The issue of away electives is something I discussed for a bit with my advisor, who's the PD at my home program. I struggled with whether to do one at a place I'm thinking about, but in the end decided against it. She told me that they're not necessary for pathology applicants, but that if you're set on a particular program it may help. That's not the case with me - I really have no idea out of the 15+ programs I'm looking at right now which I want, and probably won't know until after interviewing. So in the end I decided not to do an "audition" elective. I hope it doesn't bite me in the arse in the end, but when I weighed the pros vs. cons, there just weren't enough pros to justify the major expense involved. There's also the issue of getting asked at interviews, "I see you did an elective at program X, but not here - why is that? Is program X your top choice?" I feel like if I were to do an elective at one of those schools I'd be picking a random number out of a hat.
However I am going to do a pathology elective thru the University of Nevada. They have a forensic pathology elective in Las Vegas that I'm going to do. It's not an audtion because UN doesn't even have a pathology residency - but my friend lives there and winter in LV is lovely, so I thought it'd be a fun elective that's get some autopsy experience before starting residency.
i have to disagree with some of these arguements. i did 2 away electives, in addition to one at my home program, and it was the most invaluable experience. i learned a tremendous amount about the many forms a residency training program can take...gen sign-out vs specialty, ap/cp integrated vs non-integrated, grossing schedules (cycle vs daily gross), the range of conferences, the list goes on and on....these experiences gave me the knoweledge base (a real one at that b/c i actually spent 4 weeks functioning in a given system) i needed to critically evaluate all the programs i interviewed at. in my mind, this is the purpose of an away elective...to gather the data you need to make an informed decision about what program is best for you, not only for training but also for future professional pursuits. it alway helps to know more. in addition, i was NEVER asked "why that program" (this type of malignant behavior is extremely atypical in pathology) but rather, was given mad props on how much experience i had in pathology....i cannot stress enough the extent to which i was complimented on this aspect of my application...i'm not kidding you. not to mention, one of my away elective turned out to be at a place that i do in fact want to go so it had the additional benefit of working for me in that regard. and that is no small thing either...no small thing at all.
i highly recommend doing a surg path elective over autopsy...it's more important to know how a surg path service runs at a given program (b/c that can vary with respect to number of cases, types of cases, cycle etc) than autopsy. also, surg path is the meat of a program, not autopsy. also, i highly recommend doing one at a place you consider to be an excellent program so that you can have a better sense what that caliber of training looks like, a sense of what to strive for in your own training.
i absolutely recommend away electives, not as an audition per say, but as an opportunity to acquire a more comprehensive knowledge of pathology training.
such electives are viewed as "not necessary in pathology" because pathology has been non-competitive in the past so doing an elective to better secure a spot has not been seen as necessary as it might in more competitive specialties. nevertheless, i believe pathology has grown to be much more competitve in the last few years and while an elective may still not be necessary to secure a spot, it will make you a stronger applicant and certainly pull your application out of the pile at that given program...as long as you're not a tool of course.
anyway, just thought i would share my personal experience with this topic.