Question About 4th Year

[Gemgrrrl]

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Our oldest had senior prom this week and, after all the excitement wore off, I realized that when it's our youngest's time to graduate, I will be in 4th year rotations. My husband and kids are staying here, 4 1/2 hours away.

I was wondering if there is any leeway in the schedule for things like this? Do you get time off during rotations, or am I most likely going to miss her graduation?

I can't even bear the thought... 🙁

 

[Coquette22]

I think most schools have some time of built in, but every school will vary. We have six weeks that you can take off or do other externals and still have enough credits to graduate. We also have 8 personal days that we can take during blocks for things like family events, interviews, sick days etc.

 

[orca2011]

The amount of vacation time you get here is dependent on how many electives you take during your first 3 years. However, everyone is given 2 weeks of vacation (1 rotation) automatically. If we have a specific time we need off, the only way to guarantee having those days off is by putting a vacation there. It is possible to get a rotation with no weekends, etc, but definitely not a guarantee.

 

[deleted498041]

It depends on the school. For fourth year at WesternU, you get up to 30 days off consecutively before there's a problem which a lot of us will be using to take our boards. Also, you could potentially schedule your rotations in a way that allows you to have a day or two off around the time of her graduation.

 

[LetItSnow]

I suppose all any of us can tell you is how it worked at our schools, so.... best to talk to upperclass peeps at VMCVM. But the first thing I'd say is that you shouldn't worry about it too much and that you'll have options.

For us, we put in specific dates for our externship and vacation rotation requests and those were supposed to be honored. And, for the most part, they were. So you likely will be able to schedule vacation over it. On top of that, some rotations are weekend-free and some aren't, so if the vacation plan doesn't work out, you could try to schedule a rotation that at least frees up that weekend. If that doesn't work and you somehow get screwed and end up on a rotation with weekend duty, most of the time it's possible to work out something with a classmate to have them cover your cases in exchange for you helping them out on another weekend or whatever. Last ditch, you could always talk to the rotation chief of whatever rotation you end up on, explain the situation, and ask if there's any way to make it work.

All in all, I wouldn't spend much energy worrying about it. 4th year scheduling is intense and sometimes unforgiving, but for important things people manage to make it work. You'll get to the graduation and the party. You may not have a ton of time to plan the party and be the traditional host, but it will work out.