MS3 here, going into EM. So far, I've applied to 8 aways, have been turned down by two. I've started to sweat about this because I've heard over and over that b/c EM is increasingly competitive, aways are more and more essential for EM. I have a family vacation and I am taking step 2 in July, away in august, home EM rotation in september. Just got an offer today, however, from a school offering me a seat in July. In all honesty, this place is was at the bottom of my list of aways I wanted, I included it as a back up mainly. On top of that, it's in July which is less than ideal as well. Should I take it and then decline should a better offer in august come up? I've heard doing this essentially burns the bridge between you and that program, and although it wouldn't be the end of the world, I don't want to close doors for myself later on down the road if possible. Can anyone offer advice? Has anyone been in my shoes before?