I hear yah Jim Jones,
Yes you can do 8 weeks of surgery but you have to use up your elective 4 weeks by choosing surgery again to make it 8 weeks
The problem is that since you use up your 4 weeks for surgery again, you won't have any elective time to chose 4 weeks of Internal Med again to make Internal Med 8 weeks. For the third year you only get 4 elective weeks. Use it wisely. The fourth year is different. Way more elective time.
Oh! for your info, there is an option for students who don't want to spend so much time rotating in OB/GYN. You can cut down on the number of weeks you spend in that rotation and spend it in peds. I think this a new policy.
Don't worry too much about things. During your third year you are out there to get educated. That comes very first in the grand scheme of things. You still need to pass step 2 of the boards and you want to be fairly competent in all areas.
By the time your 4th year rolls around you can really start to focus on what you want to do. Either surgery of Internal Med if I'm reading you right. Hopefully by then you will know what you want to do and choose one that will fit into your elective time.
I would suggest not commiting to something this very moment. You'll have lots of time to think about what you want to do in medical school. Don't worry about having 8 weeks of IM or surgery. You may find out you want to be an OB/GYN. The schedule is flexible enought that you can work with it. Every year, it gets better because more students run through the system and give their input on how to improve it. AZCOM does a good job of meeting the students wants and needs. The university is run by business people who are very consumer oriented.
One more thing, don't worry about internal medicine residencies. If you want IM, then you should have no problems finding one. They are fairly easy to come by becasue of the number of slots available. As far as surgery goes, AZCOM has put out its fair number as well. Take comfort in reading the statistics.
You can spend as much time as you like out of AZ your 4th year. You can only spend 6 months out of AZ your 3rd year unless your circumstances do not allow it.
The best advice I could give you is to trust your gut and heart when picking a school. When all the logic is put into place, you have to trust your instincts when deciding.
One last thing, CALL THE ROTATION OFFICE UP and ask them questions. Those poor people are bored to death. Give them something to fret about. Tell them who you are and ask them questions.
