Elective Rotations - PM&R

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homeysiv

bigsiv
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I'm curious how residency programs view students who have not done an elective rotation through their program? How do I go about being more competitive when I am unable to rotate there.

I'm trying to figure out how to be competitive, but its hard when my school only allows 2 rotations in the same field.

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You really don't need more than 2 electives in PM&R to show interest. What you do need is a good LOR to open doors any place that you apply. Not everyone ends up matching at a place they rotated.
 
My school had the same restrictions, but you could get around it. You could have 2 same specialty rotations, then you would have to find a creative label for the rest. For example, you could do a "Pediatric Rehab rotation". Ask some of your friends in the class ahead of you (or recent graduates) how they did it. They always seem to have the best advice that pertains strictly to your specific school. Good luck!
 
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As Jumpu mentioned not everyone who does a rotation at a particular institution will end up matching there. So my recommendations would be first to secure a PM&R rotation at your home institution if you have one. The last thing you want to happen is for your home institution to not rank you at all because they have not heard of you since you did not rotate there. Then choose the best place you would like to rotate at to get the best letter of rec from someone known in the field of PM&R. As Jumpu mentioned, I believe that the letter of rec is the most key piece of the pie, after board scores and med school GPA. The best shining letters of rec from someone well known can take someone who is a middle of the road candidate and put them in everyone's short list of must have applicants. By the way, you should probably have at least 2 PM&R letters of rec when you apply to give you the best chances.

Just because your institutions only allow you 2 official rotations does not mean you cannot gain experiences through other means such as research projects, shadowing experiences, using your vacation time to rotate at other institutions, etc. If you can't find out about any of these experiences, then you truly are not trying hard enough. One student I interviewed this past applicant pool had gotten a phenomenal letter of rec by a well known PM&R attending by doing a shadowing experience one half day a week for 2 years... Another resident I knew when I was applying for residency had told me when he was a med student he was doing research with a well known PM&R attending across the country as he was on the east coast while the attending was on the west coast. If there is a will for something, there is a way to get it done.
 
I don't think it's so critical to do many away rotations in PM&R. If you can do one rotation at your home institution and land a solid letter, that should be great. Let's think about it practically; you cannot do an away rotation at everywhere you apply. It's difficult to really know what your top choices are until you have seen a number of programs. So even if you were able to swing 3 or 4 away rotations, you may end up doing them at places that are not near the top of your final list anyway. My advice would be to save your money for interviews (which end up being quite expensive). If my n=1 is helpful, I did not have the room in my schedule to do an away rotation and matched at my #1 (which was not my home institution).
 
If you are a DO student one way to get around the two rotation rule is to do a OMM rotation with a PM&R Doc.
 
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