Curious - Do you get to rotate for every specialty?

[neur0cat]

Hi, I'm a med school applicant and I'm wondering if you get to rotate in every specialty (or sub specialty) during Y3/Y4? Another related question is that do certain programs/schools have niche specialty areas that tend to influence rotation choices etc? For example, the time spent on a particular rotation if it is one of the program's strengths? Or not having certain subspecialty options you could rotate in. These may seem like silly questions but while I think there is some standardization across schools and programs (everyone does go through the major specialty rotations), I'm curious if there are subtle disparities.

Thank you!

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[Mountaineer12]

I believe almost all schools do the core third year celerkships of IM, surgery, peds, ob/gyn, psych, and family med. Most also do some amount of neurology. The length of time you spend on each rotation varies from school to school. At my school it's 8 weeks for all of them except psych, which is 6 and then the other 2 is neuro. Some schools IM and surgery can be up to 12 weeks. Family med can be as little as 4 weeks at some schools. I go to WVU and primary care is a big focus so we do 4 weeks of rural FM in addition to 4 weeks at our home clinic. Every school is basically the same with some small differences.

As for electives, schools seem to be trying to put in more and more elective time during 3rd year since you pretty much have to know what you're doing with your life before starting 4th year electives. My school does 2 weeks surgical elective and 2 weeks optional non-surgical elective (EM, path, anesthesia, rads, etc.). I think a lot of schools have 4-8 weeks of elective time in 3rd year. And then 4th year is pretty much all electives, but only the first few rotations can be used to "try on" and specialty before you have to apply for residency. Hope that helps!


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[Ismet]

Moving to pre-allo

 

[Doctor-S]

Hi, I'm a med school applicant and I'm wondering if you get to rotate in every specialty (or sub specialty) during Y3/Y4? Another related question is that do certain programs/schools have niche specialty areas that tend to influence rotation choices etc? For example, the time spent on a particular rotation if it is one of the program's strengths? Or not having certain subspecialty options you could rotate in. These may seem like silly questions but while I think there is some standardization across schools and programs (everyone does go through the major specialty rotations), I'm curious if there are subtle disparities.

Thank you!

Although it varies between schools, my school's MS3 year includes: anesthesia/critical care (4 weeks), internal medicine core (8 weeks), ambulatory medicine (4 weeks), family medicine (4 weeks), neurology (4 weeks), OB-GYN (6 weeks), pediatrics (8 weeks), psychiatry (4 weeks), clinical care fundamentals (4 weeks), and surgery core (8 weeks).

There is also a sub-internship (4 weeks which many students complete in the summer before their fourth year) and 4 weeks of additional electives (you choose the electives).

Like many other medical schools, MS4 is nearly all electives and each fourth-year elective is generally 4-6 weeks in duration. Some of our elective rotations are much more intense and time-consuming than others, and niche specialties are abundant (due to our AMC that is popular with MD-PhDs, etc.).

 

[Goro]

Our clinical years are almost identical! We have more uniform times for rotations...closer to six weeks each.

Although it varies between schools, my school's MS3 year includes: anesthesia/critical care (4 weeks), internal medicine core (8 weeks), ambulatory medicine (4 weeks), family medicine (4 weeks), neurology (4 weeks), OB-GYN (6 weeks), pediatrics (8 weeks), psychiatry (4 weeks), clinical care fundamentals (4 weeks), and surgery core (8 weeks).

There is also a sub-internship (4 weeks which many students complete in the summer before their fourth year) and 4 weeks of additional electives (you choose the electives).

Like many other medical schools, MS4 is nearly all electives and each fourth-year elective is generally 4-6 weeks in duration. Some of our elective rotations are much more intense and time-consuming than others, and niche specialties are abundant (due to our AMC that is popular with MD-PhDs, etc.).

 

[Doctor-S]

Our clinical years are almost identical! We have more uniform times for rotations...closer to six weeks each.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post: radiology is also introduced in 3rd year.