Need suggestions about away locations!

[alleyesonme]

Congratulations to all who matched!! I am trying to rotate at schools of interest, does anyone have any feedback on away rotations where students get a large amount of hands-on training v. shadowing. I will probably already have my letters of recs, so this rotation would be getting to know as many people as possible at a program of interest, refining my exam skills, and working my tail off to leave a good impression. Trying to decide between BPEI, MEEI, Wilmer, Wills, Iowa, USC, Utah, Emory, Casey, Duke. Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Free Radicle]

I was once in your shoes a few years ago and had the exact same thoughts. But now that I am a resident in ophthomology, I caution against these electives. This past year we must have had at least 6-8 4th years come through and all but two ended up hurting their chances instead of helping. When you do these electives you are being judged every minute of everyday by everybody. So be cautions and when you do these electives, you should be plan on being positive, enthusiastic and woking very hard everyday. Good luck.

 

[diosa428]

I go to Duke, and I don't know much about the elective for visiting students, but the electives for Duke students are supposed to be very good and are very popular. The ophtho faculty here really loves having the students and they make sure that we get exposure to a lot of different areas of ophtho. In fact, the ophtho electives are known among the students to be some of the best organized electives that Duke offers. However, I can't really speak for how much hands on experience you get, since I'm not doing my ophtho elective until the end of April.

 

[twintiger32]

if you want real hands-on training to hone your exam skills, you may want to consider a rotation that involves a county hospital (a VA might work too). it is often in these settings where you get your own exam lane as a student, and have a chance to work the patient up from start to finish.

the only downside to this is that you get exposure to the county/VA attendings who are often on the resident selection committee, but are never the program director/chair.

if you rotate at an eye center with attending patients, expect to do more shadowing with a "can the medical student take a quick look" type of experience which is somewhat of a pain since it's hard to shine when standing in the corner, and because it's easy to get in the way.

the best compromise would be a combination of both. i didn't rotate through USC Doheny, but my impression was that you spend half your time at the county where you are more hands on, and half your time at the eye institute, which could be a nice compromise.

 

[MAYOphtho]

i didn't rotate through USC Doheny, but my impression was that you spend half your time at the county where you are more hands on, and half your time at the eye institute, which could be a nice compromise.

at Doheny, the majority of the time is spend at Doheny Eye Institute...you can make an effort to get to county if you want, but the majority of the elective time is at DEI...which is nice b/c there is direct attending contact

 

[rubensan]

if set up early enough, a rotation at doheny can be anything you want it to be.

at Doheny, the majority of the time is spend at Doheny Eye Institute...you can make an effort to get to county if you want, but the majority of the elective time is at DEI...which is nice b/c there is direct attending contact

 

[MAYOphtho]

if set up early enough, a rotation at doheny can be anything you want it to be.

could be true...my experience was at the DEI, which I liked a LOT b/c I got to work directly with the incredible attendings

I'm sure u could do anything you want, but I was exclusively at DEI except maybe 2 days of the 6 weeks...and I wouldnt change that b/c the attendings are awesome

 

[icecubed]

I didn't do an away rotation, however, given my experiences as a med student rotating in ophtho at my home program (at one of the programs you listed) I would try to request working with one or two specific attendings.

You should talk with ophtho attendings or residents at your home program to see whom they would recommend working with on an away rotation. This is important as some attendings are not as friendly and may not be as willing to spend time teaching a med student when their clinic is so busy. It's definitely better to work with someone who will actually get to know you, involve you in a clinical research project matching your interests, potentially write a strong letter of recommendation, and possibly advocate for you in the match.

Also, an attending at your home institution may be willing to write on your behalf to their colleague at the away institution in order to secure a spot in an optho rotation to work with that colleague. This could be ideal in making sure you get your first choice rather than dealing with medical school registrars on your own.

Good luck!

P.S. I didn't do an away rotation because the advice I got from advisors was that if you're a good applicant on paper (board scores/3rd-year grades/research/med school reputation), the away rotation can only hurt you if you make a bad impression. Also, it's tough to impress people on an ophtho rotation because it's difficult contribute much in terms of examining patients and helping out in clinic as a student.

 

[taehong81]

If you do a rotation at Emory you will be working at the county and the VA where you get lots of hands on experience. I was seeing patients on my own most of the time. You get to work with the first year residents a lot which is a very good thing since they have a say in who to invite for interview and who to rank.

 

[rubensan]

i am glad that you had a good experience and i also believe that we have the best attendings hands down. however, when you match at doheny, you will spend about 2/3 of your residency at county and 1/3 of your residency at DEI (doheny eye institute). i maintain that you should see both, very different aspects of our program while you are rotating with us.

could be true...my experience was at the DEI, which I liked a LOT b/c I got to work directly with the incredible attendings

I'm sure u could do anything you want, but I was exclusively at DEI except maybe 2 days of the 6 weeks...and I wouldnt change that b/c the attendings are awesome

 

[sjkpark]

Congratulations to all who matched!! I am trying to rotate at schools of interest, does anyone have any feedback on away rotations where students get a large amount of hands-on training v. shadowing. I will probably already have my letters of recs, so this rotation would be getting to know as many people as possible at a program of interest, refining my exam skills, and working my tail off to leave a good impression. Trying to decide between BPEI, MEEI, Wilmer, Wills, Iowa, USC, Utah, Emory, Casey, Duke. Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I did an elective at Wilmer and was able to get a fantastic LOR. I am an IMG as well (a med student back then, I'm now an intern). I spent 7 weeks with one sub-specialty but they couldn't accommodate me for more than 3 days a week, so rest of the time I was sent to various other subspecialties. I feel that I got the best of both worlds since my supervisors got to know me fairly well, and I got exposure to different sub-specialties. When I was there it was thick into the interview season (at least at Wilmer) and have heard of few people who got interviewed at Wilmer after spending a lot of time with one influential attending.

 

[jbrub]

I strongly encourage doing as many away rotations as possible. You should do at least one at a big name program so you can get to know some big name people and get involved in some cool research. I did an elective at Doheny and I walked out with a great LOR and 4 posters at ARVO, 1 paper in Ophthalmology and another on the way. (Of note being there just before ARVO deadline helped a lot)

I would then do an away rotation at a mid-tier program that you would be really happy at. Just by doing a rotation there you show your interest, which means a lot when programs are ranking you. I imagine they don't have the number of visiting students the big name programs have, so you will become more than just another face on interview day.

Away rotations also give you great contacts. I have written or been involved with between 2 and 5 projects/papers at each of the away rotations I did, and some of them after I finished the elective. I still email most of my advisors every couple of months.

I also did rotations at the Mayo and the University of Utah. Neither gave great hands on experience, although I did some cool stuff in the OR at both programs. I did go to county once or twice a week while at Doheny. You will not be watching while you are there, although if you don't speak spanish you also will not be talking much with your patients.

 

[jbrub]

I