advice on scheduling ophtho away rotations

[iballz01]

I'm a third year planning on applying in ophthalmology and doing 2 aways this summer. Some questions I've had in, in no particular order. Would appreciate any advice - I realize these questions are sort of specific...

1) Am I setting myself up for disaster (having to turn one down) if I apply to two aways for a given month? I'm asking because it seems like there's always a possibility that I won't get an away that I plan for, even if I start the process ahead of time. i.e. I have July, August, and September to do two aways. Option 1 is to apply to program X for Aug, and prog Y for Sept. Option 2 is apply to Program X for july OR august, and Program Y for august OR september.

2) I am trying to target a region with a high density of programs for personal reasons. Will I be less likely to get interviews from other areas if I do two aways in one city?

Thanks to anyone who replies and gets what a headache scheduling summer btwn yr 3-4 can be.

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[Kiara]

for 1) I dont think its a bad idea to apply for two aways in teh same time slot since obviously nothing is guaranteed. Especially on VSAS you have two weeks to decide which away you want to take and can declinc it online without much issues. if you are scheduling outside of VSAS I think as long as you tell the program as early as possible if you cant do the away it will be ok.
2) Are you from the area where you are targetting aways? If you are then you might be regionally restricted regardless of whether you do aways. I did 3 aways in one area, two in the same city and I didnt get any other interviews in that city. I did get interviews all over the country tho. So in my experience, the aways didnt restrict me elsewhere (I had expected they would, but they didnt)

 

[iballz01]

for 1) I dont think its a bad idea to apply for two aways in teh same time slot since obviously nothing is guaranteed. Especially on VSAS you have two weeks to decide which away you want to take and can declinc it online without much issues. if you are scheduling outside of VSAS I think as long as you tell the program as early as possible if you cant do the away it will be ok.
2) Are you from the area where you are targetting aways? If you are then you might be regionally restricted regardless of whether you do aways. I did 3 aways in one area, two in the same city and I didnt get any other interviews in that city. I did get interviews all over the country tho. So in my experience, the aways didnt restrict me elsewhere (I had expected they would, but they didnt)

Hi Kiara, thanks for your advice. I do find it useful to know that you didn't get other interviews in that one city where you did two aways. I am from the area where I am targeting aways. Can you explain what you mean by "If you are then you might be regionally restricted regardless of whether you do aways" -- Thanks.