Timing of Away Electives during 4th year

[MrBling]

I plan on doing my EM Sub I in August, then taking Step 2 in Sept and was considering doing 2 away EM electives in Oct and Nov.. (prior to this, I would have only done a 2wk EM clerkship)

I realize the timing of these away electives aren't optimal since I would be lucky if I can squeeze a letter out of the Oct rotation for it to make my ERAS.. but is all hope lost? Should I try to go on one or both electives?

Also, a quick search shows that interviews were given as early as sept after you submit your ERAS, and actual interviewing starts in november, would it be unwise to schedule an away EM elective during the month of november? My step 1 score wasnt spectacular (205-210), so I wouldn't anticipate getting interviews based solely on that.. so that makes it almost seem safe for me to go ahead and take the 2nd elective in Nov (although i may not get a LOR out of it)

Thoughts?

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[dmitrinyr]

I plan on doing my EM Sub I in August, then taking Step 2 in Sept and was considering doing 2 away EM electives in Oct and Nov.. (prior to this, I would have only done a 2wk EM clerkship)

I realize the timing of these away electives aren't optimal since I would be lucky if I can squeeze a letter out of the Oct rotation for it to make my ERAS.. but is all hope lost? Should I try to go on one or both electives?

Also, a quick search shows that interviews were given as early as sept after you submit your ERAS, and actual interviewing starts in november, would it be unwise to schedule an away EM elective during the month of november? My step 1 score wasnt spectacular (205-210), so I wouldn't anticipate getting interviews based solely on that.. so that makes it almost seem safe for me to go ahead and take the 2nd elective in Nov (although i may not get a LOR out of it)

Thoughts?

Your schedule seems fine and if I was you I would go on all of the electives. I was in the very same situation last year. I took my step 2 ck and cs in late August and then had 3 straight EM electives. Just make sure that you get at least one EM LOR (hopefully from PD) from the August EM sub-I so that you will have at least one EM LOR on file when you send out your ERAS. Then just to have some contrast try to get another LOR from the other electives in EM. Some peope say that 3 EM electives is overkill but I always feel that you should always take advantage of every opportunity to make a good impression and that is what these electives allow you to do. I had the same exact step 1 scores and so I knew I had to impress them and after my electives I had 2 interviews out of the 3 rotations and an excellent LOR from a PD. Even if you get the LOR in october it's still not that late because many of the programs did not look at the applications until Nov 1st (date when Dean's letter is sent out).

So just kick as on you subI, then get a competitive step 2 scores (hopefully >220-230) and then impress the people at the other rotations. Good luck.

 

[RockfordWF]

I plan on doing my EM Sub I in August, then taking Step 2 in Sept and was considering doing 2 away EM electives in Oct and Nov.. (prior to this, I would have only done a 2wk EM clerkship)

I realize the timing of these away electives aren't optimal since I would be lucky if I can squeeze a letter out of the Oct rotation for it to make my ERAS.. but is all hope lost? Should I try to go on one or both electives?

Also, a quick search shows that interviews were given as early as sept after you submit your ERAS, and actual interviewing starts in november, would it be unwise to schedule an away EM elective during the month of november? My step 1 score wasnt spectacular (205-210), so I wouldn't anticipate getting interviews based solely on that.. so that makes it almost seem safe for me to go ahead and take the 2nd elective in Nov (although i may not get a LOR out of it)

Thoughts?

Interviews, in general, are November-January. Most of them give you the option of doing that interview in any of those months. I chose to take November and December off to do most of my interviews. I would do an elective that is a drivable distance to several of your interviews during those months, so that you can knock some out. They will give you time off to interview.

 

[WallowaWanderer]

Ideally, you want to be able to get a SLOR from your home rotation and a SLOR from an outside rotation in your file before programs start reviewing your application. You can get by with just a SLOR from you home program, but having two sources that say good things about you is much better than 1.

I would say a rotation ending Oct 1 is probably the latest for getting a letter into your file. I had a letter from a rotation ending Oct 6, which was written fairly quickly, and that made it into my file after I had gotten about half of my interview invites.

What are you doing in July? If you can I would do your home EM rotation then OR study and take Step 2 then. That gives you August and September to do either A) a home and an away rotation or B) study/take step 2 and an away rotation.

As for doing away rotations later . . . like in November and December: I think that's no problem as long as you have done at least your home and one away rotation fairly early (see above) I did my home rotation in July and my first away in September. I got letters from those rotations and used them for ERAS. Then I did two more EM rotations in November and December - These were too late for ERAS letters but at the end of interview season I gave each place that I was going to rank a copy of the comments from those rotations - which is essentially the same information that would be in a letter. So, as you can see, the comments from those rotations were not helpful for getting interviews but I was still able to make them available to programs I did get to interview at. I was really able to shine during my Nov/Dec rotations since I already had 2 months under my belt, so I think this might have given me a slight edge at those places. Also allowed me to evaluate places that I was really interested in.