Elite Away Rotations

[psychophelia]

Hi guys,

long time reader, first time poster.
I have a few questions for the wise members in our forum.
1. How competitive is it to get offers to complete away rotations at some of the most competitive programs (ie Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Yale, UCSF, Stanford, UCLA, etc?)
2. Do these programs only offer away rotations to students they think will be competitive for matching into their program?
3. Roughly how many students complete away rotations at these programs each year?
3. Do most students who complete away rotations at least get offered an interview (granted they work hard and impress faculty on the rotation?)

Thanks in advance.

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[CaMD]

Caveat: I didn't choose to do away rotations 4th year.

My understanding is that away rotations is just first-come, first served. They don't actually look at your file and think about your "chances."

 

[Indryd]

I apologize for being too lazy/exhausted to hunt down and post the links, but just browsing a bunch of programs' websites earlier this year I noted that a number of them explicitly stated right there on their site that they got more apps for away rotations than they could accomodate, and they would only invite people whom they considered to be likely to match there (i.e. grades, board scores if available, home school, etc).

Several even went on to outright discourage applicants with worse than average grades/boards.

But really, what's the harm in giving it a shot?

 

[tomato]

A couple of years ago I did away rotations at Columbia, Cornell and NYU. I applied over the summer and didn't run into any trouble getting a spot for September, October and November auditions. The biggest obstacle was the paperwork, and for Columbia you used to need a LoR, which I thought was kind of ridiculous. In hindsight I think it is probably most important to choose a rotation where you work closely with an attending so that they can really evaluate your "audition" work, eg, one of the training units or the CL services or the ER. I think if you put your best foot forward you will get an interview no matter what. Good luck!

 

[VMSmith]

I think it is pretty much first come first serve, with the caveat that some programs may do some sort of filter (using an LoR for example).

I applied for an "elite away rotation" and didn't get it, but ended up matching at that program anyway. I didn't have to provide grades or board scores to any of the aways I applied for, but did have to send out LoRs for a couple.