there so do a search...

In general, IMHO you hurt your education by loading your electives with one discipline, particularly the discipline you will spend 5yrs focused training in....
by the way, your status still lists you as pre-med with a join date January 2007... math doesn't exactly add-up:confused:


I have to strongly agree with the JAD on this one. You may want to not load yourself down with "audition-type" rotations and lose out on some good quality learning experiences in other disciplines that will make you a better resident in the long run. One or two audition rotations is optimal at places where you are strongly interested in going and where you are relatively competitive.

Also beware that "audition-type" rotations can be something of a "double-edged sword" in that they can make you look less attractive if you don't do an outstanding job or have a disagreement with one of the residents/interns on the rotation. As long as you go into these type of experiences with the idea that you will be the ultimate team player, you will likely have a good experience.


Believe me, in terms of residency, you don't have to have done medical student rotations in things like Burn Surgery, Peds Surgery because you are going to get those experiences in your surgical residency program. Any medical student experience is going to be pretty "low-yield" in terms of you getting much out of it. Rotations in things like rads, gastroenterology, cardio-thoracic anesthesia and intensive care may be better choices. My rads and GI rotations were awesome and extremely high yield for me.

The other thing that you need to do is make sure that your chairman of surgery (should be pretty well known) writes a very strong letter of recommendation for you. This type of letter can free you from the "need" to do a bunch of "audition" rotations. You should try to do a rotation with this person if at all possible so that they can speak directly about your work ethic, body of knowledge and suitablity for residency. The other utility of making sure that your chairman is on board with you is that he/she could make some calls for you if that becomes necessary. Good luck!
 
Thanks for all the help- I'm actually a DO student (third year, yes I desperately needed to update my profile)- so we don't have a chairman of surgery, makes it trickier and more competitive- I probably should've added that in the initial post...

anyway, thanks for the advice
 
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