Core surgery rotation away from home school?

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BoolaBoola

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I heard that some residency programs look down upon doing third year core rotations away from one's home school. However, I could not find any that specifically say so on their websites at least. Nonetheless, I'd like to hear what you guys would do in this situation...

I'm a US citizen IMG in a European 4-yr MD program just finishing 2nd year. I understand this immediately throws me into an eternal uphill battle in the field of neurosurgery, in which I am solidly interested. However, rather than lamenting the woes of such challenges, I am seeking some senior insight on surmounting some of the obstacles associated with crossing the threshold into NSG back home...

I was recently offered an opportunity to do my 3rd year core surgery rotation in an independent US hospital (meaning they have their own core curriculum offered to students from any medical school and are not affiliated w/ any school in particular). This core rotation is significantly better than the one offered by my home school in terms of teaching/experience according to students in previous years who have done this. Moreover, my home school focuses on teaching surgery the way they do it here, which is in many ways different than in the US, where I want to practice.

Now given the above positives, it almost seems like a no-brainer and that my mind should be made up...not so fast... The rumormill has it that many residency programs are not fond of people who take their core rotations away from their home school. I am ultimately interested in the surgical subspecialties (namely, NSG) back in the US, hence the draw to learn general surgery back home. However, what I am not sure of is whether this benefit outweighs the potential cost of raising residency directors' eyebrows...is this something I should be concerned about? :confused:

I am leaning towards this rotation for now, but I'd like to ask anyone with more experience in the match process if there is anything I need to know or should think about before going through with this...??? I'm inclined to say that there are others who are/have been faced with a similar dilemma at some point...

Thanks in advance!

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