Importance of Aways

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revaldo

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A question about away rotations, how much impact do they have on your chances?

My situation is as follows: I am an MD/PhD student returning to clinic to start 3rd year after completing my PhD. Because, I am starting later than typical 3rd years, I will not be able to finish my core rotations until about September and won't be able to do an away until mid October/November.

Step I score is 240s. Multiple coauthored basic science publications and a single 1st author publication. Top 10 medical school with a home urology department. No clinical grades yet.

Is an away rotation in November even worth doing in Urology? It seems that interviews are conducted rather early because of the early Match. Does anyone have any insight on the importance of aways?

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November would be the middle of interview season. It would probably be difficult to juggle all of that and still do well on the rotation.

Aways are important. It's a good way to get a letter from somebody who's well known in the field. I've heard it said that your best chances of matching are at your home institution and at your aways, since they obviously get more time to get to know you and see what you can do.

It sounds like you're in a really tough position. It might be worth asking your home program director for some advice. Is it possible to move some rotations around so you can do urology before finishing your third year cores?
 
Yes I might be able to do 1 month of Urology during my core surgery clerkship. I was hoping to then do a Sub-I in urology at my home institution to secure recommendation letters and maybe work on a clinical research project. If I forgo the 1 month Sub-I, I can do my away rotation in mid to late September.
 
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Aways and home subi are extremely important. I would get in touch with your advisor, dean of students, registrar, etc. now. Maybe you could finish your core rotations after summer of 4th year. Maybe you could finish your phd during 4th year. Make it clear that forcing you to do third year rotations that summer will hurt your chances of matching. Get your uro program director to back you up. It's the truth. They will probably try to help.
 
If I do a 1 month urology rotation as part of my core surgery clerkship, would I still need to do a Sub-I at my home institution? Wouldn't this be sort of redundant? If I don't do a sub I at my home institution, I can do an away in September.
 
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