Courtesy interviews

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Kenjamin

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Does anyone know how early places start offering courtesy interviews? For example, if I was to do an away rotation as early as July or August, would that be too early in the process and therefore places wouldn't even consider it, or does it not matter (ie: if the place offers courtesy interviews they will do it regardless of when you rotate through)? Thanks for any help in advance.

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(Sadly) at least for top tier programs in Internal Medicine, there is no such thing as a "courtesy" interview. In fact, judging from the experience of some of my peers, an away rotation may serve as a month long interview in-and-of itself.

That being said, if you are planning an away elective/sub-I/AI because you are strongly considering a program, then I would suggest scheduling it as early as possible (ie. July -> early October). This will allow you to include a paragraph in your personal statement speaking about your experience. (And of course, you may decide that a program isn't everything it's cracked up to be... maybe it's not even worth applying to.)
 
(Sadly) at least for top tier programs in Internal Medicine, there is no such thing as a "courtesy" interview. In fact, judging from the experience of some of my peers, an away rotation may serve as a month long interview in-and-of itself.

That being said, if you are planning an away elective/sub-I/AI because you are strongly considering a program, then I would suggest scheduling it as early as possible (ie. July -> early October). This will allow you to include a paragraph in your personal statement speaking about your experience. (And of course, you may decide that a program isn't everything it's cracked up to be... maybe it's not even worth applying to.)

I second what MGKatz said. Furthermore our advisor urged us not to do away rotations if we had fairly strong credentials, i.e. Step 1 > 230 and GPA > 3.5, EXCEPT if the program you are applying to is ULTRACOMPETITIVE e.g. MGH. That being said, if you do decide to go for an away rotation, be aware that it is basically a 4-week audition as MG said. Be on you toes ALWAYS, and read on the patients you get that very day/night and be prepared to give a short presentation along with an article the very next day. The last sentence is also very useful for the rest of your career. Good Luck and may the force be with you :)
 
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I had friends that did away rotations and were offered interviews but only during the regular season so they were made to return 3-4 months after their rotation. I think that kind of sucks.
On a different note, I was told and followed the advice that it only makes sense to do an away if you are weaker on paper than the programs you are applying to. I guess the exception to this is doing an away to really feel out if the place is for you. Also, there are a whole bunch of people that get no interview after spending a month at places like UCSF (which is famous for this). So, I did no away rotations, got great interviews at "ultra-competitive" places and in the last month got a whole bunch of post interview ranked to match emails/calls from these top programs. I just felt like the stress of being "on" everyday wasn't worth it and the truth is that there is a fair bit of luck in clinical rotations. say you get a bad attending or a pissed off/burnt out resident which would be hard to overcome.
 
(Sadly) at least for top tier programs in Internal Medicine, there is no such thing as a "courtesy" interview. In fact, judging from the experience of some of my peers, an away rotation may serve as a month long interview in-and-of itself.

That being said, if you are planning an away elective/sub-I/AI because you are strongly considering a program, then I would suggest scheduling it as early as possible (ie. July -> early October). This will allow you to include a paragraph in your personal statement speaking about your experience. (And of course, you may decide that a program isn't everything it's cracked up to be... maybe it's not even worth applying to.)

thanks for the help. One follow up question to MGKatz's comment about including my away rotation experience in my personal statement. Wouldn't it be harmful talking about a specific away rotation experience on a personal statement that's going to be available to other places where I didn't do an away rotation at? (or is there some way for me to tailor specific personal statements to specific locations?)
 
You can write as many personal statements as you like and send them out separately on ERAS. So if you did an away rotation at school x, you could write a special paragraph in your statement and include it only in the version you sent to that school.
 
I rotated at the Mayo Clinic in MN in Sept-Oct, and somebody from one of the costs was offered a real interview. I sat down and talked with one of their APD's, but I had to come back for interview day, but that's only an hour and a half drive south for me.
 
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