Audition rotations

[Dr Dazzle]

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Are audition rotations required/beneficial in matching a competitive residency? It seems that they certainly are in the osteopathic residencies.

 

[mimelim]

Absolutely not. Can they help, yes. But overall, very few people end up doing away rotations at where they ultimately match.

 

[NickNaylor]

Absolutely not. Can they help, yes. But overall, very few people end up doing away rotations at where they ultimately match.

My understanding was that aways were all but required in a few fields ("required" in the sense that clinical experience is "required" in the med admissions process). Is that not the case?

(sent from my phone)

 

[Barcu]

Absolutely not. Can they help, yes. But overall, very few people end up doing away rotations at where they ultimately match.

Interesting. I'm sure that many people end up matching at places they didn't do an audition rotation at, just numbers-wise. Still, I think it would be in an applicant's best interest to try and rotate where they want to match and do well.

I wonder if this varies by field. I also know they are extremely important in the military match.

 

[mmmcdowe]

There are other reasons to do aways besides matching there. Those LORs can be important because they are an evaluation by a program without intrinsic desire to see you match somewhere. I.E. if you go to a school where all the LORs say students are great, having that confirmed by an outside program is beneficial.

 

[Praefectus]

There are other reasons to do aways besides matching there. Those LORs can be important because they are an evaluation by a program without intrinsic desire to see you match somewhere. I.E. if you go to a school where all the LORs say students are great, having that confirmed by an outside program is beneficial.

👍 You've just convinced me to do that.

 

[mimelim]

My understanding was that aways were all but required in a few fields ("required" in the sense that clinical experience is "required" in the med admissions process). Is that not the case?

(sent from my phone)

Doing aways is a good idea. For some specialties, especially the more competitive, they are practically mandatory unless you are natively at a very strong hospital. For instance, if you are going General Surgery and are already rotating at Hopkins, the added utility of going to another hospital is less than if you were coming out of your 'average' medical school affiliated hospital. Away rotations are essential. They give you a sense of what other programs are like. They give you a chance to see how different programs handle different things. They also give you a source for LOR and exposure to others in the field. But doing an audition rotation is NOT required.

There is a distinct difference. As I stated previous, in the very competitive fields, many people will rotate through different programs, but surprisingly few end up matching there.

My only caveat is that I really only know GS, NSGY, Derm, ENT, Integrated Vascular, Integrated Cardiothoracic and Ortho well, which I consider to be 'competitive'. This may be completely wrong for military or IM.

 

[Bacchus]

Doing aways is a good idea. For some specialties, especially the more competitive, they are practically mandatory unless you are natively at a very strong hospital. For instance, if you are going General Surgery and are already rotating at Hopkins, the added utility of going to another hospital is less than if you were coming out of your 'average' medical school affiliated hospital. Away rotations are essential. They give you a sense of what other programs are like. They give you a chance to see how different programs handle different things. They also give you a source for LOR and exposure to others in the field. But doing an audition rotation is NOT required.

There is a distinct difference. As I stated previous, in the very competitive fields, many people will rotate through different programs, but surprisingly few end up matching there.

My only caveat is that I really only know GS, NSGY, Derm, ENT, Integrated Vascular, Integrated Cardiothoracic and Ortho well, which I consider to be 'competitive'. This may be completely wrong for military or IM.

This doesn't even address the osteopathic world. I know the Great Merger of 2015 is going to occur, but I don't think many program directors will be on their deathbeds come 2015 so I don't see a huge change occurring.

My school's surgical programs almost require you to rotate in order to interview unless you're a insanely competitive applicant.

I think, from my own experience, as long as you don't screw up the elective (tardiness, kill a patient, etc) it won't be a negative experience. I found them helpful to evaluate programs I was applying to. If I wouldn't have rotated at one specific program it would have never reached the top of my list. I'm beyond thankful I rotated there as a 4th year.

 

[mimelim]

This doesn't even address the osteopathic world. I know the Great Merger of 2015 is going to occur, but I don't think many program directors will be on their deathbeds come 2015 so I don't see a huge change occurring.

My school's surgical programs almost require you to rotate in order to interview unless you're a insanely competitive applicant.

I think, from my own experience, as long as you don't screw up the elective (tardiness, kill a patient, etc) it won't be a negative experience. I found them helpful to evaluate programs I was applying to. If I wouldn't have rotated at one specific program it would have never reached the top of my list. I'm beyond thankful I rotated there as a 4th year.

OP asked specifically about allopathic. This is an allopathic forum. Given that I know nothing about osteopathic residencies, I didn't mention them. In my experience on 3 away rotations, if you don't really stand out, it will actually end up hurting you. Competitive programs know that they will end up getting to hand pick their residents. If they see that you are mediocre or nothing special, they would rather go with someone that they met for an hours in interview that is superior on paper.

Again, I don't want to diminish the importance of aways. I wouldn't have traded my experience going to other institutions for anything, but audition rotations are not required by any stretch of the imagination for allopathic competitive residencies.

 

[Bacchus]

OP asked specifically about allopathic. This is an allopathic forum. Given that I know nothing about osteopathic residencies, I didn't mention them. In my experience on 3 away rotations, if you don't really stand out, it will actually end up hurting you. Competitive programs know that they will end up getting to hand pick their residents. If they see that you are mediocre or nothing special, they would rather go with someone that they met for an hours in interview that is superior on paper.

Again, I don't want to diminish the importance of aways. I wouldn't have traded my experience going to other institutions for anything, but audition rotations are not required by any stretch of the imagination for allopathic competitive residencies.

Oops. Missed that.