Electives & Interviews?

[Stump]

For all those in the know, what is the best time to set up outside electives and interviews? I was thinking of setting up anesthesia electives Sept-Dec and taking the month of January off to schedule interviews. Would this strategy be okay, or would you recommend something else? Thanks for your replies.

Stump.

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[gaslady]

In my opinion 5 months of anesthesia electives is way too much!! I wouldn't do more than 3 months. If you need to get a letter from one of these electives you should do it as early as possible in 4th year. You want your application to be complete when your deans letter is out which is the beginning of November. If you want to do anesthesia related rotations try something in critical care. Radiology and emergency medicine rotations are also great rotations to round out your medical knowledge if your school doesn't require them. A lot of Step 2 is EM. Every doctor should have a basic knowledge of radiology. As an intern you want to be able to read a chest xray without trouble. Programs like wellrounded applicants.
Depending on how many programs you are planning on interviewing at, it is best to try to space them out. If you put off interviewing until the end of the season it is possible you may not be able to interview at a few places you wanted to due to scheduling conflicts or weather. Even if you are planning on interviewing later in the season, you should still get your application out early so that you have a pick of dates.

 

[2ndyear]

Yeah, 5 months is a little much. Especially if they are all audition electives. You really want to look good on these, and as a 4th year it is hard to put together that much motivation 5 months in a row. If you feel you have to do more than 2-3 anesthesia rotations, do ICU and pain. I would recommend ICU sometime before you interview. You can tie it into an away rotation and get to know some anesthesia faculty as well as check out the program as all residents rotate through at some point. Interviews are pretty equally spread between Dec and Jan with a few outliers. Don't forget about all of the great 4th year electives out there, rads, forensic path, pm&r, er. Take some time and explore, have fun.