Currently an MS3, should I do aways as an MS4?

[skeye heye]

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Hello Everybody.

I am an MS3 interested in ophthalmology and I want to receive the best training possible. I am not sure whether I should do away rotations as an MS4.

For help in providing your opinion, a little background information is below:

*Average medical school, a few big names in the ophtho dept.
*250+ on step 1, top 10% of class
*Junior AOA
*International and local ophtho related comm. service while in medical
school
*No pubs currently, but am doing a year off research fellowship next year
*Have already established great relationships with a couple people in the
department who have been serving as my mentors

I have been told that I am competitive for ophtho, but I know the standards are high, particularly at the top programs. I have been told by some that I will have no problems getting interviews where ever I want, while others have told me that it will be difficult to get interviews at places like BP, Wilmer, and MEEI without doing aways. This was mostly attributed to the fact that I go to an average state medical school.

What is your opinion? Would you recommend that I do away rotations to be more competitive for such programs?

And also, will doing aways just help with getting an interview or will it also help with getting into the program? I'm sure it would be the latter considering adequate performance, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

And lastly, for example, would doing an away at BP help me with other programs? I suppose it would depend if I got a letter there and who I got it from?

Apologies for the lengthy entry. Thanks for your help.

 

[Krony]

What is your opinion? Would you recommend that I do away rotations to be more competitive for such programs?

Yes!

And also, will doing aways just help with getting an interview or will it also help with getting into the program? I'm sure it would be the latter considering adequate performance, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

If you impress people then it will help.

And lastly, for example, would doing an away at BP help me with other programs?

Probably but perhaps not as much as doing an away at that particular program.

I suppose it would depend if I got a letter there and who I got it from?

Yep.

 

[ReidWings]

As an alternative perspective, away rotations CAN hurt you too.

If you do an away rotation at Wills, and then are interviewing at Wilmer, they may think you really want to be at Wills and not rank you as highly. Of course, they aren't supposed to rank based on YOUR preference, but many programs do anyways.

My medical school strongly discouraged away rotations (I did not do one). Subsequently, I ended up matching quite well.

 

[Adaline]

My understanding is that if you have a good residency program at your school it makes sense to stay at home and get to know your letter writers very well. I am from a school with no ophtho residency program and my advisor recommended going away. I personally wouldnt worry about what other programs think about your choice of aways... you can always give an explanation of why you chose a particular program (ie. you may choose wills because it is an excellent example of a clinically based program or MEEI because it is more research oriented or closer to home etc.) If you are very shy I would not recommend aways as you have to be more proactive in getting to know people than at your home institution. I am on my second away and both have been really great. Both residency programs are very different from eachother and it had helped a lot in terms of figuring out what I want. One word of advice... when doing an away see if you can work with one person or a particular service otherwise you may be working with different people everyday and it can be hard to get a good letter. Most residents I have spoken to did not do aways where they matched.

 

[ojos]

First off, good job on your accomplishments so far. You're going to intimidate the typical applicant reading these posts.

In my opinion, away electives are useful if
1) You need a letter of rec
2) You're interested in that particular institution
3) Your home institution does not have an ophtho dept or it is a weak one


Downsides are
1) Scheduling can be a pain
2) The entire away now becomes an extended interview... you have more opportunity to impress, but also more opportunity to goof-up.

Hope it helps,