4th year away/elective rotation strategy?

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PathNeuroIMorFM

Full Member
2+ Year Member
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Our schedules for 4th year of med school are due pretty soon. I am 99% confident I'm applying pathology. How should I structure my 4th year to A) Get 2 strong LORs on time for ERAS and B) Do aways at the programs I want, at the right time.

Our 4th year begins around May, after finishing Step 2. That gives me about 4 months/4 rotations to get my LORs on time for September ERAS, which feels like it's cutting it close. I also want to match in the Pacific and Mountain region, where I'm from but not doing med school (Northeast). My top choices are fairly competitive.

Do I just schedule a bunch of path electives at home between May and September to get LORs?

When is the best time to do away rotations in my region/programs of interest? Is it okay to do it after ERAS or should I do it before?

Currently have a strong path PhD letter and strong neuro PhD/MD letter from my research year, but no path MD LORs at all since we don't have that as a 3rd year rotation. Talking to my dean about this, but my dean has flimsy knowledge at times. He's also not a pathologist, which doesn't help.