Audition Rotations

[PACtoDOC]

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I called my top choice yesterday and spoke with the program director. I told them I was wanting to set up a visiting rotation there in about 8-9 months to see if their program was a fit for me, and for them to check me out. They only offer these strange electives, none of which give you real exposure to the various attendings, and none that allow you to see various different services during the month. Like they have this one elective where you simply do night L&D for the 4 weeks only. When I inquired about this, the PD told me that they did not encourage students to come do visiting rotations anyway and that they simply recommended to me that I spend an extra day or 2 with them when I was interviewing. To me this is crazy...how the hell can you know that the program is what you want in 2 short days? Does it sound to you guys like maybe this program is at least semi-malignant and that they have probably lost many an interested applicant after they did a rotation for a month? I just cannot understand this. Any thoughts?

 

[doglover]

Since it's Friday I don't really have any thoughts 😀 But I have noticed at the bottom of the APGO pages it has a section for each program to answer questions about that. Here it is from NYU:

44. Elective policy:
Elective as student in department required for resident selection No
Elective as student recommended for resident selection No
Elective as student discouraged for resident selection No
If not required, elective is beneficial in obtaining residency position Yes

And I've seen quite a few programs that do discourage an elective, and your explanation sounds as good as any. Or maybe they're such a strong program they feel they'll get good residents anyway regardless of whether they do an elective there.