Clinicals and Ross??

[spinestudent]

Suppose I go to RUSM and decide I know I want to do pathology. After the 3rd year core rotations are over, how would I go about getting elective rotations at decent hospitals with Path residency programs?? It appears that many non-Ross affiliated programs don't allow carribean graduates to do elective rotations, and many of the Ross affiliated hospitals don't have a path residency program I could audition for.

Suppose I was fortunate enough to do all the core rotations at Kern Medical center in california. I would need at least 2-3 path letters, none of which would come from Kern because they don't have a residency program in path. (I don't know if it is possible to do path electives in programs without path residencies).

So would it basically come down to me cold-calling 50 different community and lower-ranked university programs across the country and begging them to let me do a rotation? And if I managed to book a few path rotations scattered across the country, would I have to come back to Kern to finish off some other electives, or would I be basically like a nomad.....doing a 4 week surgery elective in arkansas one week and a 6 week psych elective in missouri another week, staying in weekly motels??

Also, does anyone know how good the chicago clinical site and Kern is? I notice some Touro(DO) students also rotate through Kern, as well as SGU and AUC students. Is the atmosphere for students at Kern reputed to be well-suited for learning or is it a malignant atmosphere?

thanks to any ross grads or students who can help

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[ArrogantSurgeon]

Let me get this straight, Carib students have to beg to do *pathology* electives?

 

[spinestudent]

Well from what I understand university programs in even non-competitive fields routinely won't allow carribean students to rotate there unless they have a connection.

And I've been told path is getting more competitive. There are only 440 or so spots each year, and the program recently switched to 4 years. With the switch to a 4 year program and possible increased interest, who knows if US IMG's will be able to sneak into university pathology programs a few years from now. Already it seems that there are only a few US IMGS scattered about in uni programs now.

 

[tropicaldoc2004]

Spine student,

I am a rossite in fourth year who is scheduled to do electives at northwestern, university of chicago and also cook county. I know that the NY university programs are a bit rough with ross students, I guess from bad experiences with one or two students, but overall most places outside of NY are receptive. I have some classmates that have done rotations at MSSM in the city and also NYU...those are options, so are upstate and buffalo and UR!! Good luck, if you have any questions about how to go about it I am more than happy to help!

 

[Skip Intro]

Spinestudent:

I'm in NYC right now. There is currently a third-year student doing a one month Path elective at the very hospital I'm at. There is some misconception about when you can start doing electives. Just as at U.S. schools, you can schedule electives before all your cores are finished. This helps with scheduling in certain departments. In addition to sub-internships (etc.), you can also choose from up to 21 additional weeks in any elective you want. Most ACGME core program sites also have ACGME-approved sub-internship/elective programs. For example, the hospital I'm currently at offers three ACGME cores (and I'm in one of them with U.S. allopathic and one D.O. student - she's doing an allopathic sub-internship) and a few AOA cores. BUT, they also offer about 23 additional ACGME-approved electives in various disciplines. These are not hard to get. All you have to do is ask.

If you want to try at a particular program outside of what Ross has to offer, you can look at the AAMC website for a list of participating programs. It helps to know a physician in a particular program you are interested in, as a few more doors will be opened to you (the same holds true for extramural electives for U.S. students, by the way).

Originally posted by ArrogantSurgeon
Let me get this straight, Carib students have to beg to do *pathology* electives?

Once again, absolutely wrong (at least as far as Ross goes)! Don't asked speculative, rhetorical, indicting pseudo-questions (which are, in reality, nothing more than thinly-veiled accusations about the caliber of the program) on a subject you know nothing about.

-Skip

 

[Rasta man]

Originally posted by tropicaldoc2004
Spine student,

I am a rossite in fourth year who is scheduled to do electives at northwestern, university of chicago and also cook county. I know that the NY university programs are a bit rough with ross students, I guess from bad experiences with one or two students, but overall most places outside of NY are receptive. I have some classmates that have done rotations at MSSM in the city and also NYU...those are options, so are upstate and buffalo and UR!! Good luck, if you have any questions about how to go about it I am more than happy to help!

Would you please ask the medical education office in cook county Hospital, how many Ross students had done their core curicuilum rotation(Ped,ob\gyn, surgery, psych, and IM) from 1989 to 1995? Please, share your findings w\us.