Did you match where you rotated?

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daddymd said:
Just wondering how many of you ended up at a place where you did an EM rotation.

Nope. My #1 spot was at a place that did not initially have an EM residency. I most likely could have matched at the two places I did rotate at, however. One PD called me at home to talk to me, whereas the other one sent a possibly generic email to me before the ROL were due.

Q, DO
 
I did not rank the places I rotated in my top five. There were simply other places I would rather live.

Personally, the rotations are a great place to find out what you really like about EM and seek out those things in the places you want to live. If you are an excellent candidate, rotate wherever you want and you can still get the competitive residency somewhere else. If you are a middle-of-the-road candidate, set yourself apart by doing well somewhere you think you might like to match at. There are no real rules to this process and everyone's experience is slightly different. Most programs vary every year as to whether they give many slots to people who've rotated there or not.

Rusty
 
I did 4 away EM rotations and I ended up at the one I rotated at first. My experience there solidified my confidence and desire to train there. also, i learned that I could live within 5 mins of the hospital, be in a nice safe area, and not have to fight freeway traffic so that was a big reason that caused me to rank it 1st. I ended up learning lots at the other 3 but really did not want to train/live at some of them so I ranked some of them lower than I might have if I had not rotated there. There is no substitute to really seeing the ED and the city during an away rotation before you start having to make choices on where to apply/rank. Good luck!

-ak
 
I matched where I rotated as did at least 3 of my fellow interns at Wake.

C
 
In everyone's experience, would doing several away rotations in California EM be the way to 'solidify' residency matching there? I would like to work my way back to Cali for residency, but am not quite sure at this point in the game, what variables are important to pin down so to speak; USMLE scores (what range are we talkin'), research experience (PhD in Pharm gonna help?), community service (does this even matter at the Medical School level?).

SDN's opinion as always is appreciated and taken simultaneously with a mountain of Salt. 🙄 😉 😀 :laugh: 👍
 
SaltySqueegee said:
In everyone's experience, would doing several away rotations in California EM be the way to 'solidify' residency matching there? I would like to work my way back to Cali for residency, but am not quite sure at this point in the game, what variables are important to pin down so to speak; USMLE scores (what range are we talkin'), research experience (PhD in Pharm gonna help?), community service (does this even matter at the Medical School level?).

SDN's opinion as always is appreciated and taken simultaneously with a mountain of Salt. 🙄 😉 😀 :laugh: 👍

how many EM rotations are too many and how much is too little?

what's a good number of EM rotations to do if this is what you want to do for residency
 
SaltySqueegee said:
In everyone's experience, would doing several away rotations in California EM be the way to 'solidify' residency matching there? I would like to work my way back to Cali for residency, but am not quite sure at this point in the game, what variables are important to pin down so to speak; USMLE scores (what range are we talkin'), research experience (PhD in Pharm gonna help?), community service (does this even matter at the Medical School level?).

SDN's opinion as always is appreciated and taken simultaneously with a mountain of Salt. 🙄 😉 😀 :laugh: 👍

As a general rule, rotating where you want to go is extremely helpful. There are some famously competitive programs like Denver and Highland that draw heavily from the pool of sub-interns for their rank list. The flip side is that if you rotate at somewhere that you want to go and really drop the ball, they will obviously remember that as well.

All those factors you are talking about are important but there are no absolute ranges in this game. There are lots of Cali programs so they range widely in competitiveness from very competitive to not competitive at all.

In general, good letters from a big name program in your side of the country goes a long way as well. It was suprising how some programs that are big-names in your state are relative non-factors on the other coast. This does not mean that you need to do 7 subinternships in EM on the West Coast (you'd be nuts if you did), so pick your locations and programs wisely.
 
FowlersGap said:
how many EM rotations are too many and how much is too little?

what's a good number of EM rotations to do if this is what you want to do for residency

I did two, one at home and one away. Both "big name" places. I don't think more than three is necessary. I've heard of people doing only one but I think thats pretty risky.
 
Rotated and matched at Denver. Was told by the program 10/14 interns had rotated there.
V
 
I didnt match at the places I did a rotation, but I did receive a call from the PD at one of the programs asking me to rank them first...and, fortunately,i did match at my first choice.
 
To offer a different prospective:

I didn't rotate at any outside institution and I'm glad I didn't. I applied for two away rotations, but it was going to be expensive living situations and it really didn't fit into my schedule at all.

I recieved interview offers from all but one place I applied to, including the two places that I cancelled my away rotations at. I do not feel that a lack of an outside rotation hurt me during interviews at all.

However, I did not apply to Denver which is mentioned above as a big selector of outside rotators for their residency.

Just another prospective.
 
daddymd said:
Just wondering how many of you ended up at a place where you did an EM rotation.

I did...
 
I did rotate at two programs, one in Cali and one in the Midwest. I ended up matching at the midwest program. The Cali program was a university program and the midwest was a county. It helped me decided that county was more my style. I think that it helped that I had rotated as a student. I would recommend keeping an open mind about programs and not chosing solely on geography. I decided to go to the best program. You can always find a job where you want after residency, whereas training is something that will stick with you.

-Rimon Bengiamin, MD
PGY1, Hennepin County Medical Center
 
I did two rotations: one at home (at an active duty military base with an amazing residency.. sadly, only for active duty indiv, which I am not) and one away. I ranked my away rotation but very last. I didn't rotate at any other programs, and I matched at my first choice.
 
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