Applying for residency before rotation?

[Doc_Ock]

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Two of the areas of medicine I'm interested in are aerospace medicine and radiology (well, also hospitalist but that can be done with IM). Radiology is a bit more specialized and aerospace especially so, so I'd have to do these rotations my 4th year as electives, right? But the match process also starts at the beginning of 4th year, so if I'm not mistaken I'd have to apply to one of these residencies before I even go to a rotation, correct? Where is the logic in this?

 

[Ismet]

Some schools will allow for 1-2 months of elective time in 3rd year. My school was fairly flexible in that most 3rd years had either research months or a couple months where you could do electives. I pushed my OB-gyn rotation to 4th year so I could do other things earlier. Other schools will be more strict and only allow 3rd years to do all core rotations.

You could always talk to someone at your school (an advisor) to see what your options are. Different schools handle things differently. Ultimately, schools want their students to match so they will usually try their best to accommodate what is in the best interest of the student's chances at matching.

 

[hmockingbird]

You also typically have 2-3 blocks in 4th year before ERAS opens up (September so depends on how your school year is set up).

 

[BoardingDoc]

Two of the areas of medicine I'm interested in are aerospace medicine and radiology (well, also hospitalist but that can be done with IM). Radiology is a bit more specialized and aerospace especially so, so I'd have to do these rotations my 4th year as electives, right? But the match process also starts at the beginning of 4th year, so if I'm not mistaken I'd have to apply to one of these residencies before I even go to a rotation, correct? Where is the logic in this?

Welcome to the world of non core medicine. This also applies to ortho, derm, plastics, EM, anesthesia, urology, etc etc etc....

As has been said, you should ask your school about the opportunity to take an elective in the course you're interested in as a 3rd year. E.g. I was fortunate to be able to push my neurology rotation to 4th year so I could rotate in EM.

 

[Doc_Ock]

Thanks for the tip! Hopefully my school will be accommodating.