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Away Rotation
- Thread starter PilotG205
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My advice is first of all to not bother with an away in IM. You'd be better off rocking your SubI and getting solid home LORs to go with your otherwise good app. An away gives you the opportunity to look like a ***** in a new hospital system/culture with minimal (if any) real upside.
That said, if you must, do your SubI first in July or August (and honor it) then an away in Sept or Oct when PDs start reviewing files, or Nov if you want to do some 1 stop shopping interview-wise.
Agreed! I've heard some horror stories from competitive applicants along the trail. You're very competitive for IM on paper. Just do well at your school... Ull get more interviews than u can even handle. Good luck!
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The programs you mentioned are pretty notorius for declining applicants who've been there for a rotation, sometimes even while they are there
. . . ahhhhhhhhhhhkward . . .
If you insit on an away, do it on a subspecialty service you are interested in.
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could we do an away in other services, ie: derm, and perhaps set up a meeting with the PD if possible while there? (mostly would be an away to see the other city's culture and whether living there would be "nice" in addition to observing another hospital's culture).
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That would be worse. If you show up in the PDs office and say that you're there doing a Derm rotation (or Rads or Gas, or whatever), s/he's gonna wonder about your commitment to IM.
Honestly, if you're doing (for example) a Renal consult rotation, your regular interaction with anyone even remotely related to choosing residents will be minimal to non-existent. You'll have to go out of your way to meet with the PD or an asst PD (or even a Chief Resident) to talk during your time there. Which is why an away can be such a double-edged sword. In general, the only way an attending on that service is going to say anything about you is if you either really amazed them with your leet medicine skillz or if you screwed up. Average, regular performance (or even slightly above average) is likely to make you just another anonymous MS4 - in which case you've wasted a month and maybe a couple grand in extra living expenses.
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Disagree. One could do an away at a place they theoretically think is a reach, and that could provide an interview you otherwise wouldn't have gotten. Yes you do have to go out of the way to request a meeting with the PD, but you've already paid a couple of grands to get there, what's an email request?
Lastly, I asked my attending for a recommendation, or if he'd prefer to send a direct email about my performance to the PD that would be fine with me too (he chose the latter).
True, some aways may not help at all, but if its a reach you're really interested in, I'd say consider putting in the effort.
I did an away at one of those places. Consult month. Month was not bad even though I was with two of their students, but I did not get to know any attending bc I had 4 different ones through my 4 weeks there. The fellows have no input so....yeah. Anyways, met with the PD, it was very like O yeah I meet with all the rotating students (there were 20 for IM in October).
O yeah...and I got rejected. My advice would be, if there is a place that you REALLY want to go to, do an away there, bc you might realize that wow...this place isn't all that different from my home place or wow I don't like this environment, whatever.
My personal opinion is that doing an away probably does NOT increase your chances of matching, BUT some places may give you a courtesy interview...or they may give you and insulting rejection.
O yeah...and I got rejected. My advice would be, if there is a place that you REALLY want to go to, do an away there, bc you might realize that wow...this place isn't all that different from my home place or wow I don't like this environment, whatever.
My personal opinion is that doing an away probably does NOT increase your chances of matching, BUT some places may give you a courtesy interview...or they may give you and insulting rejection.
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Agree with firsttima. Away rotations are not only opportunities for the program to get to know you but also for you to see if you will be happy there, so I'd encouraged doing an away rotation to your #1 program. You don't learn much about the program otherwise (despite what people may think after a half day interview). I think not having honor your IM rotation, it's critical that you rock your sub-I early. I only HP my medicine clerkship and was asked by several programs about my sub-I grade. I did my sub-I early, but forgot to factor in the 2 month lag between rotation completion to grade assignment at my school.
Bottomline, rock your sub-I and Step 2 early, then worry about doing an away afterwards. If you do an away, pick an inpatient rotation where you get alot of interactions with the residents and attendings. I did 2 away rotations. One was inpatient service where I got to know the people and facility really well and got a nice recommendation letter and interview invite. The other was an endocrine month which was mostly outpatient and did not help.
Bottomline, rock your sub-I and Step 2 early, then worry about doing an away afterwards. If you do an away, pick an inpatient rotation where you get alot of interactions with the residents and attendings. I did 2 away rotations. One was inpatient service where I got to know the people and facility really well and got a nice recommendation letter and interview invite. The other was an endocrine month which was mostly outpatient and did not help.
