Audition elective in Heme/Onc

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There's a mid-high-tier university across town and I had reached out to their program coordinator about an audition elective towards the end of this academic year. Well, they haven't responded.. it's been several weeks now. My home program, a large procedural community hospital, does house a Heme/Onc fellowship and we do have our own BMT floor. In fact, one of the fellows told me that there's practically no valid reason to go across town as "we have everything". However, within my residency class, there's about 5 of us interested in Heme/Onc..so that makes it that much more difficult to match in-house. Two of the residents have physician parents that work for our system...so their connections may go a long way. I was rather lucky in medical school and in my dedicated research year had the opportunity to work at a top 5 oncology center. While the research that I worked on took forever to get to the write-up phase, this academic year I'll likely have my name on at least 5 Onc manuscripts, none that are first author. I think my chances of staying in-house aren't bad but is it recommended to strive higher (if only to land softly) given how competitive Heme/Onc has become? I think an LOR from the Uni would go a long way. Should I reach out to their program director directly? I do also have someone on the inside in one of the departments that works closely with their med oncs.. don't know if it'd be worth utilizing such a card.

 

[randomhemoncpd]

Not worth it since you have an in-house program. An audition rotation doesn't move the needle much. The more competitive programs care more about your academic potential, and an audition rotation provide little insight into that. Btw - play every card, use every connection, etc.